First, let me relay to you all that I am no professional planner, nor do I profess to be. I am merely attempting to give ALL of us a comparison that I was involved in to enable us to better understand how and why zoning is needed.
This is a true story involving Burlington/Alamance County. This area of our state has been much like our own in lots of ways. Located on an Interstate highway, not far from a metropolitan center, main industries were farming, textiles, communication laboratories, and some trucking hubs. Time marched on and all was well in this area.
About 10-15 years ago, a couple of “guys”, who had disposable income decided to pursue national companies to develop an Outlet Center. This was an immediate “hit” and people from everywhere came to Burlington to shop. Then the unthinkable occurred. Textiles went south, farming declined, and jobs left town, including the labs! A huge hue and cry went up from the masses! WOE IS US!!! What are we to do?? As usual, the local constabulary heard their constituency. They attempted to live with what they had. Then the ONE good backup business CLOSED! The outlets went away, for the most part, leaving many empty buildings.
Well, the local voters decided to “remove” the politicians that had been around for a long while and overhaul the commissions and boards with new faces. Several were elected on the platform of “stopping the spending” and returning to “fiscal conservatism”. Guess what happened? The area started a more RAPID decline! Then the voters decided that the “long” elected mayor and county commission had to “go”. The “new” mayor took the bull by the horns and developed a plan to build a large water reservoir to assist with future growth. My goodness! The masses cried, “It’ll raise taxes, this is the stupidest, dumbest, most ignorant thing anybody in the WHOLE world has ever or will EVER do!!!” But the Mayor didn’t listen, he kept on going. He and some councilpersons went to Greensboro, who has always had water problems during drought, and invited them to join the water project. Greensboro declined, emphatically, I’m told. Not to be deterred, the Mayor moved on. Now there is a HUGE lake not far south of the Interstate.
While this was in the process of being built, a group of investors, seeing the closeness of the Triad, and realizing that Greensboro was about to explode with growth, decided to acquire some property to build a “new “ shopping center. This they did. At the time, Burlington had zoning but Alamance did not. There was no “regulation” at this property and the developers wanted to ensure that their investment was going to be a sound one, so they asked that the property be annexed into the city. This was done without much “ado”. The developers commenced the project.
Meanwhile, Greensboro went through a serious drought and water was extremely short. Greensboro came down to Burlington and asked to “buy in” to the water project that it had rejected 2 years before. Burlington, who had the same mayor, told Greensboro to “go dig a well”! Well, long story short, Greensboro got the needed water for which it pays a premium price, and Burlington profited from this transaction. The transfer pump station is located on the corner of the new shopping center. The county has no monies from any of this.
About a year later, another retail developer came to the area to build a HUGE shopping center across the road from the first one. This developer is CBL of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They own one here, called Henderson Square. They, too, wanted to be zoned for protection and are now inside the “city”. Ride down the Interstate to Burlington and look for the Elon College exit. Both of these developments are there. As the first developers were getting started, they looked at property on the newly built “lake”. Now there is a 3,500 square foot house being built at a median cost per house of $250,000.00!
What has this got to do with zoning, you ask? I had to relay all the above to explain the need for our area to have these regulations in place. In conversation with the city and county administrators in that area, I asked them what was their biggest concern with all this new “growth”? Their answer was plain and simple… We are having a devil of a time trying to PLAN for the future because we (Alamance County) have NO land use regulations in place. We do not know how we are going to be able to supply the NECESSARY roads, schools, retail space, or any needed infrastructure without these regulations. What are they doing now, you ask? Attempting to put the fire out AFTER the house burned down, is what!
I do not propose to tell you zoning is the be all do all, to “cure” the problems we have and are soon to face. I do and WILL tell you that this issue is a NEEDED, NECESSARY tool to give our elected officials the means to PLAN future growth to our area. If, in fact, you are opposed to zoning, that is your right, BUT I want to ensure that you understand the position you are taking is one which will lead to the SPRAWL that other parts of the country have.
