are the topic of tonight's Sierra Club forum:
Chatham County Growth Issues
Prospects and Possible Solutions
Wednesday, March 9th, 7:30 p.m
Chapel Hill Town Hall, 306 North Columbia Street
Loyse Hurley, president of Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities, Jeffrey Starkweather, president of Chatham Coalition and Mike Cross and Patrick Barnes, two newly-elected Chatham County commissioners who were endorsed by the Sierra Club, are the presenters.
The meeting will be televised on public access.
Issues:
Comments
The speakers discribed a
The speakers discribed a fairly grim situation. It's not just briar chapel but several other tracts for a total of 9000 units, estamated 19k new residents. All of chatham is on septic systems. Some of the new tracts plan to use doubtful plans for thier sewage. Briar chapel will use septic water for yard water sprinkles. Another tract sits right on the banks of the haw river. Last time I went to jorden lake the water looked not so nice. I'll be wanting my hep vaccine before I set my toe in that up coming cess pool next time
Chatham is currently
Chatham is currently extended county water lines down 15-501, Russell Chapel Road, old 87 and possibly further. I cannot figure out why they decided to offer water and not sewer. Smart growth is clearly not part of their planning process which is really too bad. Chatham is a beautiful county; I hate to see what is happening to it.
This isn't a realistic
This isn't a realistic solution I admit. Take a look at what happened to Maple View Farm in Orange County. A groop that included Triangle Land Conservency came up with some money to buy the development rights to thier property. They got cash. In return they agreed to never develope thier land. It was a free market outcome; no arms were twisted by big brother; consenting adults signed a contract. Like I admited, this is a very small chunk of Orange Co., and collecting the money to save Chatham Co. will never happen. It's always a tough question though. At what point should the government force individuals to give up thier privite property rights to the public good? I only pretend to have the answer.