Hug a tree and shout “Hallelujah.” Reports of the demise of the Fudville (Fayetteville) treehuggers have been greatly exaggerated.
This week, the City Council, tribal overlords, whatever, passed two sets of regulations that sound like they were written by growth planners for Benton County - because that’s who will benefi t from the new standards.
First - and both of these are according to reports in whatever newspaper you get that we’ve been wasting plastic bags wrapping it in during a drought - a new code requires builders to better insulate a house’s foundation; seal doors, windows, ducts and chimneys more eft ciently;
and install fl uorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs in at least 50 percent of light fixtures. It will apply to new home construction as well as additions, alterations and renovation to existing homes.
The changes are expected to increase the price of a roughly 1,800-square-foot house by about $2,200. That works out to about $11 per month for someone with a 30-year mortgage, saidJeremy Pate, development services director.
The second set of codes increased tree maintenance costs for local developers, intended to recoup the true costs of pruning, watering and mulching young saplings (not your kids, the trees).
The higher cost might also encourage developers to preserve existing tree canopy rather than simply paying the city for trees they remove, said Megan Dale, Fudville’s urban forester.
Urban forester? So if you live in the woods anywhere around Fudville are you a forestry urbanite?
Those two moves basically mean this: Fudville’s carbon footprint has now been reduced to only one toe, but that’s because the city’s elected oftcials have been shooting city progress in the foot so often.
You just wonder, what can they do next?
Put up signs that read, “Welcome to Fudville.
Home of the Solar-Powered Trees.”
Or, “Entering Fudville.
The Elephant Graveyard for Common Sense.”
Tree ordinance fi rst: The amendment to Fayetteville’s tree preservation ordinance increases the amount developers pay to maintain trees for three years.
The city got a better idea of the actual costs when it contracted out its tree planting and maintenance work to B&A Property Maintenance several months ago. The Springdale-based company charges the city $425 per tree for three years’ maintenance.
The proposal would pass those costs onto the developer, making a developer’s total payment into the tree escrow account for planting and maintenance $625. That’s a $125, or 25 percent, increase compared to what developers now pay.
The irony of the whole deal is Fudville is paying a company from Sprangdale (Springdale) for tree service.
Who’d have guessed anyone from Sprang-dale knew how to plant andmaintain anything except parking lots?
The housing changes? The newspaper report states the changes came after months of discussion between city staff, real estate agents, home energy raters and members of the Northwest Arkansas Home Builders Association.
The association has oft cially endorsed Fayetteville’s new standards, according to Aaron Wirth, one of its members.
Of course they’ve endorsed the new standards. They’ll just jack up the price and pass along the increase to the people buying the houses. There may even be a chance to tack on a few extra bucks in labor for the cost of the “improvements.”
So, to make a long story short, it’s going to cost more to develop land and buy a house in Fudville, and those price increases have been mandated by the City Council - not by market demand.
They say talk is cheap, but it seems to be pretty expensive when aldermen in Fudville are speaking.
BOB CAUDLE WRITES A HUMOROUS COMMENTARY ON LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL ISSUES. HE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INSULTER.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 07/21/2012