New city proposal (Austin, Rockport: 2014, HOA, how much)

[scm53]

Originally Posted by TheCardinal

Any sane progressive-minded person should be completely opposed to this. This would just infuriate the voters and wreck any chance of effecting actual positive changes in the future.

Not trying to be contentious, but do you live in the Austin area? Have you watched Council for any length of time? Just curious - not trying to dismiss your observation.

Because THIS is exactly who the current council is. The same council that, immediately after voters turned down affordable housing bonds, took the majority of a budget surplus and spent it on affordable housing any way. That is seriously considering a sale-leaseback of the airport, in part, to avoid a vote on urban rail funding. That, after voters put a geographic representation proposal on the ballot by referendum, put a competing "incumbent protection" proposal on as well. And on and on and on. They don't fear "the voters", because until now, they haven't had to run in a general election. The result is, a council that is drawn from a VERY NARROW cross section of the city.

William Pitt had it right.

[Komeht]

COA: combining the draconian over we've come to love with the lack of results we've come to expect.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

And if you believe that, I've got some beachfront property on Brushy Creek.

What exactly is wrong with what I said?

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by pmiranda

Um... the stuff mentioned in the article (no step up to the front door, a first floor bathroom, lever handles) costs absolutely nothing extra on typical new construction. This is much ado about nothing.

You've never built anything have you? That's ok, but you should refrain from speaking out on stuff you have absolutely no knowledge about, it makes you look foolish. HTH

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Komeht

What exactly is wrong with what I said?

The chances of a builder change or upgrade resulting in only a 20% additional margin over cost are 'slim, none, and ain't gonna happen'. The stories in this forum are rife with examples of builder add-ons and changes resulting in doubling or more the amount of the change.

The chance of a code-approved ramp with proper slope and access from a walk or driveway costing only two thousand dollars is laughable. Maybe as a one-off on a flat parcel; but there are plenty of new-construction driveways out there on a 20-30 degree slope. No way that connects properly to a ramp for two grand.

[ScoPro]

Where does Austin find these lunatics?


I own a wheelchair that has been used extensively by immediate family members in recent years, but come on people!

And one of my grandsons who has cerebral palsy spent about a year in a wheelchair when he was a toddler recovering from corrective surgeries, so it's not like I'm hostile to the idea of making houses ADA friendly.

Choice....how does it work?

[balconesfault]

This is not much different than the law requiring that all hotels have a permanently installed wheelchair lift in their pool. Instead of having a much cheaper, less intrusive temporary wheelchair lift that staff could put out when needed, they required that all hotel pools be retrofitted with a permanently installed wheelchair lift. In high school I lifeguarded at a city pool that had a permanent lift installed and it sat there for 5 summers and wasnt used once.

[TheCardinal]

Originally Posted by scm53

Not trying to be contentious, but do you live in the Austin area? Have you watched Council for any length of time? Just curious - not trying to dismiss your observation.

Because THIS is exactly who the current council is. The same council that, immediately after voters turned down affordable housing bonds, took the majority of a budget surplus and spent it on affordable housing any way. That is seriously considering a sale-leaseback of the airport, in part, to avoid a vote on urban rail funding. That, after voters put a geographic representation proposal on the ballot by referendum, put a competing "incumbent protection" proposal on as well. And on and on and on. They don't fear "the voters", because until now, they haven't had to run in a general election. The result is, a council that is drawn from a VERY NARROW cross section of the city.

William Pitt had it right.

Well, I've only lived here for 22 years so maybe that's not enough. But I've worked in and around city politics for some time so I feel like I have a little sense of what's what.

Look, I hear what you're saying. The council does a lot of things that seem outrageous to COA observers, including you it seems. The examples you cite are certainly open to vigorous debate and AAS will write editorials and so forth. But few of those policies - however misguided they seem to the people paying attention - have the potential to incite outrage like this ADA-accessibility-in-private-homes issue. Your average Joe Blow Voter in Circle C or Steiner or NW Hills won't be picketing City Hall over the affordable housing switcheroo, but they will damn sure get their pitchforks out if we start telling them to outfit their private homes for the ADA. When you start hitting people in the face with do-gooder policies they tend to notice the "hitting in the face" part and forget about the "do-gooder" part. The plastic bag ban was bad enough.

The above posters have it right anyway - this idea is dead once 10-1 gets implemented anyway, so I'm not going to spend a bunch of time worrying about it.

[RooCeleste]

Originally Posted by balconesfault

This is not much different than the law requiring that all hotels have a permanently installed wheelchair lift in their pool. Instead of having a much cheaper, less intrusive temporary wheelchair lift that staff could put out when needed, they required that all hotel pools be retrofitted with a permanently installed wheelchair lift. In high school I lifeguarded at a city pool that had a permanent lift installed and it sat there for 5 summers and wasnt used once.

Actually, it IS quite different. Hotels are businesses with public access. My home is not.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

The chances of a builder change or upgrade resulting in only a 20% additional margin over cost are 'slim, none, and ain't gonna happen'. The stories in this forum are rife with examples of builder add-ons and changes resulting in doubling or more the amount of the change.

The chance of a code-approved ramp with proper slope and access from a walk or driveway costing only two thousand dollars is laughable. Maybe as a one-off on a flat parcel; but there are plenty of new-construction driveways out there on a 20-30 degree slope. No way that connects properly to a ramp for two grand.

So first: 20% margins are quite typical for production builders. No idea where you are getti g your information.

Second. I said "if the costs are 2000..." As in IF the cost to the builder is 2000 THEN the cost to buyer would be about 2400 based on 20% gross margins. IF the cost to the builder is 10K THEN the cost to buyer would be about 12k.

So down people. Read.