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Show The Enterprise Review, April 14, 1976 Page 11b f Investment Summary Chuck Akerlow question as to whether It seems to me that John Price Associates has the better of the argument in his current battle with the residents surrounding his proposed shopping center site on the Avenues. As you read in this newspaper last week, he proposes a new shopping center between I and J Streets and 2nd and 3rd Avenues. At the present time several old homes occupy the site. for the Spokesperson so-call-ed Greater Avenues Community Council argued that Price should not touch the land until a master plan for the area is complete. According to the City Planning Department that would take a year. This raised the spokesperson ther shopping ano- both location and zoning on center is the Avenues has driven the needed, which in my mind is a question that can best be answered by the investors and the tenants rather than the spokesperson. It is obvious that no tenant or investor is willing to commit the capital and risk long-ter- m land cost upward. The only way a purchaser of land can achieve a decent return on his investment is to package enough land so that he may build commercial and multiple family facilities. There is no doubt in my mind that the spokesperson, if the opportunity presented itself, would sell his land at an inflated price to John Price. I am certain the spokesperson would argue that location and favorable zoning make his humble bungalow wrorth high dollars. leases in an area in which a shopping center is not needed. Since John Price has not made a habit of building shopping centers which go broke, it appears to me that his investment in the land was based upon sufficient data to indicate that there is a strong market there for a shopping center. What we see occurring in The fact of the matter is that the Avenues as in other parts of the city is a quiet revolution in land values. It is impossible to argue that an investor who is confident of the commercial market and who has tenants ready to move into an area in order to serve the surrounding populace and who hias paid a premium price for his land cannot develop that land in accordance with its highest and best because some neighborhood council decides that they don't want the project. After all, the investor is a land owner in the neighborhood, pays taxes and use-simpl- y that there is a direct relation in the value of property and its zoning. When a piece of property is ready for development because of a strong market demand, logic demands that it be developed. If city planners and neighborhood councils do not believe the property should be developed, then they have a it positive duty to down-zon- e and the neighborhood council can live w-it- h the result of decreased property values around their homes. One final thought: I have never seen an area that becomes improved the entire or better as a result of grade surroundings. I think the time has come g or decreasing the for planning commissions and highest and best use of the government bodies to realize land. is willing to make a sizable investment in order to up- dowm-zonin- I A Stoop HfSHoo A HU owes- - IU6 CITY... w roe wurnn I (OCUP& AJJV Awauss to axKme . RCP-TV- R AMP A MOCe H99H 7 AUP A VSIQS FROH A OCUP AWaEFEP: -- 1ES.WS0N! SHOT UP THiawSH TK CLOUP. gR CFWCf&ce 8WLPIU6 Wff6PgSP- - A Mil. HOP ip AUP rU TOC HOU. Pragmatic Dogmatics by Kent Shearer Most card players read the rules of the game before the action starts. The rules vary from contest to contest. Consider, for instance, the fate of the ace. Supreme in bridge, and truly formidable in poker, it ranks behind the jack (jasz) and nine (menel) in klaberjass. Also, it trails the king, queen and jack in imperial, and the queen of clubs (spadille) and queen of spades (basto) in modem ombre. If you doubt me, consult Hoyle. It always has struck me as strange, therefore, that those with political interests too often do not devote similar attention to the rules that govern their endeavors. Rather, they their vehicles, cheer at rallies, bumper-stic- k distribute literature and - if their candidate loses - curse a system about which they didnt bother to learn at the onset. Politics, like poker, has its rules. They are founded in state law, county and voting district traditions and convention rules committee reports. Lets review each. First , state laws. Salt Lake Commission chairman Ralph McClure sported a strong opinion poll lead in his 1974 Democratic effort to go to Congress. Utah statutes, however, require that convention delegates reduce the primary election field to two candidates. Allen Howe, the eventual victor, and Daryl McCarty, Howe's primary opponent concentrated upon delegates, not the public, and McClure found himself a convention victim. Second , county traditions. Utah law is clear that county conventions, not mass meetings, elect state convention delegates. In Salt Lake, Utah and Davis counties, however, the GOP tradition is that the bulk of state delegates are elected, although legally recommended, at the mass meeting level. It is lawfully possible that those recommendations" might be rejected by the respective county conventions. but it has never happened and likely never will. Third , voting district traditions. Some districts automatically elect their chairman a delegate. Some mechanically exclude the chairman from delegate consideration. There are voting districts that hold run-of- f elections. There are others that respect a mere plurality. Fourth , convention rules committee reports. The rules committee, believe it or not, is more important in the long run than its glamorous platform counterpart. Within the limits set by statute, it has great impact upon results. In 1964, Ray Child, Oma .Wilcox, and Governor elected national convention Clyde were delegates by the GOP state convention adoption of a rules report. Ditto in 1968 for Dick Richards and Jan Romney, and in 1972 for Nick Strike, Dorothy Clark and yours truly. Unfortumatcly, there is no firm Hoyle of politics. Statutes change, as do traditions and committees. But one who aspires to election in Utah or elsewhere would be wise to ascertain, then master, the rules of the game. |