What good will this do?
Some local realtors in Cambridge, Minnesota are asking the city for a temporary halt on building new single family homes. One realtor feels that a moratorium on large developments would decrease housing inventories, thus result in higher home values and benefit all home owners.
Has the city done a demographic study to determine housing need in Cambridge? Has consideration been given to determine the effect of too much housing inventory (which results in lower home values)? Has consideration been given to how the real estate market will be or has been affected by new developments?
One local realtor states "Anyone who has tried to sell a home within the last three years has felt the negative impact of too much housing inventory."
The Cambridge City Administrator says "there are no legal grounds for a moratorium on single family homes at this time." Another council member said that "we don't have a legitimate reason to impose a moratorium" and another added "It would be difficult to find legal resoning for a moratorium."
In response to the information requested on whether we should adopt a single family housing moratorium, research staffer Alexis Stangl of the League of Minnesota Cities said that "It seems that you are considering a moratorium on single family homes at the request of area realtors," a private business. "First, a moratorium can only be enacted for the valid purpose of protecting city planning and for the health, safety and welfare of it's citizens. Second, basing a moratorium on the request from a private business may raise the concern that the decision to enact a moratorium was arbitrary or was enacted to limit certain projects that were in the planning stages. In other words, the city should not enact a moratorium that addresses purely private interests or appears to address only private interests. ...ou need to carefully consider whether there is a valid reason for enacting the moratorium and what purpose the moratorium would accomplish.
The council has agreed to revisit the issue during the September 17th meeting.
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