Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2013 08:53:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Jane Forbes
Subject: re: Chatham development
Thank you Brad Page and Maryphyllis!
Your comments are so on POINT!
Once upon a time, both Cary and Apex were small attractive towns. But no one supervised or limited the growth. Now look – not attractive, not small, and not where I want to live. Supervised and limited growth? Not going to happen. Developers do not know the concept- it is built as much as we can on all the land we can.
True Story:
Franklin, Tennessee. Late 1970’s, beautiful, small town. Many thriving business up and down main street- 3 grocery stores, department stores, shoe stores, drug stores, a couple of small town restaurants similar to Verly’s, Courthouse, churches, a dime store (yes), 3 banks, 2 hardware stores, and a few offices. One could obtain everything needed within a 2-3 block area. A half-mile out of town were beautiful farms with crops, rolling meadows, a large horse farm where Midnight Sun had been reared, trained and continued to produce offspring. Wonderful place for families and children. In fact children could walk up and down main street and the merchants watched out for them.
Then between town and the Interstate came WALMART. The downtown area began to close. Then a few more “big box” stores along that area and more downtown closed and went out of business. Finally the entire road between town and the Interstate was covered with mini-malls, fast food joints, stop lights every block, and is now just disgusting. And developers bought every square inch of land and put houses on it. Mass development. The farms and pastures no longer exist. Just houses on postage stamp lots. And even several miles out of town, massive developments with self contained shopping, have been built.
Could this have been prevented. YES! But it would have taken government and people with the fortitude to stand up and say NO. And, of course, there were those who profited greatly and became very wealthy by selling their land, much of which had been in families for generations. One of the most beautiful farms in the county is now covered with concrete, asphalt, and the Cool Springs Mall.
Can we preserve the wonderful, beautiful area we live in? Do we have the fortitude to say NO to developers? We are the gate keepers.
Let us remember- THE STRONGEST FORCE IS PUBLIC OPINION!
Jane