Color is a language. Color is one of the most fulfilling elements in our lives. Color can attract your attention or change your mood. It speaks to who you are, how you feel and where you’re going. At Sherwin-Williams, we can help you put together the perfect colors for your life.

Color is one of the first things you notice when you walk into a room. Is it any wonder that color, and how you use it, is one of the most important decorating decisions you’ll make in your home? Inside your home, the latest colors and the way they’re applied give voice to your personality and décor.

Color sets a mood. From floor to ceiling, paint color reflects your style and makes a personal statement of what home means to you.

• Color unites one-of-a-kind accent pieces with manufactured items throughout your home.
• Electrifying hues, inspired by technology, bring a touch of whimsy to spaces that also feature natural carved wood, woven textiles and wrought iron.
• Bright colors are further enhanced when paired with large areas of negative space.

See Also

Why Color Matters

Learn why color matters in personalizing your spaces

Watch Video

When this came before the Garland Plan Commission my first thought was “Oh No” not a noisy, dirty cash for cans recycling machine. After hearing Coke and Krogers’ presentation we decided that this was going to be a class act. And we were right. Glad we voted for this one! Garland is only the second city in the country to get one. It has a window to the side so kids, young and old, can watch the inner workings. The mural on the side depicts the recycling process and how it ultimately benefits the environment.

From Forbes Magazine…

“Unlike other recycling centers where you have to feed items into a machine one by one, self-contained ReImagine units accept bottles and cans in bulk. And like a Coinstar for spent bottles and cans, Reimagine tallies up and rewards you for each item recycled, thanks to a conveyor belt and optical scanner system that also sorts and crushes items. With points racked up through Reimagine, recyclers can donate funds to local schools through the My Coke Rewards Program or enter to win a sweepstakes.”

Scott Roberts, owner of Creative Architects and chairman of the Garland Plan Commission is second from the right at this dedication ceremony.

The Texas twins — Dallas and Houston — continue to set the employment pace for the nation.

The two metros have added 134,200 nonfarm jobs in the past 12 months, according to figures released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the equivalent of 368 new jobs every day.

Dallas-Fort Worth is No. 1 in the country with an increase of 83,100 nonfarm jobs between April 2010 and the same month this year. Houston is No. 2 with a gain of 51,100.

Housing Affordability at Record Level, But Tight Financing Constrains Sales

Not suffering as severely during the downturn as new construction and appearing to be gaining ground faster, the remodeling market is a relative bright spot on the current housing scene, panelists participating in a May 26 NAHB webinar on the remodeling outlook said, but home owner improvements could encounter some weakness later this year.

In the current recovery both remodeling and home building are dependent upon improvements in the economy, jobs and consumer confidence, all of which have been slow to rally but should start providing some momentum at the end of this year and in 2012, said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

“This is the reverse of the typical recovery in which housing is the leader,” he said. “It’s not happening this time because of the excess housing inventory and small movement in house prices.”

Following a pattern similar to new construction’s, spending on owner-occupied improvements should stage “a nice recovery” and show a healthy percentage increase next year, bringing it up to the level of activity experienced at the end of 2007, he said, with considerably more growth ahead.

NAHB’s Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for this year’s first quarter was already registering improvements in the confidence of remodelers and was approaching 50, he said, the level on the 100-point index where equal numbers of those surveyed report that conditions are good and bad.

Four sub-components of the RMI already crossed over into positive territory during this year’s first quarter: with major additions and alterations to rental properties at 55.2, owners’ minor additions and alterations at 56.2, owners’ calls for bids at 54.6 and appointments for proposals for remodeling jobs at 52.4.

The reasons cited by remodelers in the first quarter survey for why customers have been reluctant to commission jobs point to factors that are the same or similar to those that have been holding back home sales.

Ninety percent of the remodelers said that their prospective clients have been hesitant because they think it is hard to obtain financing; 81% indicated that customers were constrained by the loss of home equity; and 74% said their customers were uncertain about their future economic situation.

“The secret to this recovery,” both for remodeling and home building, is that significant gains in employment are needed “to give workers confidence they will keep their jobs,” Crowe said. Only recently have jobs steadily begun to gain some real ground.

In general, remodeling is currently outperforming construction, he said, because “it’s an alternative to moving.”

