Pittsboro, NC – Do you live in Chatham County and are tired of more traffic and pollution? Are you tired of fewer trees and fewer farms? Do you think we will inevitably become like Cary? Do you feel helpless to do anything about it?
What won’t work is to complain about development and hope that somehow you can demand through the government that people who own a forest or a farm cannot cash out and sell to a developer. If the government can change a rule one way, it can change it the other way.
There is a solution. Donate to a land conservancy organization or form your own.
Organizations like Triangle Land Conservancy exist only to buy land or development rights on land and keep it from being developed. Some of this land is accessible to the public via trails. Some is locked away purely for nature. There are already thousands of acres conserved this way thanks to donations.
If you had $10,000, you could buy maybe 1 acre or less of undeveloped land. You would have to pay property taxes on it. A conservancy can get maybe 5 acres using grants and legal structures.
If 10,000 people in Chatham County who are sick of development each gave an average of $10,000 to a land conservancy, they could permanently prevent development on a total acreage substantially larger than Chatham Park.
If you want to do something to limit development, the quickest and easiest thing to do is donate to a land conservancy organization.
If you and like-minded friends and neighbors have the time and energy, start a movement. Put together a campaign to collect donations for an existing conservancy. Or, collectively form your own conservancy and target your area. Or get together and buy property you love and hold onto it.
Personally, I think we need more amenities, commercial space, and more lower-cost housing, but I would also like to see more land conserved to prevent eventual overdevelopment.
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