Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Carve up the turkey, not the turkey farmer


Carve up the turkey, not the turkey farmer
How often have you driven through a development and thought about the things you would have done differently.  Or wondered what a developer was thinking.  Well, let me speak for the voiceless, those developers that do not have the benefit of sitting with you while you drive through their community.  Let me be their champion!

Let’s pretend together for a moment.  Assume that your unknown eccentric uncle just left you 500 prime residential acres and tens of millions of dollars to develop it.  You jump for joy and can’t imagine your good fortune.  Now what?  There are some barren acres, some wooded acres, some lakes and some wildlife.  You have a blank canvass.  Are you going to paint a masterpiece or are you going to finger paint?

It is a very complicated and involved process to develop land.  You want the development to be aesthetically pleasing and blend into the larger town and community.  You want tree lined streets, lakes, parks, good architecture, strong signage and landscaping.  You also want to make sure that the local government is on board with your vision and will approve your plans.  You need builders that will buy into your architectural guidelines and want to build in your community.  And, most of all, you actually want to make a profit doing it and not squander away all of your dearly departed uncle’s money.

Consider it like going to the grocery store to plan a large dinner with no idea how many people are coming or what they are willing to eat.  You also don’t know if you have enough money to buy all the food, you are not yet sure if you have enough kitchen space to prepare the meal and you wonder if your dining room will have enough seats for all of your guests.  Then, by the time the big evening comes, you have ended up making a fantastic meal with superb appetizers, main course and dessert.  You have also decorated your house to fit the theme of the dinner and paid particular attention to where everyone sits to maximize conversation.  Then, as you are basking in the glory of your accomplishment, you overhear conversation from some of your guests as to how they would have done things differently.

Before you run back to the kitchen for the butcher’s knife to feed those guests their own fingers, think back to the efforts of the developer that built the fabulous community where your home is located.  You now have some common stories to share with each other.  And, please, put the knives back in the drawer.

Until next time…

 
Keep kicking the dirt!

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