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Please Stop Unethical Land Transaction and Development on Jay Street and Other Misdeeds, Please Support Regeneration of Land and Campaign Finance Reform

 

A perspective from Alice Berry

 

Real estate developer Dustin Mills, who is on Greenville NC Planning and Zoning Commission, plans to put up a huge development in Chapel Hill that will encroach on little low-income Village West and West Chapel Hill Cemetery. Estes Park Apartments is also nearby. It is hoped that the construction period for the Jay Street Proposal with noise, fumes, etc. will take “only” two or three years. The land that will be leveled for the development was purchased by the government with bond money and for the purpose of keeping open space, to restrict corrupt people who come into power. What makes it even more unethical is that the development will not be affordable housing. Dustin Mills has decided to work with the Community Land Trust and follow their policy of renting only to people whose income is 60% – 80% of Area Median Income, not charging a stable rent, and not renting to poor people. Dustin Mills lives out in the country in Greenville, NC, has lots of land to ignore there, has plans to destroy natural habitats in Chapel Hill and put up structures, will be getting the land for his Jay St. development for free or cheap from his Chapel Hill city council folk, is seeking federal corporate welfare for it. Developers fund political campaigns. Dustin Mills is president of the Taft-Mills group. I found his contact information to be

Taft Family Ventures

631 Dickinson Ave. Greenville, N.C. 27834

Telephone (252)-752-7101

Could whoever is reading this, please contact Chapel Hill’s mayor Pam Hemminger — (919) 968-2714 — and council people? Let them know that the disempowerment of constituents is not acceptable.

Even 30% of Area Median Income is difficult for some people. The Chapel Hill City Council states plans for Trinity Court. The tenants will be people whose income is 30% of Area Median Income. It is estimated that their rent will be about 30% of their income. If one’s income is for example $1000/mo., then the 30% of tenants’ income that Trinity Court housing will get out of it leaves such a tenant with only $700/mo. for all their other expenses, including taxes. The Jay St. development would be way less affordable than that, and the Community Land Trust policies exclude low-income people. It is not a kind solution that the number of tenants that share single units is so high at so many developments, for example, four people in a two-bedroom. The NAACP and CHALT should look out for people of color and anyone who is a have-not or is vulnerable to becoming one. Observe the difference between a have-less-than-you and a have-not. Dustin Mills trickle-down voodoo economics does not help victims of runaway commercialism.

Along with other clients of Club Nova on W. Main St. in Carrboro, I objected to the needless destruction of the yard/mini-park in front of the old historical house that was torn down in favor of a new building to replace it and the permanently closed thrift store building. The change should have been restorative, but the director wanted a clubhouse building like the one in Sarasota, FL. We lost the place to sit in nature, with its healing properties, to re-Wild, calm the nerves, and support bodily functions. I have been comforting myself about this loss by getting support from the land where I live around Jay Street. And now Dustin Mills and this city council with the Jay Street development plan. Adam Searing is the only council member who has tried to stop it. Adam Searing would like to try to convert and build up existing developed buildings for more housing as well as purchase more of existing affordable apartments and keep them affordable rather than letting developers grab them for even more building. The beings, including the animals and the humans, need that land on Jay Street to stay intact. The open space land where I live near Jay St. has kept me and others from going under. One should not have to get into a motor vehicle or take a trip in order to get to sanity. Nature should be abundant close to where one lives. Crowding is a factor in pandemics.

Village Drive runs through the middle of Village West. Growth in this area has turned drivers into big-city drivers in a short time, drivers who don’t want to follow speed limits, who tailgate and honk. They pass illegally and when one slows down for them safely to get into the lane again, drivers from behind harass one. Much work is needed towards safe driving, but the Jay St. proposal is hazardous at any rate. My parents believed that further development or road-widening would not happen, no room. That brought us to stay.

The Chapel Hill city council has been throwing bad solutions at bad solutions. Developers have been allowed carte blanche. Growth in this area has meant higher cost of living and destruction of habitats. Growth in this area should not be part of long-term planning. Increasing the tax base is a bad solution, has been turning what once was a livable town into a big city. Low-income peoples’ contributions to the welfare of our town have been dismissed. The city government drives away low-income long-term residents and brings in richer. Every AMI % has in this way increased. City-wide gentrification. Please vote for officials in Raleigh who will allow cities to impose rent control, and for city officials who will assert themselves with them. There should be rent control that is tied to minimum wage, and regardless of why one does not have paid work, they, too, should be housed. Candidates’ campaign ideas should match actions. Karen Stegman did a big mismatch (Estes Drive).

There are new buildings that are only half-way occupied, do not provide affordable housing, and have small units that people are warehoused in. There are abandoned houses that just need plumbing and air handling. The city councils of Chapel Hill and Carrboro should use them to create affordable, sustainable, fair housing. There are closed stores that could be repurposed, but new buildings keep being constructed at the expense of nature. The gun violence at existing apartment complexes has yet to be stopped. Those politicians who want Chapel Hill and Carrboro to look and cost like New York City or the District of Columbia should consider moving to one of those places and stop diminishing this area for those who want to stay here. Property tax increases, which also are paid by tenants, are another reason that housing has become less affordable. Tenants pay richer people’s mortgage on their 2nd, 48th, etc. housing units. People are living their whole lives without owning a nice home. Elected officials have no idea what it is like to have to struggle to get housing and food. They should have pay cuts and not raises. There should be no such thing as an expensive town or city.

The Chapel Hill city council claims that the destruction of the land that is happening on Estes Drive will not increase the number of motor vehicle lanes and simply is needed to support the safety needs of those who walk and bike. Have they not been there? Not everyone has two or more hours to get from point A to point B on foot or by bike, so how will there be a reduction in car traffic? The traffic problems are a result of irresponsible growth, a bad solution to economic problems. What is being done on Estes Dr. is another example of a bad solution being thrown at a bad solution. It is not too late to stop the madness on Estes Drive and all over the area. A nature regeneration process should be next, not more destruction. Please express this to the politicians.

UNC and Duke Health Care are keeping smaller medical practices from being able to open around Chapel Hill. UNC does not even house their low-paid employees. The care that UNC and Duke provide is “evidence-based,” meaning big pharmaceuticals have funded “double blind” studies set up to “prove” the safety and efficacy of mainstream crisis-management types of illness care. Even Duke’s so-called Integrative Medical Center is “evidence-based.” “Anecdotal evidence” for long-term methods of supporting overall health and patient perspectives are shut down. If a holistic or functional medicine doctor is able to buy land for a new building or a building that is available before UNC or Duke gets them, they have a really hard time competing with UNC and Duke. It is hard to bill Medicare and Medicaid if one is not UNC or Duke. As a result, we don’t have long health spans, people are institutionalized, and drugs, even psychiatric drugs, are thrown at every situation and age group. Please let city and higher-level officials know that you want UNC and Duke under better control and an end to political alliances with pharmaceutical companies, which control media, insurance, education, and the way doctors provide care. Government should regulate industries, not vice-versa.

Please tell the politicians that you will not vote for those who support the destruction of natural habitats. “The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”–William Blake. William Stone, Healing Connections, Carrboro: “Nature is a force so powerful that we tend to forget its importance.” Until it is too late.

Thank you for your help towards returning Chapel Hill to a livable town.

Sincerely,

Alice Berry 

“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.

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