We Want A Hip Downtown Too - Part II

So a couple of Arlington developers are whining in the Star-Telegram today about all the delays they've encountered in trying to redevelop the historic Vandergriff Building in, "downtown" Arlington. It seems those twits at the Texas Historical Commission continue to slow the project down with a bureaucrat's weapon of choice: red tape. The always sympathetic O. K. Carter writes:

As for the Texas Historical Commission's lengthy requirements for the Vandergriff Building renovation, even the city's Landmark Preservation Commission has voiced concern.

"While we all share the goals to preserve and restore our historic structures, it appears that the commission requires a level of perfection in restoration that is very difficult, if even attainable," Arlington preservation commission Chairwoman Suzanne Sweak wrote in a September letter to the state commission. "This building will not be a museum; it will have a new use. It would seem appropriate ... to seek ways to allow this to happen.

"Enthusiasm for taking on and completing preservation projects is surely dampened by the bureaucratic hoops one must jump through to receive much needed public funding and tax credits to assist in a project."

But this is the same city that is pushing new, "design standards," for the area that run 250 pages long. If such a tome isn't an example of, "bureaucratic hoops," what is? So if the state insists redevelopment abide by certain rules, they are obstructing progress. But if the city adopts an entirely new rulebook, they are promoting redevelopment? Glad I've got that straight. The fact is, the City of Arlington doesn't really want to, "restore" downtown Arlington, they just want one of those hip, faux downtowns like $outhlake has.