Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 01:18:01 -0400
From: Gene Galin
Subject: Chatham Park approved by Pittsboro Commissioners. 4-1
Chatham Park approved by Pittsboro Town Commissioners on Monday evening by a 4-1 vote.
Pittsboro Commissioners Pamela Baldwin, Michael Fiocco, Jay Farrell, Beth Turner voted to approve the Chatham Park development and Bett Wilson Foley voted against.
Links to stories –
http://www.newsobserver.com/
PITTSBORO – Developer Tim Smith leaned on the railing of the historic Pittsboro courthouse’s balcony Monday, watching the people – he counted 37 of them – who had come to protest Smith and his Preston Development Co.’s plans.
“Don’t give away our leverage tonight. Don’t give away our community,” a woman called on a bullhorn below. “Table the vote,” read a handwritten sign.
Half the crowd wore red shirts with the sarcastic phrase “PAVE CHATHAM.” They had assembled ahead of the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners’ final round of debate on the master plan for Chatham Park, urging the board to slow down on a community that could bring 60,000 people to Pittsboro over several decades.
“Slow down?” Smith, who co-owns Preston with Julian “Bubba” Rawl, asked aloud. “It’s been 13 months.”
http://abc11.com/news/chatham-
Commissioners considered ask the Cary-based Preston Development Company to make changes to the Chatham Park master plan. Those changes included everything from increasing buffers for streams and rivers to adjusting density allotments.
The developer wants to set aside more than 1,300 acres of open spaces out the overall 7,000 acre project.
People and town officials have been going back and forth for the last year on the Chatham Park plan. Chatham Park will be the state’s largest mixed-use planned development similar to Research Triangle Park.
The Pittsboro town board made history Monday night with four out of five of its town commissioners voting to approve the master plan and rezoning request for Preston Development Co.’s massive Chatham Park development project.
Commissioner Bett Wilson Foley was the lone dissenting vote. Both she and Mayor Bill Terry, who had no vote in the matter, had expressed concerns regarding the density and amount of open space dictated in the 7,120-acre plan, according to sources who were at the meeting.
But, the only minor change made to the plan Monday night was a note that private recreation areas would not count toward the total recreation area requirements for Chatham Park.
http://www.wral.com/Chatham-
Chatham Park will consist of 27 sections with five activity centers “that serve as convenient, accessible service and retail destinations for surrounding neighborhoods,” according to the development’s master plan.
The effort, according to the plan, would require significant investment from Pittsboro and Chatham County, including expanding water and sewer service, building new schools, improving roads and highways and expanding police and fire services.
Preston Development expects to break ground on an UNC Health Care medical office building within 60 days. Home construction may not happen for at least 18 months, the developer said.
http://www.wncn.com/story/
The 7,120-acre project is the vision of Preston Development Company, which along with billionaire investor Jim Goodnight, have spent close to a decade buying up the land in the area that will make up the region’s newest technology park.
“Chatham Park is more of a live, work, play model than has ever been done in the state,” explained Preston Development co-founder Bubba Raul.
Although the project is being developed outside the Pittsboro city limits, the town retains control of the site because it’s part of Pittsboro’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
That means is Pittsboro will still oversee things like zoning, planning and code enforcement.
“We will help the town out with their expenses on all the extra work we’re going to cause the town,” assured Tim Smith, co-founder of Preston Development.