These Ain’t No Disney Streets: Northern Hills Awful Close to Becoming Conservation District

Speaking of the City Plan Commission …

By all accounts, the 3-year-long battle over designating Northern Hills a conservation district’s about to come to an end. (Whassup, Disney streets?) Sources say that 80 percent of the residents in the 61-house neighborhood nestled between Highland Park and the Knox-Henderson shopping district have managed to come to an agreement that will allow for the creation of a conservation district, which would, well, “conserve the typical characteristics of the neighborhood.” It’s the final item on the City Plan Commission’s agenda today, with staff’s recommendation to approve the move and the attendant conceptual plan.

Its appearance on the agenda comes almost three years after the first community meeting, which the city facilitated back in November 2006. In the end, there were 17 community and neighborhood meetings, with the most recent just one month ago. Per the 42-page package-cum-history lesson prepped for today’s meeting, at each of these gatherings, the “discussion centered on regulations that could be implemented to conserve the neighborhood’s sense of place. … During these meetings, the residents provided good feedback, and understood what made their neighborhood unique.”

Over the years, plenty of other folks have gotten involved as well; as Josh Hixson pointed out in 2007, several studies were conducted to allay residents’ fears that designating the ‘hood a conservation district would adversely affect home prices. Course, this doesn’t mean this is a done deal; commissioners have heard there are still residents opposed to the formation of a CD, and they’re on their way down to City Hall. But all signs point to “Yes.” We’ll update post-meeting.

Update: The Northern Hills Conservation District passed the City Plan Commission. Next stop: city council.