Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2014 22:18:26 -0500
From: Gretchen Niver
Subject: N & O Chatham Park story
The article on Chatham Park in the N & O today was very informative, though I’m sure i could have found out all that same info if I’d done research on my own, with all the controversy about it thats’ been going on.
The point that struck me, which I’m having difficulty processing, is whether or not one person’s dream community should get the go-ahead or not. Yes, a person can buy property and conceive a grand design, and should be able to make it happen in our America. Chatham Park sounds like it has all the right ‘Green’ ideas, etc., and perhaps the developers really believe that. However, you see from the N & O story that Tim Smith is in the business of developing property. That’s how he makes his living. He may have grand ideas about how it’s done, his ‘art’, perhaps, but it is his business. His acres of undeveloped trees and land is his prime opportunity for making money.. He may try to make it pretty, and environmentally functional, etc., but it’s just a money-making grand project to him.
To the people of Chatham County it’s a change of life. Sure, things change and progress, but shouldn’t we all have a say in that? This plan will change everything that Chatham residents revere. It’ll be another Cary Subdiivision City, despite all the proposed ‘green’ aspects. What do you think will happen to downtown Pittsboro once there’s the by-pass and other shopping centers?
Why should Chatham County have to buy into Tim Smith’s grand design? Yes, growth will happen here, but such an overwhelming monstrosity will surely overtake the existing community. Have we no say? Perhaps the piecemeal development threatened by Smith, if his plans don’t get approved aren’t ideal, but they still provide a more gradual growth to a well-honed community, trying to choose their future.
Gretchen Niver
2010 growth projection approved by the NC Commerce Dept. and NC legislature:
Between 2013-2020 another 500,000 “carptebaggers” are expected from out-of-state to move into the Piedmont, the result of developers continuing efforts to promote nationwide “move to NC” and of their successful lobbying of the NC General Assembly.
Also note that the forecast for the region is a 30% potable water and a 50% food shortage by 2020, the direct result of unrestricted urban growth and developers’ lobbying of and infiltration into municipal governments and the NCGA.
Lastly, since 2000 NC has lost an average of 700 farms annually. And the rightful former owners have routinely been denied Constitutionally- guaranteed “due process” and “just compensation”. And many bankrupted as a result! The familiies of hundreds resided on their farms since the 1600s and 1700s!
All so that you may move here from elsewhere!