Big-time developer and one-time mayoral candidate Milton Kern made a pretty incredible statement during a meeting between property owners and city staff regarding Greensboro’s proposed downtown compatibility manual:

Kern, a downtown property owner in favor of the Downtown Design Manual, said the purpose of the manual was to protect downtown property owners from a neighbor who wanted to do something “that is totally asinine to their property.”

He also said it was to protect the downtown from “unscrupulous investors.”

Kern also said the purpose of the Downtown Design Manual, and he was on the steering committee that wrote it, was to keep downtown Greensboro from looking like downtown Charlotte.

OK, so what’s wrong with downtown Charlotte? The city’s not my cup of tea, with all the high-density development driven by its embrace of smart growth principals. But —and I’m no expert —– the downtown area looks fine to me, for what it is.

Kern’s statement also ironic considering the fact that Greensboro’s city planners embrace smart growth principles that encourage the type of high-density development for which Charlotte is has become the standard. Looks to me like government not only wants to dictate how and where to live, but you also have to meet their aesthetic standards. And —as John Hammer notes time and again, government’s taste has a lot to be desired when you look at the Melvin Municipal Building, the ugliest building downtown.

I also like Hammer’s theory that the planning staff came up with this plan because they just don’t have much else to do these days.