The Kochert Legacy Begins to Crumble

And now work begins on the other Larry's legacy...

A long-awaited and much-appreciated move by the new sewer board (created without the input of Diane McCartin-Benedetti, council member for D5) earns the top spot in Friday's editions of The Tribune.

Many have advocated for the city to use its financial and regulatory muscle to encourage preferred development. One of the most immediate ways for the city to do so is to impose or waive various fees.

The city-owned sewer enterprise moved Tuesday to waive the sewer tap-in fees for two Community Housing developments, signaling that they "get" the whole idea of progressive community development.

CHDO builds houses that are ecologically sound and centrally located. They then sell these houses to families eager to become part of the community by becoming homeowners. Every dime saved in construction makes it that much easier for CHDO to leverage its funds and to put more families into affordable housing.

There is nothing subpar about these houses. They are designed to fit within their neighborhoods. Affordable home ownership is, by consensus, a shared goal for this city, and the action taken to reduce the move-in cost of housing by $1,650 is a small price to pay to rebuild the housing stock in our city's urban core. Owner-occupied housing strengthens community. Kudos to the city administration, which urged the waiver, to CHDO and John Miller, who've long sought such relief, and to the unanimous board of Ron Carroll, Bill Utz, and Elizabeth Coyle, who saw the wisdom in preferring one type of development over another.

It's a small step, but an important one. Shadow5 joins the larger community in applauding this first step in smart growth policies.

You might ask what Larry Kochert has to do with all this. Mr. Kochert never understood that the decisions of officeholders can be made for the public good instead of for private benefit. He adamantly opposed all waivers during his service on the board. His rejection by his constituents and the rebuff he was handed when he requested to be appointed to the sewer board once again are signs that New Albany government is beginning to comprehend the whole idea of smart growth.

Kochert not only opposed waivers for preferred housing developments. He refused to even consider a tiered fee structure where applicants could demonstrate why they might deserve even a partial waiver.

The Kochert tyranny is over. This city council and this administration should get to work tearing down the rest of the Kochert legacy, including the anti-democratic tendencies apparent in their public meetings.