Property taxes (WAS: On Nh living and commutes..)

[Travis Roy]

> Unfair as defined by what?  If someone purchases a historic piece of property in a
> town and wants to raze it to build a Wal-Mart, are not the citizens of that town
> entitled to their say?  The decision affects them on many levels.  This is precisely
> the same thing has having as zoning laws.  You can't put a hazardous waste storage
> facility next to my house for no other that a collective "we" doesn't want you to. 
> Unfair?  Hardly.

What Derek is pointing out is that you can buy a piece of property. Say 
a normal house (old, but normal) with the idea to say build a room on 
the back and paint it green.. Well a year after you buy it the town 
makes your house part of a historical zone.. Now you can't add that new 
bedroom for you kid on the way, and you're forced to paint your house 
one of 4 colors..

Zoning laws are meant to control usage and growth. They are not there to 
make it extreamly hard to add an addition, force you into paint colors, 
or force you to have to pay $200 per window for a special storm window 
because they won't let you get rid of the double hungs that came with 
the house.

Moving in knowing that the place is in a historical district is one 
thing.. having your house all of a sudden end up in a historical 
district is another.

If people don't want me to modernize my house by changing the windows to 
  effectient, cheap, vinyl windows, change the siding to vinyl siding, 
force me to have historical landscaping then they can flip the bill for 
all my heat going out my shitty old windows, the repainting of my house 
when it needs it, and a landscaping staff..