Stack Hill Proposed Views

These exhibits show what the views would look like if Point Ruston is allowed to build on the area currently set aside as a view corridor at the end of Commercial Street. Please attend tonight and provide your input ~ 7 pm at 5219 N. Shirley Street.

You can faintly see the outline of the background trees through the house.

The white pole in the center of the second photo shows the height of the house that would be built on the lot if the plat is amended as requested.

This shows how much dirt was removed from the hillside prior to construction.

Loren Cohen from Point Ruston provided these comments. Feel free to call him with questions, but any comments about this should be directed to the Ruston council members who are making the decision on this issue tonight. I don't think they can receive comment outside of the public hearing tonight, but you can check with them to be sure. Their contact information is listed to the right here.

I wanted to share these Stack Hill exhibits with you... The "MDP grade removal" exhibit highlights the amount of dirt that we pulled off of the hill. We averaged approximately 20' lower across the lower half of the site, creating a view over the 'nose' of the hill where the stack itself once sat.

I understand some citizens have questioned our timing in asking for these amendments -- they wonder "why did you agree to these in the first place if you are just going to try and amend them?" To us, the answer is simple: We knew from the day that the Council approved preliminary approval of the Stack Hill plat, that the view corridor would provide little benefit to the Town. Further, everyone remembers that the Town was having tremendous anxiety at this time with very divisive factions. We feel that a there is a different mood and feeling of confidence and fairness at this time. We could tell by our calculations and projections that little if any view was preserved by the Town taking this parcel from us to create a view corridor. However, we also knew that citizens and Council Members alike didn't share our ability to trust our engineer's projections, so it only made sense to wait until the plat construction and grading had been completed so that people could see what the plat would "really" look like. The exhibits that show the view directly down Commercial St. are both true to life photos, with only the houses being computer generated and superimposed; however, everything is to scale, and resembles very closely how this plat will turn out after full built-out .

If this view corridor provided a real benefit and preserved a water view valued by the Town, we would not be seeking this amendment; however, we truly believe that the Town's taking of this property does not preserve nor create a substantial view, and disproportionately affects our property rights. Compared to any benefit created for the Town it is our firmly held belief that the detriment of losing a viable building pad is grossly disproportionate to the purported view corridor that the Town seeks to create with the taking of our property. If this view corridor created a substantial benefit for the Town, we would not be seeking a Public Hearing tonight.

Thanks, and please give me a call if you have any questions.

Loren Cohen
Manager - Legal Affairs
MC Construction Consultants, Inc.
loren@mcconstruction.com
www.mcconstruction.com
www.pointruston.com
(360) 280-5058