Letter: I no longer feel welkom in Holland
Peter Berghoef
I am writing to express my support for the Holland Unified Development Ordinance.
I am a longtime resident and renter in Holland currently living in the historic district. I support the UDO because, moving forward, Holland needs to be a community available and affordable for a wide variety of citizens.
Clinging bitterly to older rules and laws has strong overtones of classicism and racism. Are we so broadly conservative that even a whiff of change in the air inspires a bitter opposition campaign? How will allowing homeowners greater freedom to use their property damage the community? How will the possibility of people with different backgrounds and incomes living comfortably side by side with current residents damage the community exactly?
Residents still unhappy with proposed zoning changes
HOLLAND In the face of public opposition to proposed zoning changes included in Holland s Unified Development Ordinance, the Holland Planning Commission, which has been directing the drafting of the UDO, has tweaked, walked back or completely removed some of the proposed changes.
But has the commission modified the proposal enough to satisfy the concerns of residents? No, they re not listening to us, said Fred Floberg, who lives in the R-1, or single-family residential zone district.
Many R-1 residents were angered by a proposal to legalize duplexes in their neighborhoods on lots of 10,000 square feet or larger.
HOLLAND — Final tweaks are being made to a draft of the Holland Unified Development Ordinance, expected to be presented to city council in March.The UDO is primarily a reformatting, simplification and collection of the city s multiple zoning and development ordinances into one place, making the city s zoning and building standards more user-friendly.Planners have also used UDO as an opportunity to update zoning code to 21st century planning standards and have proposed a number of changes