Daily Real Estate Stories

Newmarket developers, Planning Board meet in wake of lawsuit.
The most recent proposal for the six underutilized mill buildings on the Lamprey River called for up to 151 residential units in the remaining space. That number required a zoning variance for a greater density than currently allowed. The Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the variance request, predominantly citing a concern for public safety given the need for pedestrians to cross Route 108.

The NCDC appealed the ZBA decision in Superior Court. NCDC President Arlon Chaffee said the lawsuit is not adversarial and the legal process will take some time, which he added would allow progress to be made in the interim.

‘We”ve got (the lawsuit) as a backdrop to preserve our rights,’ Chaffee said, ‘but hopefully the joint meeting (with the Planning Board) is the first step towards resolution.’

In the lawsuit, the NCDC alleges the ZBA decision was unlawful and/or unreasonable for several reasons.

Train derails, about a dozen evacuated.
LIVERPOOL ? More than a dozen people were evacuated from their homes Friday afternoon after 18 rail cars came off the tracks near CR 192 in Liverpool.

Many of the cars landed on their side, cracking open and leaking wheat, steel, plastic pellets and paraffin wax, Brazoria County Environmental Crimes Investigator Jeff Mink said. None of the materials are toxic or dangerous, he said.

?It looks to be all inert materials,? Mink said.

There were no injuries reported and no structures were damaged, other than the rail line and the rail cars, said Steve Rosa, Brazoria County assistant emergency management coordinator.

It was not immediately known what caused the cars to derail at about noon but police for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owned the cars, were investigating.

Habitat”s Apostle house finished.
Since establishing a county chapter in 1992, Habitat has rehabilitated or built 18 homes for families that otherwise would not be able to afford home ownership, said Pam Tricamo, executive director.

At 2 p.m. tomorrow, another home will be added to the list, when the deed to a house at 203 Mifflin St. is turned over to Heydee Morales and her mother, Rosa Zelez.

This home will be the first to have been completed under the organization”s Apostle Build Program, which brings together volunteer work crews from area churches of all denominations, Tricamo said.

As chairwoman of Habitat”s Church Relations Committee, Carol Mauer worked hard to bring the various church volunteers together on the project, which took several years.

‘I would say we had close to 25 different churches involved, and they would recruit work crews of 10 to 12 people,’ she said.

Is $130 oil a bubble?.
‘If these prices stick, you may see whole neighborhoods where people abandon their homes,’ he said predicting that in the Northeast U.S. it will cost $5000 to heat a home unless prices fall.

Many analysts said supply and demand justifies expensive oil - maybe $90 or $100 a barrel - but $130 is just too much.

‘To see something run this far and this fast, you see it leveraged by financial players,’ said Neal Dingmann, senior energy analyst at Dahlman Rose & Co., a New York-based energy investment boutique. ‘The direction is corect, the speed isn”t.’

Dingman said demand is slowing in the U.S., and the Chinese numbers are inflated because they assume the government will continue to subsidize fuel, which he feels they won”t do.

Over the next five or ten years, he said it would be possible to see a return to $70 or $80 oil by gradually increasing supply - both in OPEC countries and non-OPEC countries like Brazil, as well as aggressive measures to limit demand like increasing fuel efficiency standards.

Budget review gets help.
The real estate tax rate would drop from 90 to 85 cents under the proposed budget, while some property owners” tax bills would still rise due to the increase in property assessments. At the proposed 85 cents, on property valued at $100,000 but reassessed at $110,000, the owner would pay $935 in taxes, up from $900.The initial hearing on May 12 was based on a 10 percent increase projected by the city prior to the completion of the reassessments.’We do need to establish a tax rate,’ said Councill on Friday, ‘even though we know good and well it will not be the final rate. It will probably be much less.’Another public hearing would be held at a later date in regard to establishing a tax rate that better reflects the reassessment figures.In other matters, a brief presentation by the Franklin Community Development Department will be made to council regarding the downtown Farmer”s Market to get feedback on how council wants to proceed with bids for the structure.Staff will recommend sticking to the original site plan for the project, which will cost the city no additional money.

Crispin Beltran: the politics of the possible-Fides Lim.
‘I would type out documents, even the assignments and term papers of high school students in the homes where the NPA stayed.’

In 1986, Beltran surfaced after the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship. When Rolando Olalia was abducted and murdered by suspected military operatives in November that year, he took over as KMU chair. In 1987, he ran for senator under the banner of the fledgling Partido ng Bayan, together with other well-known activists. They lost as the left-wing party”s grassroots program became a magnet for harassment and violence.

Beltran also served as president of the multisectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) from 1993 to 1999. He held the position until his nomination as one of the three representatives of Bayan Muna for the 2001 party-list elections.

Mr Fix-it”s toughest case.
One project was to undo a scheme allowing more prosperous tenants to buy their Housing Commission homes. Says Mulock: ‘Even then, there were long waiting lists and I was concerned that Housing Commission stock would be eroded. We urged a scheme to help tenants into their own homes by assisting them financially in the first few years. Treasury didn”t like that.

‘This group provided me with a number of policy options but, as so often is the case, any that involved expenditure was buried by Treasury.’

Mulock says he did not discuss politics with Richmond, ‘but I believed him to have a Labor approach’.

In early 1984, Mulock became Neville Wran”s health minister, replacing Laurie Brereton, who had commissioned Richmond to examine de-institutionalisation of the disabled and mentally ill.

WORLD & NATION UPDATE: AT HOME.
A man with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire at a church festival in Southern California yesterday, wounding his ex-wife and two bystanders before festivalgoers grabbed him and held him for police, authorities and a church official said. Gunfire rang out at the St. John Baptist de la Salle Roman Catholic parish in the San Fernando Valley shortly before 11 a.m., police said.



A Democratic congressman yesterday urged Republicans to ’step up to the plate’ to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., pointed to the updated GI Bill, which the House passed Thursday, as one way ‘a grateful nation can repay its heroes.’ The new GI Bill essentially would guarantee a full scholarship at any in-state public university for anyone who serves in the military for at least three years.

Old home to house Whitchurch patients.
A FORMER residential home has been bought to house patients with dementia currently at Whitchurch Hospital.

The purchase of the former Iorwerth Jones Residential Home in Llanishen from Cardiff council has been made by the Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust, which runs Whitchurch Hospital. The scheme is costing £3m and paid for by the Welsh Assembly Government.

The centre will open this autumn as part of the plan to close Whitchurch with patients re-housed in a smaller hospital on the same site and a new development at Llandough Hospital.

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A New Way to Search for Homes on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
EasternShoreHousing.com (easternshorehousing.com) was created because of the overwhelming number of new housing options on the Eastern Shore and to assist home buyers in locating the dream home that not only matches their wants, needs and desires in a home and community, but also in the surrounding area and town.

The founder of EasternShoreHousing.com (easternshorehousing.com), Blake Pierson says, ‘I”m very particular about where I want to live. For me, finding a place to call home is as much about finding a local culture that fits my lifestyle as it is about finding a house that I like. I love reading or working in coffee shops so I”d search for a home that has nearby coffee shops, so why not give others that same option? Everyone”s interests differ so we wanted to empower people to search based on what”s important to them and what their lifestyles require so they can truly discover a place to call home.’

What sets EasternShoreHousing.com (easternshorehousing.com) apart from other real estate websites are its highly searchable databases, its local focus, its ESearcH function and its ‘Discover’ section.