OT: City of Starkville at it again

patdog

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But they can keep the purple awnings and blue doors. Government gonna government. The time for them to object to the colors is before they painted it.
 
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Darryl Steight

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Personally I don't mind this decision, because a city does need some sort of architectural guidelines or else you get... purple buildings. It could get out of hand quickly. As long as there was an ordinance on the books already about 'neutral tones' and they are applying it evenly throughout the city - fair play to make this school change the color.

However, most cities don't let their aldermen pick paint colors... Does Starkville not have an architectural review board or something similar?
 

dorndawg

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Darryl Steight

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But they can keep the purple awnings and blue doors. Government gonna government. The time for them to object to the colors is before they painted it.
Wonder if that was the problem... the business painted without getting approval beforehand? I don't know, just speculating - the city obviously wouldn't (shouldn't) make them repaint if they gave an approval previously.
 

MSUDC11-2.0

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Yeah I wonder what the permitting process was (if any) when it was originally painted. I don't really see too much objectionable for the surrounding area here:

Correct, I live like two minutes away from this building. It’s fairly isolated. There’s an old house next door on one side and another business on the other side, across the street is the back side of a little strip mall type place. Within a short walk of a public park. Not really on a main road or anything. My daughter actually went to daycare there briefly when she was first born.
 
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dorndawg

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Correct, I live like two minutes away from this building. It’s fairly isolated. There’s an old house next door on one side and another business on the other side, across the street is the back side of a little strip mall type place. Within a short walk of a public park. Not really on a main road or anything. My daughter actually went to daycare there briefly when she was first born.
I'd almost wonder if this isn't something personal & petty between the business owner and someone on the board. Both entities really seem to have dug in over... not much.
 

Darryl Steight

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I guess I need to clarify. The "so" is that the article said a purple building is against the city ordinance. My next sentence held the important phrase "...it could get out of hand...". I'm not sure what else needs to be said. The town could get even uglier quicker if you let every building owner pick out any random colors from the color wheel. Do I really need to explain that part further?

Every city has architectural guidelines. It sounds like Starkville did, and those guidelines included "neutral tones" for building colors. That's what the duly elected city leaders had decided previously that they wanted their town to look like. So, they are apparently now applying that code fairly.

ETA: I don't have a dog in the fight - and I don't care what color this particular building is. I guess my point is, if someone wants Starkville to look like Austin, Belhaven, or Mumbai where they appreciate funky colors, I guess one would need to run for office and change the ordinance.
 
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The Peeper

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Feb 26, 2008
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Doesn't look any worse than those Skittle colored shoe box cookie cutter houses out on Academy Rd or along the east side of 25 and they've been there for years. Why hasn't her honor gone after those? Probably because they are residential rental properties which are her families main gig
 

Darryl Steight

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Doesn't look any worse than those Skittle colored shoe box cookie cutter houses out on Academy Rd or along the east side of 25 and they've been there for years. Why hasn't her honor gone after those? Probably because they are residential rental properties which are her families main gig
Yes the multicolored buildings all jumbled up together are horrible. Imagine the whole town looking like that. I am guessing that particular development was built 20 years ago and thus was grandfathered in, before this neutral tone ordinance. Again, just a guess.


*Man, I definitely did not have "defend Mayor Lynn" on my to-do list today. You never know what you're going to get on this board.
 

ETK99

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Doesn't look any worse than those Skittle colored shoe box cookie cutter houses out on Academy Rd or along the east side of 25 and they've been there for years. Why hasn't her honor gone after those? Probably because they are residential rental properties which are her families main gig
Business specific ordinance
 
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Dawgg

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I guess I need to clarify. The "so" is that the article said a purple building is against the city ordinance. My next sentence held the important phrase "...it could get out of hand...". I'm not sure what else needs to be said. The town could get even uglier quicker if you let every building owner pick out any random colors from the color wheel. Do I really need to explain that part further?

Every city has architectural guidelines. It sounds like Starkville did, and those guidelines included "neutral tones" for building colors. That's what the duly elected city leaders had decided previously that they wanted their town to look like. So, they are apparently now applying that code fairly.

ETA: I don't have a dog in the fight - and I don't care what color this particular building is. I guess my point is, if someone wants Starkville to look like Austin, Belhaven, or Mumbai where they appreciate funky colors, I guess one would need to run for office and change the ordinance.
Fair enough. I think I've just become cantankerous in my old age about being able to do what I want to with my own property. I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood with a very relaxed HOA (though I'd prefer to not have one at all), but that hasn't always been the case. The argument I always hear for having an HOA is "well, you don't want your neighbor to paint their house purple, do you?" and my response is always "who gives a 17?" If my neighbor wants to paint their house teal with pink zig zags, then I'm kind of ok with that. It's their house.

