[logic101.net]

No surprise. He wants to tell all of us what we can drive, eat, watch and think. Why shouldn't he tell his neighbors what kind of house they can live in?


MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/

[Brilliant]

This problem could be solved very easily if Mr. Koppel would simply give all his money to the homeless.

[trebb]

I heard that they found a person on the land that exhibited a little common sense. Since people with common sense are an endangered species, the Feds are taking it all over and making the owners of homes already there demolish them and return the land to its pristine condition. Ted was unavailable for comment - rumors have it that he is doing research to try to find out what common sense is and to try to prove that it doesn't exist. He will use himself as corroboration that common sense is indeed a fantasy.

[DWSUWF]

I've always believed that restrictive covenants generally do more harm than good...

And Koppel is just another stinking, hypocrite liberal attempting to impose his will on the untermenchen...

I hope his neighbors use whatever legal fictions are required to push that old bastard into an apoplectic fit, right there in his 16 acre back yard, in the scenery-blocking shadow of a McMansion that makes the Disneyland Castle look like an outbuilding...

[jimt]

Sounds to me that Koppel, as much as I dislike him, paid for the privilege he's exercising.

He paid the original sellers of the land. "The arrangement, Murphy said, was cemented in covenants only after the Koppels agreed to significantly increase their purchase price."

The sellers then applied restrictive covenants to the deeds of other purchasers, who bought knowing full well their use of their property was restricted. It was a known condition of sale.

Now these folks want to renege on their deal?

Sorry, this time Koppel is right.

[IncPen]

I love the smell of Socialist class warfare in the morning.

Koppel seems to want to live in a snooty neighborhood, where he can feel safe as a limousine liberal-- just make sure it's not gauche , will you dear?

The limit dates to 1993, when the Koppels spotted the 44-acre cattle farm on a list of properties for sale by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency which was overseeing the government bailout of the savings and loan industry.

       Working under the corporate name Kodor Associates, the couple paid $2.7 million for 16 acres of the site overlooking the Potomac River. The Livingston Family Limited Partnership bought the rest, planning to put 14 houses there

Seems like Ted has something in common with that other sop feeding at the government trough (Sam Donaldson and his farm subsidies).

Ted bought 16 acres of prime real estate just outside DC for about $169,000 per acre. That's about what subdivision land is going for per 1/4 acre in some parts of suburban Chicago...

[beckett]

Koppel the Environmentalist:

My neighbors will live as I tell them to live!

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness....BAH!

[aristeides]

I searched for "Livingston Family Limited Partnership" on google.com, and there were no hits. (On google news, the one hit was this Washington Post article.)

[F.J. Mitchell]

Why must we import immigrants such as Koppel and Jenning to anchor shows designed to tell us what to think about world events, and making the decision as to just what we should be allowed to know about at all? Don't we still have a few Americans who can smile and read to us on TV? I'll bet we do.

Deport Koppel, and turn that land back into a pasture. Cows would make better neighbors and their manure never gets as ripe as what Koppel emits or as deep either.

[syriacus]

Ted should travel blind-folded whenever he goes home or leaves home.

Problem solved. :-)

[Pagey]

"We’re talking about a strata that is so different from the vast majority of the population"

Hey Ted, "You are not what you own".One of my leftist acquaintances said that to me once when I was younger.What the loser didn't know was that I still had both my parents, was disciplined as a child ( which has made all the difference in my life) and resented him implying that I was 'stuck-up' and 'full of myself'.So we fought,I won, and that friendship was over.I stood over him,telling him to stop being " a 'perpetual student' and go get a %$#@ing job,your own car,your own Apt.etc and His Socialist Mother (what a reaction by her when she came outside,I didn't know how loud I was speaking) didn't appreciate that at all.Still LOL! Ted, you're just like the rest of us,wake up each day,visit the bathroom, put on your shoes and go to work. Just because you're "building a massive riverfront estate on 16 acres of cattle pasture"( and seriously, good for you!) doesn't make you better than the rest of America.Too bad your boss ( and publicly no less ) almost cancelled your program a few months ago. I now know what's really wrong with you.You're just bitter because you'll never be as great or as big as the property you purchased! LOL!

[kcvl]

The neighbors have countersued, saying the Koppels have some nerve policing the size of other houses while they are building a Taj Mahal of their own. In interviews, the neighbors add that the Koppels have chosen a strange setting to wage war against ostentation.

What no one can contest is that 10 years ago, the Koppels obtained an unusual, contractual right to demand that their neighbors live within these size constraints.


The limit dates to 1993, when the Koppels spotted the 44-acre cattle farm on a list of properties for sale by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency which was overseeing the government bailout of the savings and loan industry.

Working under the corporate name Kodor Associates, the couple paid $2.7 million for 16 acres of the site overlooking the Potomac River.


Shirley Ballard Miller, who bought a lot near the Koppels in 1998, said her home was one of those cleared by the appellate court, but not before the Koppels’ attorneys crawled around her house with tape measures.

Murphy gasped at a photo of the 14,000-square-foot, $3.5 million neo-Italian villa, which boasts a master bedroom with a 16-foot barreled ceiling and a kitchen with a 14-foot-long, two-tiered food preparation island that seats eight.

“They didn’t want something like that on this particular piece of land,” Murphy said. “To them, it was just really important to know that the land was being protected and respected.”

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Oops. And, bump yours.

[Torie]

Reading the full article, the Koppels appear to be on solid legal ground, and are being smeared.