In healthier times, remodeling tends to derive much of its strength from home sales, with consumers having the tendency to fix up a home before they sell it or soon after they buy it.

Kermit Baker, a senior research fellow at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and the project director of its Remodeling Futures Program, said that even with its recent decline, the remodeling market is shaping up at $300 billion annually.

The Joint Center’s measurement of total annual remodeling activity is broader than some because it includes spending on rental units and maintenance and repair of owner-occupied properties.

Total volume dropped from a peak of $326 billion in 2007 to $286 billion in 2009, a substantial decline of $40 billion, but well below the 75% slump in housing starts.

As a result, improvement and repair expenditures as a share of total residential investment climbed to 70% in 2009 and remained at roughly the same level in 2010, he said, up dramatically from a low point of just below 40% in 2005 when home building was at its peak.

A Downward Blip in a Volatile Year

Remodeling has gone through “a serious downturn by historical standards, though paling compared to the housing recession,” he said.

The volume of remodeling grew by a few percentage points in 2010 and it is “beginning to climb back,” with prospects for average annual growth of 3% several years into the future.

Based on the Joint Center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, Baker suggested a downward blip for the nascent remodeling recovery in the second half of this year, “reflecting weakness in the broader housing market and home sales earlier this year and at the end of 2010” and a softening in sales at home improvement centers.

Following which, the industry should receive another boost of energy in 2012, he said.

In the meantime, there are “confused signals at present” and remodeling is “likely to have a volatile year, with a lot more variation than typically.”

As might be expected, Baker said, among the nation’s top 500 remodeling contractors, those specializing in exterior replacements of such items as windows and siding fared best during the downturn, with about a 5% dip in their median revenue in 2009.

Design/build contractors, who saw their business surge along with the housing market upturn of 2003-2007, posted a steeper median decline of 20%, and full-service firms — including kitchen and bath specialists -— were in the middle, losing about 12% of their sales.

Jobs related to green building and aging in place have both held up fairly well during the downturn, Baker said, driven, respectively, by the public’s conviction that energy costs will stay high and the fact that seniors have been in their homes long enough to still have large amounts of equity even after recent home price declines.

Distressed Properties

Another source of work for remodelers — sprucing up distressed properties — represents a growing opportunity in many areas of the country, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, where foreclosures have been rampant.

In a survey conducted by the Joint Center more than 12 months ago, over a third of the respondents said they had worked on projects involving distressed properties over the past year, he said.

A more recent survey conducted in February found this niche market holding steady.

Those remodelers engaged in this line reported that it accounted for just under 20% of their past year’s revenue, and Baker estimated that it is responsible for some 5% to 10% of remodeling revenue nationally, “a share that will grow as homes work their way through the foreclosure process.”

Tabulations of the Home Improvement Research Institute’s (HIRI) 2010 survey of recent home buyers found that buyers of distressed properties spend more on remodeling in the first year after their purchase, by an average of about 15%.

While distressed properties are an important growth segment for the industry, Baker cautioned that remodelers who aren’t already located in the markets seeing the bulk of this activity probably don’t want to move to them because they aren’t among the strongest and existing home owners “don’t have much equity in these areas and are nervous about home prices.”

Baker observed that today’s remodeling customers are more budget-conscious and opting for smaller projects than before the downturn largely because they have been using their own money rather than loans for financing.

This February, HIRI’s monthly Consumer Sentiment Tracking Study indicated that 72% of the home improvement market is being supported by the home owner’s cash and funds.

“Financing remains a major issue for the industry,” Baker said. “In addition to consumers’ uncertainty over house prices, lenders are cautious, and many home owners are paying down debt and less likely to take on new debt.”

Best and the Worst

Parts of the country where remodeling has been faring the best tend to be places with the most stable home prices, he said.

Among the 45 largest metro areas for which data was available, home prices fell an average of 5.5% on the CoreLogic House Price Index year-over-year for the 12 months ending in December 2010. However, in key markets in the Northeast, Texas and California, prices were beginning to recover during that period.

Among those metro areas on the mend were: Boston, where prices were up 6%; Houston, up 2%; Washington, D.C., up 1%; and New York and Riverside, Calif., where they were flat.

Worst on the map housing price-wise were: Detroit, down 11%; Phoenix and Orlando, down 10%; St. Louis and Miami, 9%; Jacksonville, Fla., Seattle and Portland, Ore., 8%; and Chicago and Baltimore, 7%.