And ... I dunno ... maybe if some parts of Starkville had a little more color, it could help shed the idea that it's a boring аss town. I was born in Starkville and I want good things for Starkville, but I live a long way away from there now, so I'll leave that to the current residents. I think doing things to make Starkville feel more mundane and boring isn't the answer, though.

As an aside, I don't think a place that's supposed to be a destination for children being painted a bright color is bad thing.
 

Darryl Steight

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Fair enough. I think I've just become cantankerous in my old age about being able to do what I want to with my own property. I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood with a very relaxed HOA (though I'd prefer to not have one at all), but that hasn't always been the case. The argument I always hear for having an HOA is "well, you don't want your neighbor to paint their house purple, do you?" and my response is always "who gives a 17?" If my neighbor wants to paint their house teal with pink zig zags, then I'm kind of ok with that. It's their house.

And ... I dunno ... maybe if some parts of Starkville had a little more color, it could help shed the idea that it's a boring аss town. I was born in Starkville and I want good things for Starkville, but I live a long way away from there now, so I'll leave that to the current residents. I think doing things to make Starkville feel more mundane and boring isn't the answer, though.

As an aside, I don't think a place that's supposed to be a destination for children being painted a bright color is bad thing.
I mean, I agree with what you're saying. I don't have a strong opinion on any one buildings color. But each town has to decide at some point what they are going to be. I am guessing that the elected who voted for 'neutral tones' in their minds were thinking "classy" rather than "boring". I know that's what Mayor Mary thinks in Madison, but personally I hate the corinthian columns and flowery bannisters and all that shiit. I would prefer a little variation and creativity among buildings. But she was elected 34 years ago (!), so she gets to decide.

I will add, my kids never once have commented on the color of the exterior of their school buildings... they mostly care what's inside. But that just speaks to what a small issue this really should be (to me).
 
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Villagedawg

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Going after daycares because their building is too yellow.
Those bright colors definitely look awful and take away the quaint charm of the dilapidated, blue metal shed next door that is the gem of the neighborhood. *
 

dawglawz

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I mean, I agree with what you're saying. I don't have a strong opinion on any one buildings color. But each town has to decide at some point what they are going to be. I am guessing that the elected who voted for 'neutral tones' in their minds were thinking "classy" rather than "boring". I know that's what Mayor Mary thinks in Madison, but personally I hate the corinthian columns and flowery bannisters and all that shiit. I would prefer a little variation and creativity among buildings. But she was elected 34 years ago (!), so she gets to decide.

I will add, my kids never once have commented on the color of the exterior of their school buildings... they mostly care what's inside. But that just speaks to what a small issue this really should be (to me).
I'd rather live by a purple and yellow daycare than I would a Cane's that looks like a bank.

Madison is hilarious. The right-wingedness curves completely back around to communism.
 

Hugh's Burner Phone

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I know back when that bbq place was in business just down from said daycare he put up galvanized tin on the window areas of the outside eating area to help keep it warm in the winter and to add to the rural cabin look and they threatened to fine him if he didn't take it down. You'd think our elected city leaders would have more to worry about. But this is the same mayor that said she loves seeing all the traffic gridlock on 12 because it means people are out going places in town.
 

IBleedMaroonDawg

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OG Goat Holder

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Wonder if that was the problem... the business painted without getting approval beforehand? I don't know, just speculating - the city obviously wouldn't (shouldn't) make them repaint if they gave an approval previously.
Of course. You wouldn't expect the rage warriors here to take into account facts, would you? Just blame government.
 

PhredPhantom

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Mar 3, 2008
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The Town of Starkville has violated the civil rights of the daycare building’s owners. They should be able to paint the building any color they want since it is their own property. This is a free speech issue and free speech is guaranteed in the First Amendment if the Constitution of the United States of America. The building’s owners should sue Starkville for violation of their rights and for court costs and legal fees.
 

