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- x _ AMMON <br /> Mr. Don Willhoit <br /> Chairperson, Orange County Commissioners <br /> April 6, 1987 <br /> It HAS occurred to me that the ideal time to talk about green space <br /> requirements is April . There are no leaves on the trees. Everyone <br /> is tired of looking through the woods at the neighbor' s house and the <br /> trees that have been planted around -the new commercial developments <br /> look particularly spindly and forlorn. Later in the spring, green <br /> space will have begun to act as the beautiful buffer the newly enacted <br /> development ordinances contemplate. <br /> Let ' s use that same longer range view to think about the effect on <br /> the constituency for whom I am speaking, buyers and sellers of houses <br /> that will be built. The Transfer Tax translates into immediate inflation <br /> of prices for ALL residential and commercial property. Those who sell <br /> a home in one part of town and move to another part pay an incredible <br /> tax without changing the community' s service demand at all . Those <br /> who feel that their home is an investment that they may cash in when <br /> they need to pay medical or educational expenses could find that the <br /> tax that was added in when they bought must be paid when they sell <br /> - except the market has softened, rates have increased, and that equity <br /> is gone. There are more than enough risks for a homeowner to take <br /> already without having to bear a possible loss like that. <br /> The task before us is not to find the easiest source of revenue, it <br /> is to find the best, the fairest, the one most reflective of benefits <br /> derived. We are social animals. We live in communities for the positive <br /> effects on our lives of association with others. Let ' s not create <br /> another penalty for choosing to live in one place rather than another. <br /> If. there are costs to be borne, let ' s bear them equally, not try to <br /> concentrate the load on one portion of the community. Please consider <br /> the long term potentially disastrous effect of adding one more incremental <br /> lump sum cost to our already heavy housing cost burden. <br /> Thank you. <br /> Sincerely, <br /> Y",y141,1&,,_ <br /> Nicholas J. Tennyson v <br /> President <br />