Rising house prices are beneficial, Baker said, because they help reduce the percentage of houses that are underwater. Households that owe more on their property than it is worth have “difficulty moving to a different home or area of the country to take advantage of economic opportunity,” he explained.

In last year’s fourth quarter, 25% of mortgages were underwater nationwide, and in some cities that share was more than half — Las Vegas, 69%; Phoenix, 57%;  and Orlando, 56% — or close to it: Riverside, Calif., and Tampa, Fla., 49%; Miami, 48%; Jacksonville, Fla., 47%; and Sacramento, Calif., and Detroit, 43%.

“The nature of the recovery is somewhat unusual,” Baker said, “favoring the manufacturing sector, which is unusually strong, and disproportionately favoring the Northeast and Midwest, where job growth is stronger than expected.”

Some parts of the West are doing well, such as coastal San Francisco, where there wasn’t as much overbuilding as some other locations in California, he said.

And Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma are profiting from high energy costs.

“The states that didn’t have as much disruption in the housing market will be the first out, compounded with good underlying economies” Crowe said. “Texas and the farm belt and the energy belt are where we will see the best recovery” through next year.

For information on remodeling resources available from NAHB, click here.

For more information, email Kelly Mack at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8451.

Note- Building codes are usually adopted by the cities 2 to 3 years after they are issued.

The 2006 & 2009 IRC Codes Bring Changes

Many cities have already adopted the 2006 International residential code and the state of Texas has approved the use of the 2009 IRC. Both have changes that effect the planning and construction of new homes The International Code Council has published the books Significant
Changes to the International Residential Code 2006 & 2009 Editions which are available from their website. (www.iccsafe.org) This newsletter highlights some of the major changes to the code depicted in the books.

The 2006 IRC has changes that effect:
• Ramps
• 2nd Floor Windows
• Use of Green Board
• Framing Changes
• Outlets
• And More

The 2009 IRC has changes that effect:
• Attic Habitable Space
• Exterior Wall Fire Rating
• Fire Sprinklers
• Address Numbers
• Framing Changes
• Energy Usage
• And More

The Cities, subcontractors and suppliers are all working to understand and implement the Code changes. This newsletter only highlights some of the changes. We recommend talking to the Cities, questioning your subs and suppliers and reading the Code and other books.

To view the newsletter click here for the full PDF version.

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come
By ERIC A. TAUB

Correction Appended

When the Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis., was considering how to light its new factory last year, the company’s president, Michael Farrell, decided to try something new: light emitting diodes, or L.E.D.’s.

“I knew L.E.D.’s were used in stoplights. I wondered why they can’t be used in buildings,” Mr. Farrell said. “So I went on a mission.”


What Mr. Farrell found was a light source that many of the biggest bulb manufacturers are now convinced will supplant incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs.

By lighting all of the building’s exterior and most of its interior with L.E.D.’s, Sentry spent $12,000 more than the $6,000 needed to light the facility with a mixture of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. But using L.E.D.’s, the company is saving $7,000 a year in energy costs, will not need to change a bulb for 20 years and will recoup its additional investment in less than two years.

“I’d do it again,” Mr. Farrell said. “It was a no-brainer.”

L.E.D. bulbs, with their brighter light and longer life, have already replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation’s traffic lights. Indeed, the red, green and yellow signals are — aside from the tiny blinking red light on a DVD player, a cellphone or another electronic device — probably the most familiar application of the technology.

But it is showing up in more prominent spots. The ball that descends in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is illuminated with L.E.D.’s. And the managers of the Empire State Building are considering a proposal to light it with L.E.D. fixtures, which would allow them to remotely change the building’s colors to one of millions of variations.

The nation’s Big Three of lighting — General Electric, Osram Sylvania and Royal Philips Electronics — are embracing a new era of more efficient technologies, like halogen, compact fluorescent and solid-state devices. Encouraged by legislation and the rising cost of energy, as well as concerns about greenhouse gases, consumers are swapping out incandescent bulbs.

The switch is forcing a fast change in strategy, as companies reposition their manufacturing lines. General Electric, for instance, said earlier this month that it was spinning off its unit that makes bulbs. The bulb makers face a tough problem. Their businesses were built on customers who regularly replaced light bulbs. How do you make a profit when new lighting may commonly last 50 to 100 times as long as a standard bulb? Compact fluorescents, which use less than one-third the power and last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs, have replaced incandescent bulbs in many homes and offices.

