We all know who the bad guys are in our towns, don’t we?
Developers.
The only thing more evil are big box stores. By the way, where did you shop last week?
Developers. Those folks who cut down the trees next to our beautiful homes, who destroy open space, pave roads, and bring in heavy equipment making our life miserable for months.
But, unless you live in one of the old homes on East Franklin Street and surrounding the campus or the old African-American neighborhoods, you live in a development. Lakeshore, Morgan Creek, Booker Creek, Sturbridge, Falconbridge, Lake Hogan Farms, Highland Hills, Stoneridge, The Oaks, Southern Village, Colony Woods, even Greenwood developed by our hero Paul Green. Remember Glen Lennox? A development and now a redevelopment.
Roger Perry fought for ten years to build Meadowmont where many happy people think it is a lovely place to live and shop.
In fact, if you are listening to this program, you probably along with 40,000 other souls, live in a development.
Even our treasured Carrboro mill houses were a development.
So, why are developers the enemy?
Partly, because we think we own all of that empty space we enjoy. Forever. Partly because our visual landscape is a part of our precious memories. But, as each development is built, families move in and never know that it was woods or an open field or landscape that someone else enjoyed. They think of it as their neighborhood.
The fact is, unless you are very wealthy or inherited lands, single built houses are just not feasible. It takes capital to buy the land and lots of reserves in the bank to sit out the interminable years it takes to go through our obstructionist permitting system.
Why is that system so difficult? Because nobody wants a development next to them. Until their kids in the new neighborhood go to school together, play together, become friends just like you and your kids did when you moved into your development.
So, as you stand on the porch of the beautiful house you love, looking over your pleasant yard, watching your children play with those from the street over, thank a developer.
— Ellie Kinnaird
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