John O'Dowd Floats an Idea

John O'Dowd's column today in the Watauga Democrat comes out for zoning and against billboards, but that's not the most interesting nugget:

"I would be willing to pay a few more pennies in property tax if the money could be used to start a land trust to develop affordable housing for young professionals and families who might also like to live and work in the county."

A land trust financed at public expense and administered by county government ... it's basically the ONLY idea that makes any sense at all. Will it even be considered here? Absolutely not.

There will be NO affordable housing beyond the "mobile" kind unless government is willing to step in and remove the issue of high land prices ... by buying up tracts which the county must then be willing to sell back to first-home-dreamers at affordable prices & low interest rates.

This has worked in other places. Other places with people in power who actually BELIEVE in government. But we have county commissioners who outright HATE government of any kind. As Virginia Foxx is now famous for saying, "The worst thing we can do is to get government involved in solving problems."

No, our county officials will instead encourage whining about too strict building regulations and will themselves engage in whining about Boone's water & sewer ... "You've got it. We want it. Give it to us!" That's their solution to no affordable housing ... envy and hatred of Boone.