By Denise Dunn
Goldston, NC – Dear Planning Board, First I would like to thank those of you who voted to hold off on recommending the zoning report to the commissioners, thank you for listening!
To the rest of you, I appreciate the job you are doing it is very hard to be on a planning board, I just finished the first step in helping to get Goldston zoned (partially to protect it from Chatham County zoning). No I don’t attend very many of your meetings. I work three jobs, take care of both of my elderly parents, and help to run our farm. One of my jobs is running Calico Quilt Antiques in Goldston.
I want to trust you to make informed decisions to help keep my county which I am very proud of clean, sustainable and friendly to live in. I don’t want to fight with my neighbors, and to the man that is next to the shooting range I am so sorry about what has happened in your area. But we don’t need to blanket zone R1 and R5.
I talked to Chatham County Planning Director Jason Sullivan just to make sure I was correct; but you could have kept unwanted industry out and things like military shooting ranges out just by using industrial zoning codes. You could have used RA zoning or any of the other zoning classifications available.
Did you even drive around the county to see how wonderful this county is? When was the last time you visited Goldston, Bennett, or Harpers Crossroads? The fruitcake factory?
I noticed that most of you live in Pittsboro or on that side of the county. To George Lucier, who said R1 doesn’t mean there is going to be a house on every acre, maybe not but it could be. It is actually every 40,000 square foot lot.
To say that farms are protected is somewhat disingenuous. Yes, they are. Until they are sold and someone wants to put in a subdivision.
If you think that protecting land that we don’t even own (i.e. the Jordan Lake land) is more important that the rest of the county please take your heads out of the sand. Why didn’t you at least zone everything R5? Still a poor move but it would have protected us a little more.
The lady that sat in front of me kept telling me this is just interim zoning. No where could I find that. She basically called me stupid and uncaring.
I do care. I may be stupid at times. But I am going to fight to keep a county I love a county I want to pass along to my grandchildren.
My understanding is you could have waited two more meetings before your recommendations.
Please believe me that zoning can be good, but poor zoning is worse than no zoning at all.
By using this zoning you have opened up all of Chatham County to the unruly growth and ugliness that North Chatham has become. I can’t help but think there is some other agenda that is out there that no one is telling us about.
The song keeps coming into my head “I know your lying your lips are moving…talking around in circles with your tongue”.
Oh, and what you have done to small businesses in this county…shame on you!
Denise Dunn also spoke during the public input session of the Chatham County Planning Board meeting on July 12 at the historic Chatham County courthouse in Pittsboro.