In some types of commercial buildings, L.E.D.’s are rapidly replacing older products. The industry seems convinced that new lower-cost L.E.D. bulbs, with their improved efficiency, will eventually become the chief substitutes for incandescent bulbs in homes.

L.E.D.’s, including new bulb types and applications, dominated the exhibits at Lightfair, the lighting industry’s annual trade event held in May in Las Vegas. Traditional tungsten bulbs were largely absent.  L.E.D.’s were shown for street and parking lot lighting, under-counter lighting, residential bulb replacements and office lighting. They are being used in commercial refrigerators, as substitutes for
fluorescents and for illuminating the outside of buildings, allowing for easy color changes. Television production studios are installing L.E.D.’s to save money and eliminate the need for climbing in the rafters to change bulbs or filters.

The problem, though, is the price. A standard 60-watt incandescent usually costs less than $1. An equivalent compact fluorescent is about $2. But in Europe this September, Philips, the Dutch company dealing in consumer electronics, health care machines and lighting, is to introduce the Ledino, its first L.E.D. replacement for a standard incandescent. Priced at $107 a bulb, it is unlikely to have more than a few
takers.

“L.E.D. performance is there, but the price is not,” said Kevin Dowling, a Philips Lighting vice president and past chairman of the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance, an industry group that works with the Department of Energy. “Even at $10 to $15, consumers won’t buy L.E.D. bulbs,” Mr. Dowling said.

The L.E.D., a type of semiconductor, generates light when an electric current is passed through positive and negative materials. Energy is given off in the form of heat and light. Different colors and greater efficiency are created by altering the composition of the material. Typically, a compact fluorescent bulb uses about 20 percent of the energy needed for a standard bulb to create the same amount of light. Today’s L.E.D.’s use about 15 percent. Next-generation bulbs still in the labs do even better.

While compact fluorescents are beginning to replace standard light bulbs in many homes, lighting executives see those as an interim technology. They say the large size of the bulbs, the inability to dim many of them, the unpleasant color of the light and the five milligrams of mercury in each bulb will limit their appeal.

Philips is working to decrease the penetration of compact fluorescent bulbs. “We are not spending one dollar on research and development for compact fluorescents,” said Kaj den Daas, chairman and chief executive of Philips Lighting. Instead, the bulk of its R.& D. budget, which is 5.2 percent of the company’s global lighting revenue, is for L.E.D. research. Philips is betting the store on the L.E.D. bulbs, which it expects to represent 20 percent of its professional lighting revenue in two years.

Not everyone is sanguine about the technology’s future.

“L.E.D.’s will gain dominance in downlighting, outdoor and track lighting,” said Mark Rea, director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “I do not see a major step toward change in general illumination without transforming the infrastructure. To say L.E.D.’s will change everything, I don’t buy it. I think a lot of it is hype.”

Mr. Rea noted that work in the lab on compact fluorescents is creating versions that have improved color, start instantaneously and operate in cold temperatures.

Paul Gregory, the president of Focus Lighting, a New York-based lighting design firm, sees possibilities with L.E.D.’s that other technologies do not offer. He used L.E.D.’s to light the exterior of the Marcus Center in Milwaukee, recreating the look of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, with continually changing colors. “The Marcus Center lighting will require no maintenance for 15 years,” Mr. Gregory said. “That’s a dream for a lighting designer.”

But he does not expect standard bulbs to disappear totally. Just as the invention of the light bulb did not completely kill the candle and kerosene lamp markets, Mr. Gregory said, “there will always be a need for incandescent bulbs. They will never totally go away.”

“The way an incandescent bulb plays on the face on a Broadway makeup mirror,” he said, “you can never duplicate that.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 1, 2008
Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about advances in light-emitting diodes paraphrased incorrectly from a comment by Mark Rea, director of the lighting research center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, on the future of L.E.D.’s. Mr. Rea said he expected L.E.D.’s to take a dominant position in downlighting, outdoor and track lighting, though not in general illumination. He did not say he expected “limited success” for L.E.D.’s.

Enough with the doom and gloom about home ownership.

Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer make economic sense,” it’s time to say: Enough is enough. This is what “capitulation” looks like. Everyone has given up.

The Sept. 6 cover of Time magazine: This is what capitulation looks like. 

After all, at the peak of the bubble five years ago, Time had a different take. “Home Sweet Home,” declared its cover then, as it celebrated the boom and asked: “Will your house make you rich?”

But it’s not enough just to be contrarian. So here are 10 reasons why it’s good to buy a home.

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired. We’re four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history. And prices have come down a long way– about 30% from their peak, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index, which tracks home prices in 20 big cities. Yes, it’s mixed. New York is only down 20%. Arizona has halved. Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You’ll never catch the bottom. It doesn’t really matter so much in the long haul.

Where is fair value? Fund manager Jeremy Grantham at GMO, who predicted the bust with remarkable accuracy, said two years ago that home prices needed to fall another 17% to reach fair value in relation to household incomes. Case-Shiller since then: Down 18%.

Brett Arends discusses why he thinks now is a particularly good time to buy a home.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30-year loan for around 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly repayment by a fifth. If inflation picks up, you won’t see these mortgage rates again in your lifetime. And if we get deflation, and rates fall further, you can refi.

3. You’ll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains–if any–when you sell. Sure, you’ll need to do your math. You’ll only get the income tax break if you itemize your deductions, and many people may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The breaks are more valuable the more you earn, and the bigger your mortgage. But many people will find that these tax breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, than renting.

The June 13, 2005 cover of Time. 

4. It’ll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension–zoning permitted–or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible. You’ll feel better about your own place if you own it than if you rent. Many years ago, when I was working for a political campaign in England, I toured a working-class northern town. Mrs. Thatcher had just begun selling off public housing to the tenants. “You can tell the ones that have been bought,” said my local guide. “They’ve painted the front door. It’s the first thing people do when they buy.” It was a small sign that said something big.

5. You’ll get a better home. In many parts of the country it can be really hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos. Money talks. Once again, this is a case by case issue: In Miami right now there are so many vacant luxury condos that owners will rent them out for a fraction of the cost of owning. But few places are so favored. Generally speaking, if you want the best home in the best neighborhood, you’re better off buying.

6. It offers some inflation protection. No, it’s not perfect. But studies by Professor Karl “Chip” Case (of Case-Shiller), and others, suggest that over the long-term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. That’s valuable inflation insurance, especially if you’re young and raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years. In the recent past, inflation-protected government bonds, or TIPS, offered an easier form of inflation insurance. But yields there have plummeted of late. That also makes homeownership look a little better by contrast.

View Full Image

Associated PressA house for sale in Shelby, Ohio.

7. It’s risk capital. No, your home isn’t the stock market and you shouldn’t view it as the way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up again, too. One lesson from the last few years is that stocks are incredibly hard for most normal people to own in large quantities–for practical as well as psychological reasons. Equity in a home is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long-term growth of the economy–if it happens–and still managing to sleep at night.

8. It’s forced savings. If you can rent an apartment for $2,000 month instead of buying one for $2,400 a month, renting may make sense. But will you save that $400 for your future? A lot of people won’t. Most, I dare say. Once again, you have to do your math, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment isn’t a cost. You’re just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, it’s a good discipline.

9. There is a lot to choose from. There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National Association of Realtors puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes. That’s below last year’s peak, but well above typical levels, and enough for about a year’s worth of sales. More keeping coming onto the market, too, as the banks slowly unload their inventory of unsold properties. That means great choice, as well as great prices.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes. Meanwhile, this housing glut will work itself out. Many of the homes will be bought. But many more will simply be destroyed–either deliberately, or by inaction. This is already happening. Even two years ago, when I toured the housing slump in western Florida, I saw bankrupt condo developments that were fast becoming derelict. And, finally, a lot of the “glut” simply won’t matter: It’s concentrated in a few areas, like Florida and Nevada. Unless you live there, the glut won’t have any long-term impact on housing supply in your town.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

Zoning Changes and You

On some quiet day you may drive by a piece of property next door or near to you and see a red and white sign that says !!Zoning Change Proposed!!.  Or, you will get a letter that starts “Dear Property Owner….A public hearing will be…..”.  Your first thought will be “OH NO!” Sit down, take a breath and read this article.  It explains the process and what you can do.

