Well, I do.
Maybe it is the splitting headache I’ve had since reading Ann Helms’ solid account of CMS’ zig-zag capital plans which ran yesterday. Here again we find complete idiocy from government flunkies.
CMS building czar Guy Chamberlain advances the exact same static world-view as Raleigh’s Lynn Raynor. Namely, “Gee, with construction prices down, wouldn’t it be great to have more money to spend?”
Except even when Chamberlain had more money to spend he wound up speculating in a temporarily hot real estate market. How’d that turn out?
To get land in the booming Ballantyne area of south suburban Charlotte, CMS agreed to buy 39 acres from a developer who already had it zoned for a small subdivision. The plan was for CMS to build roads and lay utility lines, get the lots ready for construction and sell them to a company that would build the houses.
Ballantyne Elementary opened in August, and in September CMS staff told the school board there were interested buyers. But the board held off, asking officials to explore whether the district could require developers to include affordable housing.
Since then, the housing market has plummeted even further. The potential buyers lost interest, says Chamberlain, the administrator in charge of construction. Mecklenburg County now has a two- to three-year backlog of developed lots, he said.
That means for the foreseeable future, the school will continue to nestle among empty roads bearing such names as Knowledge Circle and Great Future Drive.
Yet I guarantee that Chamberlain retires from CMS in good standing — and then probably comes back to consult, a la the city of Charlotte’s Stanley Watkins, last seen losing thousands of taxpayer dollars in “neighborhood development” schemes.
