A former state certified Life Health variable and fixed annuity agent,EMT, Firefighter now licensed for the past 15 years in specialty contracting, manufacturing, member of the Wall Street Journal business opportunities national, and current USCG Marine officer, in my travels, training and real life experiences with many variations of contracts, legal challenges, political wrangling, I have found that there is much home running going on when bidding in the condominium demographic within South Florida.
The state of Florida has not made the law strict enough regarding estopel of a valid proposal, offer and acceptance never having a chance to engage or perform within the present structure for non profit Florida condominium associations.
The acts of the participants on both sides of the equation are in many instances criminal, for example collusion for financial benefit is illegal.
There are a record number of complaints over this kind of undertaking not to mention the recent disconcerting rash of complaints that assessment money collected after the annual collection goes completely unaccounted for and no one is going to jail.
We can only hope that eventually the Florida legislature will have to recognize there is a serious problem and pass the kind of rules of law required to detour one from straying into the gray.
When it comes to fair dealing bidding or negotiating contracts with not for profit condominium associations in our beautiful state of Florida make sure you document everything in anticipatory breach correspondence, with a little tact know one will know that you have covered your concerns by just sending a short email message verifying any devil in the details.
You would be surprised how this extra effort described documenting statements during the period of preliminary discussions, or substantive negotiations curtails the kind of bad behavior we could all do better without.
Regards
Anthony R Meurer
http://www.theroofstore.net/about-us.html
principalmedia@bellsouth.net

He says the city needs to figure out “how to make activists out of everyone.”

http://www.phinneywood.com/2009/03/26/meet-city-council-candidate-david-miller/

Otherwise, it’s probably going to take a new stand alone post to unpack Miller’s replies, most of which seem to me to have much more words than content. I’m not looking forward to it.

All that to say that it’s not simply a matter of size, though many families do want more than 2 bedrooms. The 4-pack townhomes fail on several features, including large entryways and views of the yard (if their yards even count as such). In other words, “family housing” can be townhomes, condos, or apartments as well as SFH, duplexes, cottages, etc. but the shape of the building guarantees nothing.

The problem I see in Seattle’s Urban Centers, though, is that very little is being built–I think I heard something like 5% of units (as I mentioned, mostly low-income). Vancouver required 25% of units in False Creek. I know units vs people is apples to oranges, but as a point of comparison, 21% of King County’s population is under 18. The Urban Villages are in a somewhat better position than Urban Centers simply because they currently have a lot of SFH, but excluding 21% of the population and their parents from targeted growth areas will lead to sprawl, it’s simple math.

Agreed on the lack of family-size apartments and condos. What about townhouses? Are families not moving into townhouses, of which we seem to have a fair supply in urban v/c’s? If not, are townhouses effectively the McMansions of the City?