Thursday, July 19, 2007

DEARBORN COUNTY HOME BUILDER'S ASSOCIATION LETTER TO COMMISSIONERS

DCHBA
Dearborn County Home Builders Association
P.O. Box 21 Aurora, IN 47001
Phone: 812-926-3375
Website: www.dchba.com


DEARBORN COUNTY DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

July 12, 2007

Dearborn County Commissioners
215 B West High Street
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025

Re: Home Building Industry in the County

Dear Commissioners:

As you are aware the Dearborn County Home Builder’s Association has created a sub-committee called the development council. This council was chartered to provide better value to the people of Dearborn County and the members of the association.
We are forwarding this letter to your attention because we want to be a part of the decisions made in the county. DCHBA can provide professional assistance on matters that relate to the home construction business.

We are also providing this letter to bring to your attention a serious concern to the business climate in the county. Residential home construction starts for the year 2005 numbered 301 single-family homes. Last year housing starts in the county experienced a downward turn with 206 single-family units started. This year we are on pace to have the lowest number of housing starts in over 20 years: 150 single-family starts. This dramatic decrease is producing serious consequences to the job market of some 2500 plus workers in the County.

We believe that the majority of the problem lies in the county not moving in a positive direction. We need to move this county forward. We cannot afford status quo anymore.

We appreciate your time and civic duty and want to meet with you to discuss further. If you have any questions, please contact me at 537-9064.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Rosenberger

DCHBA
Cc: Commissioner Fox
Commissioner Hughes
Commissioner Thompson
DCHBA Board of Directors

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

We need to move this county forward. We cannot afford status quo anymore.

If moving forward does not entail my tax dollars to subsidize these "MOVERS," nor crashing and burning existing infrastructure, nor forcing my neighbors onto substandard sewer lines...

...then...

...have at it!!!

Anonymous said...

ISN'T THAT A SHOME IX S THAT WHY ALL THE FARMERS ARE SMILING

Anonymous said...

"ISN'T THAT A SHOME IX S THAT WHY ALL THE FARMERS ARE SMILING"

Turretts Syndrome must be a terrible disease!

Anonymous said...

"We believe that the majority of the problem lies in the county not moving in a positive direction. We need to move this county forward."

If you'd read the newspapers Mr. Rosenberger you'd learn that the housing market is pretty bad throughout the United States. My guess is that you know that Therefore:

Is it possible that
1. You are a DCEDI member
2. You are a member of the Lawrenceburg Chamber of Commerce
3,Your blog is simply a plea for more development and perhaps a try to resurrect Viesta's fantasy of the 4K acre Northwest Quadrant.

Are you satisfied with the level of education currently available in Dearborn County? With more homes we'll need more educational facilities. How to you propose to finance that?

Alan S. Freemond, Sr.
Jackson Township

Anonymous said...

Uh oh!

I envision Jim West requesting to be placed on the agenda, minutes before the next Commmissioners' meeting!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mark A. Rosenberger, what are your views concerning grinder pumps, pressurized sewer lines and enforced sewer hook-ups?

Give us an idea if you want to work with the neighbors of your proposed projects or are we to be used as mere deep pockets to be tapped and then discarded?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like another snake coming out of the cracks of the asphalt in Lawrenceburg. Why do all these "organizations" exist and how do they get funded with taxpayers money? It's terrible. I think my investment club needs some Dearborn County money. How do I get on the agenda? Do I need a $5,000 downpayment and then I can request money from the County? County government is a joke and needs to be reformed from head to toe.

Anonymous said...

The problem with housing starts going down is because everything goes through a cycle. There are more people who should not own a home because no matter what they can't afford it. Just like there are people that are just flat out unemployable. Banks lend out too much money and stretch people way too thin to make a dollar. Some people are just not capable of owning a home. Banks in this County are popping up everywhere. Letting someone borrow $100,000 for a piece of trash is hurting this community. Builders building trash is hurting this community. This County can help the area by limiting the number of homes instead of promoting new starts...anyone like to argue that point?

Anonymous said...

Since when did the County Commissioners become responsible for the financial success of the builders & developers in Dearborn County??

Perhaps the Dearborn County Home Builder’s Association should present some solutions to their perceived problems rather than just whine about how tough times are.

Status quo?? I suggest that Mr.
Rosenberger drive around the county and look. There are lots of projects in progress. If he and his associates are not involved, shame on them.

Robert Bissett

Anonymous said...

We need to move this county forward. We cannot afford status quo anymore.

How development friendly do we have to be to get past this apparent, God awful, status quo we are experiencing?

Shall we do away completely with the Zoning Laws?

Shall we force anyone and everyone on sewers, if that will help a couple of developers or builders?

Shall we tax farmers and large landowners off their properties?

Shall we offer ten year tax abatements to all new housing starts?

Shall we make it mandatory that all those in public office have development ties?

What more can we do to help the development industry?

How about job retraining?

Anonymous said...

How about job retraining?

I heard the YMCA is giving a class on "Buggy Whip" design and manufacture.

