Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2014 15:52:30 -0500
From: samantha capitol
Subject: Chatham Park appears to be “Smart Growth”:
The holidays have given me some time to do more research.
I found this from Chatham County’ 2007 minutes:
The Governor’s Commission on Smart Growth, Growth Management and Development, which was co-chaired by Joe Hackney and Howard Lee in 2001 made four core findings: 1) Citizens and government should articulate the sort of growth they want rather than leave choices to chance 2) Growth can be managed while being encouraged 3) Smart growth is preferable because it makes use of public resources such as infrastructure, taxes and the environment and 4) Public participation and property rights are key elements of growth.
It appears to me that the process with Chatham Park, which has been an ongoing relationship between the developers and the community for the past seven years, is attempting to work within that framework.
We know that the 1) Town, County, EDC and other groups have made it clear that they want to preserve rural buffers in the county and drive growth into the municipal areas; 2) we appear to have a consensus that the
community wants to “manage” its growth while still making a cogent argument that Chatham County is a great place to invest, grow a business and raise a family; 3) Growing in and around Pittsboro (not sprawling into the County) and on the US-64/15/501 corridor is the logical place to support smart growth and leverage infrastructure as well as tax base; and 4) the process has encouraged public input, is designed to encourage and receive more public input while at the same time recognizing that Chatham Park actually owns the property.
The community has a rare chance to work with one entity, who can be a partner in the future. All parties need to continue positive and constructive engagement and move forward.