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Moratorium right move
Published 8:50am Tuesday, February 2, 2010As anyone who lives in or has visited some of the newer Alabaster neighborhoods recently will tell you, something needs to be done quickly to save some of the city’s residential streets.
Daily driving in the Lacey’s Grove subdivision off Shelby County 17 is an easy way to destroy a vehicle’s tires and suspension, and residents in that and several other Alabaster neighborhoods are understandably outraged.
City officials have done nearly everything in their power to hold these subdivision owners accountable and force them to repair the roads, but holdups in the courts are making the process extremely long and complicated.
That’s why we applaud the Alabaster City Council’s recent decision to consider a building permit moratorium in the neighborhoods with non-compliant roads.
If the council enacts the moratorium, it will bring development in those neighborhoods to a halt until the subdivision owners bring their roads up to city standards.
It may be an extreme way to bring drivable streets to the city, but we think it is a fair solution. Why should a developer be allowed to profit by constructing new houses in a neighborhood while people who already live there suffer with substandard roads?
Some subdivision owners have been working with the city to bring their roads to compliance, but some developers have abandoned the neighborhoods and cut all communication with the city.
Hopefully, the simple mention of a moratorium will be enough to get the attention of some of the developers who have made no effort to provide their tenants with satisfactory roads.
