Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:58:38 -0500
From: “Tom Glendinning”
Subject: To Maryphyllis
Maryphyllis,
You express yourself well. However, I find that you have eaten of the fruit of the last damn Yankee tree, and you wish to shut the door so no more may intrude. The fine people who welcomed me to Chatham 45 years ago were friendly, open and did not fear newcomers. That is the main reason I moved here.
In the next thirty years, as I have said before, the projections of population growth for Chatham exceed the number of residents of Chatham Park. If they all bought and built on 7 acre parcels, they would occupy over 150,000 acres of land and impact the “rural atmosphere” you so highly revere. Keep in mind that Chatham Park will occupy only 7000 acres, served by good infrastructure, in a well planned community.
The development will be marginally visible from US64, being south of that highway for the most part, and west and south of US 64 bypass. I doubt that the visual impact will be more than new buildings in Pittsboro itself by 2044. Think about it. Will you still be around then? The population of Chatham doubled in the last thirty years and you were a part of that growth.
As to trees and the environment, everyone reading this Chatlist has caused trees to be cut for their home. Everyone has caused land to be cleared and buys goods at stores which have done the same, which led to erosion, sedimentation and turbidity. Everyone who buys in town, goes to church, goes to a movie or attends a government meeting burns fossil fuel and pollutes. The goods we buy are transported across this country and the oceans. The fruits in our grocery stores come from the Pacific rim or South America. If you are going to cast stones, make sure you do not live in a glass house.
If you don’t like Cary or Raleigh, you don’t have to go to either place. Same with Chatham Park. I would like to see a well planned community, built by very professional developers that will add to the quality of life we have and will enjoy. Fearrington did just that over thirty years ago. I find very few critics of those residents, those owners or those developers. Would you feel better if Chatham Park had some belted Galloway cattle in a pasture along the highway?
Tom Glendinning
“It takes an intelligent fool to make things bigger and more complex……….. It takes a touch of genius to move in the opposite direction”
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.–Wayne Gretzky