Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 23:56:06 -0500
From: Lyle Estill
Subject: Chatham Park Movie
Tom,
When I saw your post I went ahead and re-watched the Chatham Park Movie from a year ago. I would be interested to hear your take on it.
Here are some of my impressions:
Firstly, the bald eagle saddened me. Bald eagles need habitat to prosper. That includes clean water and a dark night sky. They don’t do well with big night sky glow and polluted water. I suppose they are effective in marketing, but it does not appear they are included in the current Chatham Park plan.
Secondly, to have Jordan Lake included as “an amenity” to a developer’s plan strikes me as hubris.
Thirdly, the message from this year old movie is “everything is ready to go.” I suppose everything but zoning, annexation and a green light from our elected representatives. Everything is ready to go except the people whose lives will be impacted by this project.
I noted Catherine Deininger’s comments with interest. I am a fan of hers. It seems to me her thoughts were recorded before she saw the current plan. She was on camera back when Toll Brothers owned a big swath of Chatham Park, before they abandoned ship and failed to deliver the bond that was promised to Pittsboro. Back then Preston looked like a better partner.
That was before there were hundreds of citizens opposing the project.
In the movie they cite Pittsboro’s vibrant downtown. That doesn’t appear to be in the plan.
They say they love to “do things right.” What does that mean? Tell me it does not mean “downtown Cary.”
It strikes me that this development is chocked full of 1950’s thinking.
Rather than building a carbon negative community with an understanding of night skies, ecology, wilderness, water quality, downtown, community–that sort of thing–their movie seems to promote business as usual.
The trees they are using in their marketing piece are all marked for deletion.
Nowadays most communities are not developing on their watersheds. We used to do that. Before we figured out how much it cost to clean water without the help of nature.
I am extremely interested in your take on this subject. I don’t have a helicopter–just an iPhone–but here are some short movies on the topic…
http://lyleestill.com/chatham-park-investors/
Lyle Estill
President, Piedmont Biofuels
919-321-8260
www.biofuels.coop