Brick on the Brain

 

Columbia, Ill., has plenty room to grow, but some feel the new brick ordinance discourages growth.

The city council of Columbia, Ill., a southern suburb of St. Louis, population 8,700, really likes brick. On Jan. 3, the council voted 7-2 to approve an ordinance for new subdivisions that requires half of the homes to have at least three brick sides; 30 percent must have at least a brick front; and 20 percent of the new homes can be brickless. The ordinance, which is effective immediately, applies to new subdivisions only and not to new homes in existing subdivisions. The city already requires multifamily residences to be 100 percent brick.

Jerry Rombach, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Greater Southwest Illinois, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the ordinance is a signal that Columbia doesn’t want to grow and isn?EUR??,,????'???t listening to a vast majority of its residents. Mayor Kevin Hutchinson voted against the ordinance.