Posted on 06/06/2005 10:53:36 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
The sales pitch for a planned subdivision promises safety: criminal background checks for homeowners and, guaranteed, no convicted sex offenders.
It's a concept that might prove right for the times, said first-time developer Clayton Isom, one of three partners in a company that's creating Milwaukee Ridge on the outskirts of Lubbock.
The high-profile deaths of two Florida girls allegedly killed by registered sex offenders inspired the idea, Isom said.
"It makes me sick at my stomach every time I hear one of these stories about these innocent girls," said Isom, a graduate student in business administration at Texas Tech. He said if the sex offender-free neighborhood catches on in Lubbock, it could spread to other communities.
Many areas are already looking for ways to cope with sex offenders.
In Miami Beach, Fla., the mayor hopes to broaden the buffer between where sex offenders are allowed to live and places children frequent, like parks and schools. The buffer would expand from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet. A Milwaukee suburb this year amended its zoning code to limit one sexual predator per household after Wisconsin officials announced plans to place up to four of them in a group home.
Isom and his two partners in I&S Investments, who are all in their early 20s, own 213 acres and plan to subdivide it for 665 houses. Relatives and other investors are backing the trio. The homes will range in price from $100,000 to $150,000.
The no-offender plan puts the initial responsibility on home builders, who will face financial repercussions if they even unknowingly sell to a convicted sex offender. Builders will run background checks on adults buying homes and juveniles expected to live in the homes.
There are 46,000 registered sex offenders in Texas. There have been no recent high-profile sex offender crimes reported in Lubbock, but there are 413 registered offenders in the city, ranking 16th in the state. Sex offenders, adults and juveniles, are required to register and are listed on the Texas Department of Public Safety Web site. Some exceptions apply to juvenile cases.
Residents of the subdivision also will face penalties if they allow a convicted sex offender to live in their homes. Homeowners will bear the responsibility for checking the backgrounds of potential buyers if they sell. Isom's company promises to buy a home back for 85 percent of the lesser of appraised or market value if builders sell to an offender or an owner or a resident is convicted of a sex offense.
A homeowner's association will be the eyes and ears for Isom's company.
The subdivision's ban appears to be legal, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sex offenders are not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act, HUD spokesman Jerry Brown said.
Katherine Stark, a board member of the National Fair Housing Alliance, said she's not surprised by the idea because people are scared of sex offenders. But, she said, the prohibition can't keep offenders from living near the subdivision.
"They're a block away," she said. "In some sense it could give someone a false sense of security. I don't see that that would be a big selling point to people."
Kristine Burk, an attorney with Criminal Defense Associates in Los Angeles, questions if the ban will prove effective because most sex offenders are relatives or acquaintances.
According to the most recent U.S. Department of Justice statistics available, from 2000, 34 percent of juveniles were victimized by family members. Acquaintances were responsible for 59 percent of sexual offenses against juveniles.
"If I'm a parent and I'm moving into this neighborhood, you've done nothing to protect my kids from the people most likely to victimize them," Burk said. "We pretend that there's this outside class of predator waiting to prey on our family. Most of the problem comes from within."
That was not the case in the slayings of Jessica Lunsford, 9, and Sarah Lunde, 13, in Florida. A registered sex offender living down the street from Lunsford was charged in March with her kidnapping, sexual assault and death. A former boyfriend of Lunde's mother was charged with abducting and killing her.
Isom doesn't deny that the idea of a sex offender-free development also is a marketing tool.
"You've got to think outside the box to differentiate yourself from the other developers who've been around for a lot of years," Isom said.
Tim Minnix, president and chief executive officer of Minnix Homes Inc. in Lubbock, will work with Isom's company to sell lots and build. About 100 lots in the project's first phase have been sold, Isom said, and a spec house was expected to be completed by summer's end.
"It's such a neat concept to go to that effort to try to provide a safe place for families to raise their children," Minnix said.
In Texas convicted sex offenders must register their addresses with authorities. If they are on parole, they cannot live within 500 feet of schools, parks and any place children gather. Probationers whose victims are children usually have distances set on a case-by-case basis, but usually it's 500 feet, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said. Those not on parole or probation have no proximity restrictions but are required to register.
Rula Maabra, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mother, said her family is weighing a move to Milwaukee Ridge because two registered sex offenders live within two blocks of their Lubbock home. She and her husband have children ages 6 and 8.
"You can't protect your kids 100 percent, but knowing that the street I'm living on and the one nearby doesn't have one, makes me feel much better," she said.
If people move there and let their kids roam free in an atmosphere of imagined safety, they're stupid.
I'll give 86% of what it's worth.
Yeah, only the ACLU will be concerned about this offending the offenders.
"Convicted sex offenders should have access...err...the right to live next door to prey...err...young children too!"
good point. but it's a start...
We have a case right here in Florida where a local town is raising the limits on how close a sex offender can live to a school or playground, and today I heard on the radio that the ACLU is crying foul.
Lately I've been wondering, if sex offenders are still considered dangerous after they get out of jail, why release them in the first place? The only thing surprising to me about this story is that other communities haven't tried what Lubbock is doing.
the ACLU will be all over this.
THANK YOU! Berosus has asked the question that makes legislatures and judges everwhere cringe. If more people asked that question the "problem" would be fixed likety-split. So I posted it again. Bueller? Bueller?
This sounds as if it won't fly. Descrimination against sex offenders?
Has the ACLU threatened any kind of action?
This is ridiculous. Once someone has served their time and probation, their rights should be restored.
If they are too dangerous for polite society, as are many sex offenders (especially pedophiles), the answer is not to let them out and then discriminate against them -- the answer is to jail them for life!
Will the cost of lawyers to fight off the ACLU keep this from being profitable?
...
Letter: 'A world of outcasts'
Singling out sex offenders is nothing more than unethical, and hypocritical segregation. How fast would the red flags go up if we decided to separate the Latino population from a certain area -- or whites, or blacks?
In my opinion, it is the same as the Amber Alert system -- no politician wants to be the one to vote against it. Voting against something that involves child safety would be political suicide.
We are preventing citizens who have paid their debt to society from leading normal lives. How long do they have to wear scarlet letters before this country realizes that we are rationalizing decisions based on a label and not on humanity, regardless of the odds of a repeat offender?
The Lottery odds are in the millions, but we still play. This new law suggests that keeping a citizen unjustly away from a school (where students are taught about equal rights) would make Binghamton a safer place. I am amazed that this is actually taking place. I guess we now live in a world of outcasts and conformists. Sad.
JUSTIN P. DEMAREE
BRACKNEY, PA
What a stupid marketing idea.
If you've already been convicted and served your stautory time in jail, you need to have another trial to be incarcerated further.
The problem is that the sentences available to prosecutors are too lenient.
Methinks that Justin protesteth too much.
Even in Texas, it's hard to believe that this will survive the ACLU and the activist judges. This disrespect of others' "lifestyles" can't be permitted. Expect to see "hate crime" charges against the developer before the first resident moves in.
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