A beat-down property owner? A bit of both?
Smith’s dispute with the city of Concord over building a drag strip at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is very telling.
Smith owns and pays taxes on his land, and wants to be able to do what he wants to on his land. But his neighbors want to enjoy their land too. They fear — and not without reason — that a loud drag strip will curtail their ability to max-out their use of their property. (Forget the complaint about their “property values” taking a hit — government cannot and should not try to guarantee future property values.)
Smith must understand that a drag strip could negatively impact his neighbors’ enjoyment of their property — otherwise he would not have began construction without getting building permits. That sure looks like a move calculated to present Concord with a done-deal and avoid any negative feedback on the project.
And, in fact, Smith is not making the argument that the drag strip will not throw off noise. Smith is just saying that local officials should let him do what he wants because: 1) He has brought in so much money for the city in the past 2) He’ll move if they don’t relent and let him build his drag strip.
Now where have we heard that line before?
Oh, yes. The Wachovia Arts Tower argument. If the public didn’t help finance an Uptown arts campus, we’d lose all the millions in taxes the banks pay and they’d move their headquarters elsewhere. This was not said on the front page of the local paper, but it was said. And it worked.
In sum, if I were one of Mr. Smith’s neighbors, I’d go ahead and invest in some good ear plugs.
Update: News14 reports that a possible solution involves Smith buying out his neighbors. Interesting. And interesting parallel to the case of the Charlotte airport I mentioned in the comments.
But here is the catch. It would be one thing for Smith to offer, say, $400K for $200K homes and gets lots of willing takers. It would be quite another for any form of government power to be used to help Smith remove his neighbors against their will.
Stay tuned.
