NIMBY gets personal when it's in the NIMBY Monitor's backyard.
Our "backyard" happens to be Indianapolis, Indiana.
I just spied a story in the Indianapolis Star reporting on a 4-3 vote by the Metropolitan Development Commission on June 2, 2005, to rezone four acres of land on the Southside of Indy so a 59,000-square-foot building can be errected at a cost of $6.5 million to be a shelter for homeless women and children.
The shelter would be operated by Wheeler Mission Ministries, one of our city's longest operators of shelters for the homeless.
Let's see what the neighborhood had to say:
- "We have the experience and the good sense to be afraid of the problem," David DuMond, an attorney for the neighbors, testified before the commission.
- Residents don't like the size of the proposed building, and the fact that it would require tearing down a former school, DuMond said. Homes in the neighborhood typically are 1,500 square feet, he said.
- Dane Mahern, a Democrat who is the working class area's district representative on the City-County Council of Indianapolis and Marion County, told the commission that the proposed building "is way too big" for the neighborhood.
I'm breaking one of my personal values here by writing about a nearby piece of property without viewing it in person. And I suppose I will go by to look at it.
But, c'mon. The new building is to be built on four acres (!!) of land that is currently occupied by a former school. While a 59,000-square-foot structure would indeed look massive snugged against 1,500-square-foot cottage homes, this structure is going to sit on -- let's say it again! -- four acres (!!) of land. Surely that's enough land to hold the scale of the building in proper proportion.
It didn't seem to bother the neighborhood to have a former school -- a sizable structure, surely -- on the site. Is a former school preferable to a newly-constructed building that would perform a public service on a large parcel that can provide lots of program space and be well secured?
And exactly what is "the problem" that DuMond spoke about?
According to the Indianapolis Star article by Rob Schneider, "[DuMond] said the residents' objections go beyond the typical 'NIMBY' complaints -- not in my back yard."
Really? Seems to me NIMBY is exactly what's at work here. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I'll try to look at the site, at the neighborhood's Comprehensive Plan, and also report whether Councillor Mahern attempts or succeeds in having the City-County Council overturn the Metropolitan Development Commission's rezoning decision.
