GeorgerwilliamsW (Indiana)
Posts: 975
Posts: 975
Posted:
This is a great, thoughtful letter from Hilton Head (emphasis added).
From the Hilton Head Island Packet
http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/letters/story/575654.html
Do you agree or disagree??
Our esteemed Charles Fraser pioneered the use of covenants as a value-adding feature of gated community development, now widely adapted internationally. But he often warned against too literal application and enforcement, reminding the zealous that judicious restraint in their application, tempered with discretion and wit, were required to avoid precluding the best along with the worst.
As an avid student of architecture, Fraser understood all too well what Jane Jacobs railed against 50 years ago in her critique of urban renewal -- that what we most admire was being destroyed in our very efforts to redevelop.
Fraser was especially concerned that cavalier cutting and pasting of his carefully worded restrictive language, while effective in pruning eyesores, could allow and even encourage these very heavy-handed tendencies.
It has proved to be a sticky business, applying and enforcing these covenants. But perhaps like democracy, it's the least worst system available. Over 30 years, I have observed (professionally) that the delicate business of exercising such judgment has a way of falling to those least suited -- those who are convinced they know what's best -- often to their own community's detriment. Not to belittle the volunteer, without whom no community can flourish, but the unfortunate result of governance by covenant, aside from bruised egos and general aggravation, often proves to be a vast pasteurization, forfeiting cultural and aesthetic diversity on its own altar.
Such seems the sad fate of Sterling Point's bottle tree.
Merrill Pasco
Hilton Head Island
From the Hilton Head Island Packet
http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/letters/story/575654.html
Do you agree or disagree??
Our esteemed Charles Fraser pioneered the use of covenants as a value-adding feature of gated community development, now widely adapted internationally. But he often warned against too literal application and enforcement, reminding the zealous that judicious restraint in their application, tempered with discretion and wit, were required to avoid precluding the best along with the worst.
As an avid student of architecture, Fraser understood all too well what Jane Jacobs railed against 50 years ago in her critique of urban renewal -- that what we most admire was being destroyed in our very efforts to redevelop.
Fraser was especially concerned that cavalier cutting and pasting of his carefully worded restrictive language, while effective in pruning eyesores, could allow and even encourage these very heavy-handed tendencies.
It has proved to be a sticky business, applying and enforcing these covenants. But perhaps like democracy, it's the least worst system available. Over 30 years, I have observed (professionally) that the delicate business of exercising such judgment has a way of falling to those least suited -- those who are convinced they know what's best -- often to their own community's detriment. Not to belittle the volunteer, without whom no community can flourish, but the unfortunate result of governance by covenant, aside from bruised egos and general aggravation, often proves to be a vast pasteurization, forfeiting cultural and aesthetic diversity on its own altar.
Such seems the sad fate of Sterling Point's bottle tree.
Merrill Pasco
Hilton Head Island