Hugo City Council Letter (POST-EDIT).pdf

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to pay more for nicer views and for the character of a neighborhood. I tried to dig into the city code to understand the Council's written description of the character of the neighborhood and this is what I found: "The variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood." and then Section (3) Spirit and intent, goes on stating "The granting of the variance would be in keeping with the spirit and intent of this chapter and with the policies of the city's comprehensive plan." don't mean this provocatively, but this wasn't of any help for me understanding what character of a neighborhood means. So I fall back on what character means from a society standpoint and Merriam Webster Dictionary's definition; and to me Character is "the qualities distinct to an individual". To me that is what character is. In society, we are often judged (rightly so) by our character. Who are we? What are we about? This is what defines us. To me the character of the neighborhood is just that. What defines our neighborhood, what qualities and characteristics does it have that makes it, us, and our home? We are a pocket of the Hugo community, whose character and charm is that of dozens of large lot single family homes, with dozens of acres of green grass, horses pasture, and other wildlife; surrounded by hundreds of townhomes that are flanked by these fields on one side and Oneka lakes on the other border. As a townhome community we take great pride in that character and our community. want to double down and add this point, that we, as citizens of the townhomes, take great pride in our neighborhood's character. But, I also want to provide written proof that the character and essence of our neighborhood matters to us! Lydia went through the MLS listings database that she has access to as a realtor, and just along the West side of Farnham Drive where the townhomes are located along the lots of Everton, she found 35 listings dating back to 2005. That is literally almost every single townhome that has a view of the horse pastures off Everton! These listings date back to 2005, when Pulte began building these townhomes! From the very conception of this neighborhood, there has been great pride and great value to the homeowners, that we have amazing views of untouched pasture with horses and wildlife! Again, people went out of their way to talk about the character of the neighborhood! Here is just one of the almost three dozen listing descriptions, but the rest are copied down below. ****** One of the nicest units in desirable Hugo neighborhood....Enjoy grazing horses and beautiful sunsets out front windows. Must see this feel-good home. *******