Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2014 10:01:09 -0500
From: “Mike Watkins”
Subject: Re: In effort to measure….
As posted here recently, population growth is certainly central to Chatham Park development.
Chatham Park will indeed almost double Chatham County population (approx. 66,000) within 7,500 or so acres, but it seems to me that the flaw in the argument is that somehow, because Chatham Park exists the remaining 430,000 acres of Chatham County will stop growing at the same rate it would have done anyway.
In fact, the growth of Chatham Park (which, if Reston, VA is anything to go by, may well occur within the first 10-15 years), is likely to spur a far faster rate of growth in the rest of the county than would otherwise have been the case. The Lawrence Group report clearly identified that Pittsboro town must look to its ordinances and regulations now to be ready for substantial spill-over development directly due to Chatham Park. The problem is we could well get both a structured, contained development in Chatham Park and significant urban sprawl all around it.
Nevertheless, there is no dispute that the how of the development is critical.
…Mike Watkins