Below are statements from neighbors who live within the proposed overlay boundaries (Park, Colorado, 42nd, and 51st). If you would like to provide a testimonial, please email it to mark@fastmail.net. Also, please include your name and the block you live on (ex: 4200 block of Dakota) so it's clear that the testimonial is from someone who actually lives inside the proposed boundaries.
I am IN FAVOR of the proposed Sylvan Park Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay, BL2014-807. I also live within the boundaries of the proposed overlay, so it affects me directly.
I voted against the overlay several years ago. However, I soon came to regret having done so as I began to see home after home being demolished at an alarming rate. Had I known that this type of unbridled development was going to take place, I would never have voted against the overlay the first time around.
I have been a homeowner in Sylvan Park since 1992. However, I have an even earlier history with Sylvan Park having lived here from 1968-1974. My father was the minister at West Nashville UMC at 4710 Charlotte Av, and we lived in what was then the parsonage at 4603 Park Av. I attended Sylvan Park Elementary, W. A. Bass Junior High, and Cohn High School, having graduated from the latter in 1975.
Yes, my house is an investment, but it is also my home...my home in my old neighborhood where I chose to return, live and grow old...in peace.
I would like to be able to go to my mailbox and not receive offers from salivating investors and builders pretending to be looking for a home for their "client"...
I would like to be able to walk outside and not constantly hear bulldozers, chainsaws, concrete trucks, dump trucks, power saws, nail gun compressors and all the other noise and disruption caused by the ongoing demolition and construction we are experiencing in Sylvan Park...
I would like to be able to walk outside and not be dwarfed by an ever increasing number of enormous homes that block the light of day and have no resemblance to the old neighborhood I once knew...
I would like Sylvan Park to remain a place where persons of diverse economic means can live and be in community with one another. If something is not done to stop this current trend soon, Sylvan Park will become unrecognizable, and a place where only the wealthier class can live.