My thoughts by Jim VanErmen - Town or Country, City or Rural

Town or Country?

A city/municipality provides a resident FIVE differences over country living. These are either pluses or minuses depending on your viewpoint and desires.

1. The first responsibility of a city is ZONING. What goes where. Areas will be zoned for residential, multifamily, business, commercial, industry, and possibly trailers etc. In the country, outside the city police jurisdiction there is no zoning unless land is sold with deed restrictions. I once went on a listing to an older house in the country which should have sold for about 140,000 with the 5 acres of land. I inquired of the owners about the adjacent property with the trailer and what appeared to be car planters in the front yard. You know those old rusted frames of use to be cars now providing a visual chemistry lesson on advanced stages of oxidation. They informed me when they bought their house and acreage none of this was there. Needless to say they were unable to sell without taking a rather large loss. ZONING in the city does not always prevent this but it does provide a basis for planning and inquiring of future development.

2. Sewage is the next function of a city. If too many people live close together, something has to be done with human waste. In the country this is accomplished by your own sewage treatment plant, a septic tank. In the city you pay for sewage treatment usually with your water bill and your home is attached to a sewer line. If you have a sewage treatment plan in a subdivision in the country make sure you know who pays and owns the treatment plant or cesspool and who pays for repairs when they are required.

3. Police protection is provided by the city police department while in the county police protection is provided by a sheriff department. The sheriff is the county law enforcement authority. A higher density of population along with businesses etc. require a higher level of law enforcement and the city will usually have more police in a smaller area when compared to a much larger county area with a usually smaller sheriff staff.

4. Fire protection. When your house is on fire who do you call to help put out the fire. In the city there is usually a professional, dedicated fire department as compared to a volunteer fire department in the country. Next where does the fireman go to obtain water. In the city there is a water system designed to support fire services. Proximity to a fire hydrant in the city is usually a given but may also be available in the country. The insurance companies would have you within 5 driving miles of a servicing fire department and within a 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant (and not the small one which you sometimes see in the country). In order to determine the cost of your home insurance, category codes raging from 1 to 10 are give to your location. This grading of your location is done by the insurance industry and is the same for all insurance companies. Most companies use this rating system with the only exception I know being USAA. In Montgomery city the code is 2 in Prattville the code is 4 and in Millbrook and Wetumpka the code is 5. If you are not within 5 miles of one of these fire departments then you become candidate for a category 9 unless there is no volunteer fire department within 5 miles, which would make you a possible category 10. Going from a 2 to a 10 and a brick house to a frame house can double the cost of your home insurance. Consider if you live in the country and want to hold down the premium cost, accepting a higher deductible, possibly going from $250 to $1,000 or even $2,000. In the county it pays to consider the higher deductible which usually pays itself off in less than 4-5 years providing you do not have a claim before that time.