Chutzpah

From the PD: Home brick laws could hit stone wall

The controversy over requiring brick on new homes is spreading locally and has entered the civil rights arena nationally.

City leaders in Columbia, Ill., heaved insults at St. Charles County two years ago, saying they didn't want their town to become a "sea of vinyl" like some places in the fast-growing Missouri county.

So the Columbia City Council found a powerful weapon in an ordinance requiring all homes in new subdivisions to have brick or stone facades. It was approved early last year.

Now, Millstadt, another Metro East community, is considering a similar ordinance.

The idea is not new. Ellisville in west St. Louis County has had an ordinance requiring the use of masonry — quietly, with little controversy — for decades.

Home builders and the vinyl industry are not taking this sitting down. In fact, a possible precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit is moving through a federal court in Texas.

That's right. It's a civil rights question.

The National Association of Home Builders, the NAACP and the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin are suing Kyle, Texas, an Austin suburb, over a similar brick ordinance that they say prices minorities out of the single-family housing market.

"I'm paying close attention to the Texas case," said Jerry Rombach, executive director of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Southwest Illinois.

The Texas case is set for trial in January. If the outcome favors the Home Builders Association, Rombach said he will not rule out pursuing similar litigation against Columbia or Millstadt — should Millstadt adopt a law mandating masonry construction.

"Such mandates add thousands to the price of a new home," Rombach said. "It has a negative impact on minorities and female heads of households — and their ability to purchase the same house as a nonminority."

Yeah. Because, God knows minorities can afford to build a $250,000 new single family home, but there is no way they could afford to build a $260,000 home! That's discrimination.

Of course it is worse then these champions of civil rights know! Why, right down the street here there is an entire community that proudly claims they have homes starting from the $300,000! Racists!!!!!!!!

Anybody got Jesse Jackson on their speed dial?