Notification:

The City of Garland by law has to notify all property owners with-in 200 feet of the property being rezoned.  The City of Garland doubles that and notifies people with-in 400 feet of the property by mail.  They also advertise it in the newspaper and then post the Plan Commission Agenda at City Hall and on the city’s web site the Friday before the meeting.  A sign is placed on the property for most types of zoning cases, but not for plating and some variances.  Notices are sent to designated Neighborhood and Home Owner Association representative.  Find out who gets them in your neighborhood.  At the same time the agendas are posted a new cases memo is posted which gives you the opportunity to see what cases will heard at the subsequent meeting. (Usually 2 weeks later)  One note; if you are a renter you will not be notified, your landlord will be the one receiving the letter.  Also, if your tax bills go to a different address you may not find out about the hearings on time.

The letters are sent out 10 days prior to the public hearing and are written according to the law.  There is usually a one or two sentence description of what is being proposed and a map on the back.  About half way down the page is the most important information, the name and phone number of the City Planner that is working on the application.  The letter is brief so the you can quickly decide whether you want more detailed information.

Another important feature of the letter is the reply form.  It is just one of the ways your opinion and comments can be voiced.  All replies are given to the Commission and Council for their review and many times are the basis for questions to the applicant or other speakers  The applicant is under no obligation to contact the neighbors or meet with them.  On larger projects or those that may effect the neighbors many applicants will contact the neighbors or the Home Owners’ Association.  Do not count on someone coming to you, read your mail and stay informed.

Get Information:

The best way to find out what is proposed is to contact the City Planner mentioned in the letter or call the phone number on the sign. (972-205-2445)  They can explain what is being proposed.  It may not be a zoning change, it could be a variance, a plat, a renewal of a Special Use Permit or a combination of Zoning related items.  All of these terms can be confusing but the Planner can explain them. ( I hope to write future articles that go into more detail on these and other zoning items.)

If, after talking to the planner, you feel you need more information you can visit the Garland Planning Department and review the submittal drawing and papers.  Often the proposals or plats are innocuous and will not effect you.  Another source of information may be your HOA.  The president or delegated person may be able to tell you what is happening.  The City of Garland Planning Department is researching the possibility to put information about the applications on the City of Garland’s website.  A good way to learn more about the zoning process is to watch the Plan Commission and Council meetings on Garland’s public access station.  The meetings are televised live and rerun many times. Another great source is the Planning Department’s web site. www.garlandplanning.org.  From there you can access the zoning ordinances, agendas, development guide, schedules, forms and other information regarding the process and current activities.

Garland’s Public Hearing Process:

Most Zoning cases involve two public hearings. Plats and replats involve technical issues and are heard only by the Plan Commission.  At those hearings the Commission does not review the zoning, site layout or other issues.  They can only review the technical aspects of the plat.  Other zoning issues have the two meetings.

The first hearing is at the Plan Commission Meeting.  The Commissioners receive a full and comprehensive staff report along with applicable drawings for each case four days before the meeting.  Each Commissioner then has time to review each case, visit the site if necessary and ask staff for additional information.  Just before the meeting the City Planners will review each case and answer any questions the Commissioners may have.  This Pre-Meeting is open to the public but no public input is allowed.

At the meeting the applicant will present his or her case and explain what they propose.  Those in favor or opposition are also given time to present their issues to the Plan Commission.  This is a very important stage of the process.  The Commissioners DO listen and ask questions.  A logical, coherent presentation by either side can sway the thinking and vote of the Commissioners.

Other than plats, variances and development standards the Plan Commission is NOT the final decision maker.  If a variance is denied by the Commission that applicant can appeal to the Council.  The Commission in all other cases only makes recommendations to the City Council.  It is the Commissions job to review and vet all issues in each case.  The Council often will rely on the Commission’s deliberations but they are not bound by the Commission’s vote.

The second public hearing is with the City Council.  This hearing is usually about one month after the Plan Commission hearing and the same people surrounding the site are notified again.  The City Council will receive the same information as the Plan Commission plus the minutes of the Commission’s meeting and any additional/updated information gathered between the two meetings.  They will also review the information and go through much the same process as the Plan Commission.  Again, the public hearing process is very important and can be the determining factor in the outcome of a case.