What's next, are our local divorce lawyers going to be complaining of a down-turn in matrimonial splits!

Will they demand the taxpayer fund a study in relation to the marital bliss status quo problem we are currently experiencing?

Anonymous said...

So, is the status quo of not having green fields, forests and hillsides bulldozed, a bad thing?

Anonymous said...

TGIF....thats what I thought... "not in my back yard"

Anonymous said...

Status quo?? I suggest that Mr.
Rosenberger drive around the county and look. There are lots of projects in progress. If he and his associates are not involved, shame on them.


My wife and I drive over 80 miles a day back and forth from work. Why can't these builders do the same?

Are they special?

Anonymous said...

We need more houses and fewer homes in Dearborn County.

That "sense" of "family" found in all those "homes" spread out through this County, is killing business!

Anonymous said...

I do not understand this feeling that the development interests are not being heard.
They seem to have more than adequate representation on many county boards- Planning, Sewers, Commissioners, Master Plan, etc.
In fact, if they are representing only 2500 jobs- they are OVER represented in county government!

Anonymous said...

ISN'T THAT A SHAME IT'S THE REASON ALL THE FARMEERS ARE SMILING!

Anonymous said...

Let us all just get out of the way and let these people develop to their hearts' content…

…who cares that if afterwards, we will be playing expensive “catch-up” with all the infrastructure costs and other taxpayer responsible outlays, in order for one small group of businessmen and tradesmen can make a dollar!

And they call us selfish!

Anonymous said...

If all this development is going to somehow keep our taxes down, what is the tax rate in Warren County, Hamilton County or in the NKy Counties?

The must be paying next to nothing in taxes!!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Rosenberger has munificently proffered a copy of his provocative discourse to our commissioners ostensibly to allure riposte from the body politic.

Deficient of categorical expressions of the patronage he petitions of the commissioners, there is naught to assay and address?

If the petitioner would be more forthcoming and explicative, we perchance could parry in a salubrious comportment?

Anonymous said...

Show off!

Anonymous said...

publius....

Sounds like you are saying something but saying nothing. Did you learn this from Jeff?

Anonymous said...

"Salubrious?"

Do kiss your mother with those "dirty-worded-lips?"

Anonymous said...

"So, is the status quo of not having green fields, forests and hillsides bulldozed, a bad thing?"

These occurrences of green fields, forests and hillsides, do seem to be matters for derision by some in our local development class.

Anonymous said...

Do you kiss your mother with those "dirty-worded-lips?"

I need a realtor/developer, thinking about changing careers, to be my spell checker and editor!

I pay well and you will not have to screw your neighbors by forcing them on sewers for a raise!

Anonymous said...

Does the DCHBA expect the County to bail them out, because the economy has turned down? Why are they so special? Wouldn't the ex employees of Pernod Richard like somebody to help them?

The developers seem to think Dearborn County is their piggy bank.

Anonymous said...

Remember, their are no developers, realtors, contractors, bankers nor lawyers who are looking out for "our" wallets and pocketbooks!

For example, is their one person on the DCRSD who has spoken out, relative to the inate unfairness of forcing our citizens on sewer lines, that may bankrupt those being forced to do so?

No!!!

Ask yourselves why?

Whose interests are they looking out for, if not the citizen/taxpayers?

Anonymous said...

”Whose interests are they looking out for, if not the citizen/taxpayers?”

Think of the degree of callousness, heartlessness and indifference it takes to tell a life-long resident of this community, that she will “just have to get a loan,” to pay for the sewers that some snot-nosed kid requires to build his or her subdivisions or industrial projects, at a profit to the self-same snot-nosed kid?

And someone raised these self-same snot-nosed kids!

Mother’s Day must be a bitch!

Anonymous said...

"Think of the degree of callousness, heartlessness and indifference it takes to tell a life-long resident of this community, that she will “just have to get a loan,”

That was the prior DCRSD's Board attorney...

...as she was telling the rest of us to "get a loan," she was soaking up close to $100,000.00 of "OUR" tax dollars, doing her best to place many of us greatly in debt for sewers we do not need!!!

Anonymous said...

Enquirer front page July 26 shows existing home sale down 11% in SW OH ; down 11.3% in N KY ; and down ONLY 1% in SE IN
We are doing better than the region.

Anonymous said...

"We believe that the majority of the problem lies in the county not moving in a positive direction."

Mr. Rosenberger -

Having ridden through the county, I am aware of a tremendous number of homes for sale. For one, just ride through Hidden Valley Lake (about 250 homes for sale).

Having spoken with not only a few realty sales people, but also a realty owner, I've been told how slow the home sales have been this year.

Having read a national news item yesterday concerning the increased number of homes for sale throughout the nation - and having just read a national article concerning mortgage companies and how dramatically their profits have decreased and they don't percieve them to get better this year -

Mr. Rosenberger, you and your fellow builders must undoubtedly have a financial problem, but it is an insult for you to blame it on the county commissioners. Pleading on behalf of your employees instead of for yourself is a time-old ploy.

Knock on another door to solve your probems, not the taxpayers.