Big N&R front-pager from veteran reporter Taft Wireback on the proposed Urban Loop’s route right through the Quail Oaks neighborhood. Here’s the key point:
The saga of Quail Oaks is a tale of bankruptcy, miscommunication, bad timing, and what could be the final chapter of the Project Homestead debacle of yesteryear returning to bite city taxpayers once more.
The land being developed as Quail Oaks initially belonged to Project Homestead, before the nonprofit home builder filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy following the suicide of its politically influential but controversial leader, the Rev. Michael King.
Southeast Land Co. bought the 40-acre site out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court four years ago for $855,000, enough to partly repay two bank loans to Homestead totaling $1.3 million.
But it was not enough to pay back any of the $291,000 in federal money city government pumped into the project, then known as Kings Landing.
Taxpayers now will lose again when DOT takes action in Quail Oaks: First, the public has to buy up to 18 lots, 15 of which already have houses on them, none of the houses more than four years old.
I realize it would be simplistic to say this is what happens when government gets involved in the housing business, because a private developer is taking advantage of home buyers just like to took advantage of the land going at bankruptcy rates. But it doesn’t change the fact that the City of Greensboro evidently developed a case of tunnel vision while bending over backwards to accomodate Project Homestead.
Here’s my question: Where was Greensboro’s Metropolitan Planning Organization during all this? Aren’t they supposed to be the big-picture guys on all this stuff?