At the Hearings:

People often come to the hearings only to find out more about what is happening and the issues involved.  Others come to voice support or concerns. Some tips for those coming to speak:  Be prepared!   You may have as little as three minutes to get your points across.  Write down a couple of the key items you want to cover and try not to repeat previous points made by other speakers.  Try to present facts more than emotion.

Also be prepared to elaborate your points as individual Commissioners and Councilpersons may ask questions to learn more about your position.  Don’t be nervous, they appreciate your participation and respect you and your opinions.  (Although nervousness is why I suggest writing down your key points.)  You and others may want to get together and select a spokesman for the group.  The chairperson often will allow more time to a spokesman.  I would be remiss if I did not remind you to fill out a yellow card and turn it in so you can be recognized.

Conclusion:

Zoning and property rights are very complicated and emotional issues.  Change is often hard for we humans to accept and applicants typically have expended large sums of money to make it to the hearing process.  All sides have property rights and concerns about property they own.  Through being informed about the application and good communication between the Applicant, City Planners, Neighbors, Plan Commission and City Council most cases will end benefiting the City and be acceptable to all parties.  The Plan Commission and City Council often have tough choices to make for the City and neighborhoods.  They take seriously their oath to make decisions for the betterment of Garland.  Your help and participation is your right and some say obligation.

Scott Roberts

Scott Roberts is a Registered Architect and Chairman of the Garland Plan Commissioner.  If you have any questions, comments or topics for future articles concerning Planning and Zoning e-mail him at scottr@creative-architect.com

Great! Your client has decided to build a new home. That is a wise decision because of the new technologies and innovative design ideas of today. A new home has many advantages including:

· Designs that help the family interact with the open kitchen, family room & nook concept.
· Brighter homes with more & better placed windows to let in natural light.
· Energy efficient heating and air conditioning units.
· Better insulating methods and materials.
· Lower maintenance construction.
· And many other reasons.

But you already told your buyer that. Now your client gets to meet the first team member, your Architect. With the proper information your Architect can be a valuable member by helping the direction of the design to fit the budget and expectations of your client.

Now, how do you and your client work with your Architect in the process of designing the new home? A good Architect is not only a talented designer with knowledge of market trends, construction techniques and costs, he or she needs to be a detective.

The first meeting or conversation should be with the builder so the Architect understands the limits of the budget, level of finish, lot information or other information that will help the Architect create a successful design. The last thing a builder and client need is a design that is too expensive. This will only lead to disappointment and possibly a lost sale.

The Architect’s first step in dealing with the client is to find out what the home buyer wants and needs in their new home. This process involves a personal meeting and/or a written survey. I like the personal interview because an answer to one question may lead to another question that might not be asked otherwise. I can also gauge if there is excitement, hesitation or confusion about the topic of discussion. This conversation goes back and forth with the Architect asking questions, offering ideas, explaining options, sometimes playing devil’s advocate and even getting couples to communicate to each other about the new home.

To make the interview process more productive the client should think about the basic design items they want and be thinking of their life style. With this information the Architect can probe further and help them think of things they never thought of before. Remember, it is just as important to know what the clients do not like as what they do like. Some of the basic questions and information the Architect needs follows:

· Survey of your lot.
· Family profile – # of children & ages.
· Approximate budget (from builder )
· Approximate size of the new home (from builder )
· One or two story?
· Number of bedrooms?
· Number of living areas?
· Special rooms?
· Life style – entertain or private?
· Work out of the home?
· Space for guests or live-in parents?
· What do you like and dislike about your current home?
· Style of exterior design.
· And other questions that may be on the Architect’s survey.

With these needs, wants or pieces to the puzzle, as it were, your Architect can add imagination and innovation to design their dream home. The Architect can also make suggestions and avoid certain design elements to reach the budget. He can also inform the client when they are adding costs but should refrain from quoting how much more or less. (That is the builders responsibility

since the Architect can not know each builder’s costs.) This also keeps the communication flowing between all three parties. The Architect should also relate to the builder any important information he gathered during the client meeting.
To get a successful design, the trick is to communicate, communicate, communicate. You and your client will find the results very rewarding.

Scott Roberts is the principal of Creative Architects & Planners, a Garland firm involved with residential design and planning. Scott Roberts has 35 years of experience in residential and commercial architecture and can be contacted at (972) 530-4872 or scottr@cr-ar.com