Dawgg

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Of course. You wouldn't expect the rage warriors here to take into account facts, would you? Just blame government.
From what I read in the article and in the Development Code, it's not that you have to get approval to paint a facade beforehand, it's just that it has to fall within the Unified Development Code for Starkville, which says "The primary facade colors shall be low reflectance, subtle, neutral, or earth tones. The use of high intensity, metallic flake, or fluorescent colors is prohibited.", but doesn't provide a palette of what's included in that. The owner even said, it's not clear what's included and the board couldn't provide a palette. If you Google 'earth tones', you'll see greens and yellows and they don't look far off from the street view in the Google Maps link dorndawg posted. I feel like 'subtle' and 'neutral' are pretty subjective.


I think the funniest thing is that they're letting him keep the bright purple awning, which is objectively the most garish color in the whole facade.
 
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dorndawg

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The Town of Starkville has violated the civil rights of the daycare building’s owners. They should be able to paint the building any color they want since it is their own property. This is a free speech issue and free speech is guaranteed in the First Amendment if the Constitution of the United States of America. The building’s owners should sue Starkville for violation of their rights and for court costs and legal fees.
That's... not really how things work. Like at all.
 
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johnson86-1

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Just a weird battle to pick for the BOA. But that group has been picking battles that are a waste of time for as long as I’ve lived here.
That's my objection. It's not that they're being heavy handed, it's that they're being heavy handed in the dumbest ways. You want starkville to be nicer, stop adding requirements on people that are doing improvements that should be born by everybody (e.g., sidewalks). You want starkville to be nicer, spend some money and do the things you want (sidewalks and underground utilities would be a good start) instead of trying to dump those costs on the people actuallyh trying to make it nicer. The sign ordinance was a good thing, but it's another example of starkville putting out a mandate that falls on property owners unequally because they like to pretend that imposing that cost is materially different fro a tax.

Hell, probably one of the biggest things they could do would be to stop penalizing higher value development by putting more of the tax burden on land rather than improvements.
 
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Hugh's Burner Phone

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Can paint any manner of bright and obnoxious murals all over the middle of downtown but heaven forbid that a building that’s not really even downtown and is literally a preschool for babies and toddlers be painted bright and colorful.
Yeah, some of the bridges and retaining walls downtown are a hell of a lot harder on the eyes than that daycare. Maybe they can claim it was painted by some 16 year old and it is art so they can just 17 all the way off. If I am the owner that is the very first thing I get an explanation on.
 

PhredPhantom

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That's... not really how things work. Like at all.
Local laws and ordinances do not trump the Constitution. I served 23 years to defend our Constitution. Those who don’t like the freedoms it provides should work to amend it. Good luck with repealing the First Amendment.
 

mstateglfr

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Feb 24, 2008
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The Town of Starkville has violated the civil rights of the daycare building’s owners. They should be able to paint the building any color they want since it is their own property. This is a free speech issue and free speech is guaranteed in the First Amendment if the Constitution of the United States of America. The building’s owners should sue Starkville for violation of their rights and for court costs and legal fees.
Local laws and ordinances do not trump the Constitution. I served 23 years to defend our Constitution. Those who don’t like the freedoms it provides should work to amend it. Good luck with repealing the First Amendment.
 
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dorndawg

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Local laws and ordinances do not trump the Constitution. I served 23 years to defend our Constitution. Those who don’t like the freedoms it provides should work to amend it. Good luck with repealing the First Amendment.
I'm not sure where to start explaining, but I assure you this is not a First Amendment issue. If anything, possibly a 14th Amendment Due Process but even then, there is a law and the process seems to be being followed.

Clearly, some of us think this law is a tad askew, and there may be some selective enforcement at play. But again, not a 1A issue.
 

mstateglfr

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1713460960902.png

- Doesnt look good, but also looks the part- its a daycare so bright cheery colors are pretty typical.
- Hilarious that the purple awning and green door can stay.
- The owner asked for a definition of 'earth tone' and the city didnt provide an acceptable color palette at the time. While the building clearly isnt 'earth tone', its a bit 17ed up to not provide examples if you are going to limit color options.
- The blue church next to this daycare looks 10x worse. Its a faded baby blue steel building.

1713461274534.png
1713461296952.png
 
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NashLA

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View attachment 560317

- Doesnt look good, but also looks the part- its a daycare so bright cheery colors are pretty typical.
- Hilarious that the purple awning and green door can stay.
- The owner asked for a definition of 'earth tone' and the city didnt provide an acceptable color palette at the time. While the building clearly isnt 'earth tone', its a bit 17ed up to not provide examples if you are going to limit color options.
- The blue church next to this daycare looks 10x worse. Its a faded baby blue steel building.

View attachment 560325
View attachment 560326
No doubt grandfathered due to it's age.