Shaffer: May be time for a change in Carmel

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Dear Editor:

Carmel central planners have issued more than 1,000 residential building permits thus far in 2022. Just 23 percent are for single-family homes – the kinds of residences that built the city in the first place.

One year ago, 42 percent of new permits were for single-family homes.

The move to congestion and transient populations is the central planner’s scheme of sucking higher property tax revenues from a given piece of property.

Monolithic, four-story, Soviet-style apartment eyesores will, the argument goes, generate property taxes that first pay off the subsides Carmel lavishes on favored developers and create a tsunami of new tax revenues when the bonds are paid off.

The geniuses never point out the obvious.

The tsunami won’t start for 25 years.

Meanwhile, the city’s “brand value” decays in service to risky ventures by unelected bureaucrats without taxpayer approval.

And taxpayers foot the bill for the increased city services – police, fire, water, sewer, parks, libraries, etc. – the new residents put on the city.

Perhaps it’s time for a change.

Bill Shaffer
Carmel

2 Comments on "Shaffer: May be time for a change in Carmel"

  1. All that development changes the tone of the city.

  2. I agree with the comment, “Monolithic, four-story, Soviet-style apartment eyesores”. These have popped up in Noblesville and Westfield as well.

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