When Personal Preference Has Power

I have to say I'm a little jealous.  I throw out my personal preferences a lot here on this blog but honestly I don't have much influence.  That can't be said for the folks on our Design Review Board.  If you want to shape the city to your architectural preferences, that's apparently the place to be.  Take for example the saga of a Grove Way project that is currently somewhere in the design/approval stages.

The project was sent back to the drawing board due primarily to the personal preferences of individuals on the DRB.  We have a look at the before and after designs.  The second design is up for approval in next week's DRB meeting.  You be the judge.  Was it necessary to send the builder back to the literal drawing board?

Elevation 1 - Apparently NOT Appropriate for Roswell

Elevation 2 & 3 - To Be Determined Whether Appropriate for Roswell

View From Hill StreetView From Myrtle Street

As an aside, I'm much more interested in getting the street layout and geometries right than any particular architectural style.  The number one rule of Good Urbanism is to get the streets right!  

Comments

[Thomas Shelton]

Our local government is completely lacking in leadership. There simply is no room for tweaking solid designs to support one's personal style when building for the long term. Those "style" changes will be out of style soon enough so increasing the cost to improve our city will simply cost us more in the long-term. The best builders will simply seek to build in more forward thinking communities instead of here.