Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 16:53:04 -0500
From: Amanda Robertson
Subject: Support Our Local Businesses… and Our Way of Life
When we moved here three years ago, my husband and I quite purposefully decided to support our local businesses as much as possible. We had Valentine’s Dinner at the Roadhouse on Friday. We bought the majority of our Christmas presents in town. And within a month of moving here I went into Bella Donna’s restaurant off Thompson Street to purchase some salads for a catering event my husband was having in RTP. She gave me some free rolls to try and they were delicious! When she moved to the new location my son and I went for lunch. The food was good! Though, I think if her business makes it, it will be on her own merit. It won’t have anything to do with Pittsboro Matters as she claimed several weeks ago. But it may have a lot to do with how the proposed Chatham Park is developed if the town doesn’t require some safeguards to protect our small businesses.
For example, while Bella Donna’s might have invested in a new building for her business because she felt that the potential for Chatham Park’s 60,000 residents would carry the day, well, consider two things. First, let’s presume that we suddenly have a population density the size of downtown Baltimore on our doorstep as Chatham Park proposes. Do you honestly believe that this is going to be a godsend for local small businesses? For anyone’s business here in town? More than likely it would doom Bella Donna’s. Carrabba’s will come into town, along with Chili’s and TGI Friday’s and the long list of established food chains that are, for the restaurant industry, on par with the Walmart’s of the world for local clothing and retail shops. They can offer their food for less because they can get it for less. And you will not be able to compete. Period. Will my husband and I ever go to Carrabba’s instead of Bella Donna’s? Probably. Perhaps not as much as others would because we strongly believe in supporting our local businesses, and we don’t mind paying a little more for organic and locally
grown food. Like so many who live here, this is important to us. But do you think for a minute that others won’t go to “Carrabba’s” when they have a choice? Secondly, remember this is a “planned development.” Chatham Park has already planned for business areas within the development to serve this new and very large community. These new business centers are going to be very conveniently located to their planned residential areas and research centers. Downtown Pittsboro businesses will not.
Lastly, I want to share where I live. We bought 11 acres in the woods where we are surrounded by the Firetower Wilderness (owned by Chatham Park and targeted for their most densely populated mixed use development). You know, that land that this “Taylor Kish” (again, a false identity, folks) claims is not a reality here in Pittsboro. Firetower Wilderness is part of the very last piece of unsegmented forest in this entire Triangle region, according to the Triangle Land Conservancy. And it is listed with the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the NC Natural Heritage Program as a “Significant Natural Heritage Area” – land that
contains “elements of natural diversity, includes plants and animals which are so rare or the natural communities which are so significant that they merit special consideration as land-use decisions are made.” http://www.ncnhp.org/
This isn’t just about one business surviving. But yes, this development will have an impact on our livelihood. For all of us. And I don’t think in a positive direction, unless local citizens are given a meaningful voice in its size and design. However, it will also impact North Carolina’s Natural Heritage land, our jobs, our way of life, our values, our air quality, our local farming community, affordable housing, and, let’s face it, our water quality.
Yes, I am a member of Pittsboro Matters. One of 600 residents that signed their petition, and even later joined their steering committee, comprised of both Democrats and Republicans. And local business owners. But I share these thoughts on my own behalf. Because Pittsboro matters to me.