DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Highway 61 correspondence and documents, 1968-1974 | 1968-03-03 Fort Madison Human Rights Commission to the Iowa State Highway Commission Page 3

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Highway 61 correspondence and documents, 1968-1974

1968-03-03 Fort Madison Human Rights Commission to the Iowa State Highway Commission Page 3

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the people in this particular area, pay the bill for a project which will not benefit them. These people consider their life, home, and family as important as do those people who reside in Blackhawk Heights or River Hills.
The residents of the affected area must be offered just compensation for their homes, that is, not what they were worth 5 or 10 years ago, or what the City Assessor suggests unless he makes a house to house check, on the money and labor which these individual residents have invested in their homes.
Since Fort Madison has no low-cost residential properties and it is the general practice on the part of persons, firms, and/or corporations to discriminate, the only way to solve the problem if the new concept is to become fact is for it to be an established fact that adequate and satisfactory, as well as, not being formidable in price; housing units and buildings in already existing residential areas are available for these people, when the time comes.
It must be kept in mind, that in order to satisfy the people directly affected by the re-routing of Highway 61, the new or other residential properties must coincide with the average of what residents in this area will be compensated for their property. It would be of little, if any, help to these people to be given on average of $12,000.00 and the only available residential properties are in the neighborhood of $24,000.00.
With zoning laws as they are, we would like to know what will become of existing businesses, such as one located on S.F.C.' Lot A at 3032 Avenue P? This is jut one example, but we have others.
There are many people in this area who are too old to start buying new or other homes, again. There are many residents in this area who will be very definitely against having to move, while there are others who will be glad to move, that is, providing adequate residences are available

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-3- the people in this particular area, pay the bill for a project which will not benefit them. These people consider their life, home, and family as important as do those people who reside in Blackhawk Heights or River Hills. The residents of the affected area must be offered just compensation for their homes, that is, not what they were worth 5 or 10 years ago, or what the City Assessor suggests unless he makes a house to house check, on the money and labor which these individual residents have invested in their homes. Since Fort Madison has no low-cost residential properties and it is the general practice on the part of persons, firms, and/or corporations to discriminate, the only way to solve the problem if the new concept is to become fact is for it to be an established fact that adequate and satisfactory, as well as, not being formidable in price; housing units and buildings in already existing residential areas are available for these people, when the time comes. It must be kept in mind, that in order to satisfy the people directly affected by the re-routing of Highway 61, the new or other residential properties must coincide with the average of what residents in this area will be compensated for their property. It would be of little, if any, help to these people to be given on average of $12,000.00 and the only available residential properties are in the neighborhood of $24,000.00. With zoning laws as they are, we would like to know what will become of existing businesses, such as one located on S.F.C.' Lot A at 3032 Avenue P? This is jut one example, but we have others. There are many people in this area who are too old to start buying new or other homes, again. There are many residents in this area who will be very definitely against having to move, while there are others who will be glad to move, that is, providing adequate residences are available