Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:21:55 -0500
From: “Frans C Verhagen, PhD”
Subject: What is to happen to Chatham Park in 2014?
Chatham Chatlist #4877What is to happen to Chatham Park in 2014?
I moved last year to Chatham County from New York City where I worked as a sustainability sociologist for 43 years. One of my educational activities consisted in teaching sustainable communities at Pace University in Manhattan. Having researched the Chatham Park project and having given testimony at the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners on January 27 I believe four actions have to be taken to give Chatham Park a reasonable chance to become a zero-carbon or carbon neutral settlement in Pittsboro.
1. Have the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners hire a specialist in public engagement process planning because process is essential in bringing consensus about the major challenges of this ambitious project. A visioning process is to be devised as part of the 5-step procedure in building sustainable communities as suggested by US EPA Office for Sustainable Communities and others.
2. Have the Board of Commissioners produce a value-based brochure which would translate the technical parts of the Master Plan into value questions that citizens can understand, discuss and vote on as part of that visioning process.
3. Have the Board of Commissioners hire a team of renewable energy specialists who are to produce the Chatham Park Energy Master Plan 2040, because no carbon-neutral town can be established without a detailed energy plan that has been developed from the beginning of the project.
4. Have both the Pittsboro AND the Chatham County Boards of Commissioners develop, possibly with a US EPA grant or developer funding, an Energy and Climate Change educational program that would consider the Chatham Park project as an eminent educational opportunity that cannot be wasted. Thus, the County would not only have an excellent project, but an educated population that can find excellent jobs in the Triangle in these times of climate change, climate crisis and even a looming climate catastrophe.
I consider that these four actions can be carried out during the better part of 2014. They would take extra time at the front end of the project but would save time and resources over the life of the project because citizens, government, developers and investors would be of one mind on the basic outline and direction of Chatham Park.
Frans C Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D. is a sustainability sociologist residing at Carolina Meadows at 100 Whippoorwill Lane, Chapel Hill.