Zoning regulations are NOT the monster that some will have you believe. First and FOREMOST, it is just a PLAN, not a cut, dried, unchangeable, made in stone LAW. It is a map for development of an area. It provides a means to PLAN growth to ensure that such necessary things as SCHOOLS, hospitals, ROADS, developments and subdivisions are placed, built, and maintained in orderly fashion to the betterment of ALL. Much has been written and said about this issue. It has somewhat polarized our community. I see it as a FORWARD movement, necessary to ensure that the quality of life is maintained, and that we leave this place BETTER than we found it! Is this not our GIVEN purpose here, anyway, to leave for our children, heirs, and assigns a better community and way of life than we have?
I offer this LOCAL example for your perusal and thought. Think about Aycock School. The county built that school with the idea that we would not NEED another school in that area for some time. Due to the influx of developments in that area, mobile home parks and other housing, that school was OVERCROWDED in 2-3 years after it was built and now has to depend on mobile classrooms to accommodate the kids. This is not including the OVERCROWDING of the rural road system, intersections, and other infrastructure located in that area of our county.
I have heard and read some statements from citizens in the county about why they were “against” zoning. Some opponents are personal friends of mine, in whom I place full confidence, and appreciate their feelings and thoughts. They are entitled to their opinion, as I said before, But, this “anti” movement has published so many ABSOLUTELY wrong “facts” that they have muddied the water on the issue until it is extremely hard to explain to anyone.
There are (2) items proclaimed far and wide as the DEATH KNELL of private property rights: These are: (1) the government’s right to eminent domain, or the ability of a ruling body to “condemn” private property and convert it to “public” use and (2) the use of deed restrictions and covenants. They use as an example, a Supreme Court ruling from Massachusetts that allowed a developer to “evict” a private land owner to allow a mall to be built. To this thought I have some answers: 1) This was a split decision of the court and does not automatically affect the entire country, 2) This is the ONLY time, in modern history, that I can find, where a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court PUBLICLY admitted to making an erroneous decision and PUBLICLY stated, “I wish the case was REAPPEALED for a NEW decision”! It is my considered opinion that this will not happen again.
We have a fairly strong N.C. law regarding eminent domain already in place and I believe we will see a further tightening of this law in our next legislature. The second (2) item regards covenants and deed restrictions: Here again, we have a statement that would lead you to believe that, we as owners, can “restrict” the future use of our property by instituting either of these covenants. While it is true that we can place restrictions and covenants on our property, it is NOT going to last FOREVER. After 51% of a property is sold, the restrictive covenant can be dissolved by a simple majority of the owners. Thus, without a regulatory ordinance, a property can be “changed” to what the majority of owners want, without regard to what it does to the neighbor’s property values or well being. I have even heard a gentleman publicly state that, “He did not want ANYTHING to change, he wanted EVERYTHING the same.” That’s his opinion and I respect that, although I do think that he was too emotional to make an informed decision on any matter when he said that. Can you imagine? That’s the same as saying, “I want to NOT have better schools, medicine, or living conditions for my descendants”. I do want better for my own as I believe we ALL do.
Finally, let us all use our brains to really think about what we need to improve our community. The need for stronger politicians, better management of our resources, less PUBLIC display of childish behavior, yes, some of this by our ELECTED officials, a coming together of PEOPLE, forget race for a while, a re-education of ourselves, and the needed thought process of remembering our FELLOW MAN and his needs. What we do on our property no longer just affects us, it affects those around us. Just look at the blight of some areas of our city and county. Without the necessary regulation to allow the enforcement of the will of the PEOPLE we have lost. Most persons in this county and on this blog say they want JOBS. I do too, but I know that if we do not put our BEST foot forward and we remain where we are, then “call the dogs boys and put out the fire cause the hunts over” and we have lost all! Thank you for your time.
Glenn Todd