Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:15:39 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: Bill Crawford
Subject: Chatham Park
My name is Bill Crawford and I am running for Mayor of Pittsboro. I would like to address the subject of Chatham Park and the future of this town.
Chatham Park is a big deal for the region, and I am as concerned about it as many other residents of Pittsboro. Residents worry about what will happen to their property values and how it will affect our home as the small town concept that we all seem to hold dear. Business owners worry that they will be overrun by competition.
All these things have to be addressed. If they are addressed correctly and the Town of Pittsboro works as a close partner with Preston Development, I think this can be handled in all our best interests.
There is a group of people among us who are promoting a slowdown and a pushback on this project, and I understand the deep concerns that motivate this. Here is where I separate from this group: Pittsboro and it’s Extended Jurisdiction are not large enough to keep Chatham Park from taking the property it now owns and incorporating as it’s own entity, which would leave us with the same large neighbor with very few of the benefits.
The potential benefits are manifold. There will be more jobs in Chatham County, making it a little bit less the bedroom community it is now. There will be local specialty shopping that you would not find in a population center as small as we are. The tax revenue that a partner community like that would bring in would go a long way in helping solve some of our long term water, wastewater and infrastructure issues and bring some tax relief to the present population by making the tax base larger and more business oriented.
I am convinced that all this can be done without changing the present character of the Town of Pittsboro that I enjoy. This will require a constant and close monitoring of the new development. I also think they have been trying to
cooperate with us and our needs.
Signing off on the zoning issue in front of the Town Board now is hardly the last vestige of control we have over this process. This is a thirty year project, projecting an annual rate of growth that was probably exceeded by what Chatham County and Pittsboro already went through from 2000-2010. I see no reason why this can’t be managed to our satisfaction.
-Bill Crawford
Hello: TO Mr. Crawford, I am a resident of Powell Place Community. I respectfully request that election signs not be place in our community. We are regulated with an association codes of guidelines that prevents advertising signs including polical signs, as they disrupt the landscaping we pay to have pristine. The Crawford signs will continue to be removed, as they go up, by concerned residents. The signs are causing us NOT to vote for Crawford, due to this continual aggrevation. Thanks. CY