Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2014 15:39:27 -0500
From: Pittsboro Matters
Subject: If we build it they will come…?
At first, we were told to expect around 25,000 new people coming to Chatham Park. By the time the Chatham Park Investors PDD Master Plan was received in May of last year, this number had become 55,000 (22,000 Dwelling Units at the North Carolina state average of 2.5 people per household).
Now, if you read the Land Use Summary Table in the proposed Chatham Park Master Plan, you will see there is potential for 27,970 Dwelling Units. Using the same average per household, that could result in 69,925 new people coming our way. That’s fifteen times (x15) Pittsboro’s current population.
Isn’t it important to know the real number? After all, our entire way of life – not to mention our public service costs and property taxes – will be directly (and proportionately) impacted by this.
“If we build it, they will come…” may be an appropriate approach to building a baseball park in the corn fields of Iowa, but it surely requires more than “a little faith” to build an entire new city in Chatham County. How was the number established in the first instance Where is the demand, what are the attractions, demographic migrations that would bring 60,000 – 70,000 people to live in Pittsboro?
Somewhere along the way, doesn’t there have to be a socio-economic feasibility study, an environmental assessment, traffic impact analysis, a business case evaluation based on more than purely land value speculation?
It has been intimated that the developers have had their own studies done. If so, and if they show a genuine case for the proposed Chatham Park, wouldn’t you think the developers would happily make them available?
Surely, at the very least, the town board and planning staff would have seen them? Shouldn’t we?
Don’t these impacts need to be well and truly understood BEFORE the town approves PDD rezoning?
Curious? Learn more at:
http://pittsboromatters.org/
and
http://pittsboromatters.org/