Carbondale Bytelife

Interesting item on tomorrow night's council agenda: a moratorium on building any more medium and high density developments for the next eighteen months. The arguments advanced by the city manager are :

1. There has been a decrease in student enrollment at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in recentyears, thus reducing the number of prospective tenants for rental housing.

2. As prospective tenants gravitate to newer housing developments, it will become harder to fill the older,existing housing in certain neighborhoods. This may lead to a high rate of vacancy, which in turn wouldhave an adverse impact in the neighborhood and on the local economy. A high vacancy rate in aneighborhood creates safety issues and can have a long-term negative impact on the quality of a neighborhood.

3. The City’s Comprehensive Plan is outdated and recent multi-unit housing developments have beenoccurring in areas that were not designated for multi-unit developments when the current ComprehensivePlan was approved in 1997.

4. The large developments place a new demand on the City’s infrastructure. The City must ensure that it canprovide adequate public services to the growing supply of multi-unit housing developments in the community.

Labels: City council, development