In Houston, Texas, a developer wants to put in an assisted living facility for senior citizens. However, some other residents are resisting it, asking that the facility not be built close to their luxury condos. They are afraid that the new center may cause the property values to fall. They have a number of reasons for this train of thought, but one prominent reason is that ambulances may be called to the assisted living center, and people may not want to live on a street with many emergency vehicles.
In response, the citizens have gone to the Harris County Civil Court and put in a lawsuit to stop the project.
This is not the first dispute over a building project, but many past projects deal more with the scale of the new buildings, which may be taller than the condos and dwarf the older buildings. This situation is interesting in that it is not focusing on the size of the building, but more on the way that it will be used.
The condo residents want the government to step in and put an end to the project, and they want to be paid for damages to the property values. Those damages, as of recent reports, are over $1 million.
Despite being mid-rise and not high-rise buildings, the condos are luxury living spaces with large, expensive floor plans. These plans run from 2,500 to 3,000 overall square feet.
The value of a property is very important to anyone who owns it, as that property may be seen as an investment and anything that causes it to lose value is a direct loss of money. As such, it’s important to know your options in a residential property dispute.
Source: Houston Chronicle, “Lawsuit by luxury condo owners targets senior living facility developer” Erin Mulvaney, Mar. 18, 2015
