Could this be a record
About 145 years ago three tiny little towns came into being almost on top of each other with each hoping to be named the county seat. This failed miserably on the first attempt. When a second chance arose they agreed to form a fourth tiny town in the small area separating them and then get the citizens of all four areas to vote to name that as the county seat. It was a great idea but it didn’t work because the citizens still voted for whichever tiny town they lived in. Still, the area grew and the four tiny towns finally merged under a new name that had nothing to do with the first four names.
Counting those four tiny towns, there are now 168 additions/subdivisions forming the city today. But, the land area of the city is listed as only 7.15 square miles with a population of 9100 people. That averages out to 54 people and another 1/6 person per addition/subdivision with an average size of 27-1/4 acres. Thus, a population density of 2 people per acre.
Could that be a record for the most subdivisions/additions for such a small city?
As you can imagine, surveying there is an art. Most of the plats are well over 100 years old. Many were created long before the thought of utility systems of any kind, not to mention modern vehicles. Lots come in every size you can imagine, in blocks of equal uniqueness, with street and alley widths of great variation. A few plats have streets with kinks that are required to match the existing street in an adjoining plat because the owner/developer didn’t happen to like the lot/block sizes of that adjoiner. There are quite a number of intersections that require a small jog to continue in a somewhat straight line. One plat is so narrow that it is two lots wide (115′ total) by three blocks deep. Another plat consists of only five or six lots that are about 50′ by 140′. To add to the fun, there are several spots inside the city limits that are metes and bounds tracts (generally the size of one typical residential lot) that predate the surrounding platted subdivisions.
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I couldn’t help myself. Had to mention the idea of 1/6 person. Any fans of The Andy Griffith Show will recall Andy explaining ratios to Opie. Opie tries to wrap his mind around “a half a boy”.
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