Analyzing the Zoning Discussion

I was curious if there was any pattern to who spoke out for and against zoning or the zoning process at the June commissioner's meeting and the recent planning board meeting. Here is what I found:

Of about 49 total speakers - 

• 15 spoke in favor of zoning
• 32 spoke against zoning or the current zoning process.

Of those 15 speaking in favor of zoning - 

• 13 are registered Democrats, and
• 2 do not seem to be registered to vote in Chatham county. 

No registered Republicans or unaffiliated voters spoke in favor of zoning.

Of those 32 speaking against zoning or the current zoning process - 

• 4 are registered Republicans,
• 10 are registered Democrats,
• 10 are registered Unaffiliated, and
• 8 do not seem to be registered to vote in Chatham county. 

Also interesting is the make up of the Planning Board, and of the County's planning staff.

The Planning Board consists of 5 registered Democrats, 1 registered Republican, and 4 registered Unaffiliated.  

The County planning staff has 2 registered Democrats, 2 registered Unaffiliated, 1 registered Libertarian, and 2 that I could not find in the voter registration file. There are no registered Republicans on the County planning staff.

Overall party affiliation is about what I expected. Since the County has more registered Democrats than Republicans, it is not a big surprise that more Democrats expressed an opinion than Republicans. Neither is it surprising (at least, to me) that Democrats are much more in favor of zoning than are  Republicans. It is disappointing that there are no Republicans on the county planning staff. But more zoning regulations means more workload for county staff which means more government staffing which means - well, you can take it from there.

What IS MORE disappointing are the number of people who do not seem to be registered to vote. How else can you make your opinions heard in the election process? If you haven't registered to vote, please go to http://www.chathamnc.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=27281 RIGHT NOW and get it done.   

Then in November look at which candidates best support what you believe, regardless of your past party affiliation, and cast your vote accordingly.  

Note: want to look up party registration? Go to https://vt.ncsbe.gov/voter_search_public/.

Long-Range Planning Committee

I attended the Goldston community input session for the long-range planning committee put on by the Chatham Co Long-Range Planning Committee. Did you attend? No, I didn’t think so, based on the turnout. You could have attended any time between 5 and 7 PM, and you gave up an opportunity to have a say in the county’s direction. There were maybe 30 citizens at the Goldston meeting.

Trusted sources tell me that turnout was low across the three sessions at Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, and Goldston. Sources also tell me that the Pittsboro session included posters and information about zoning in the County. Apparently that generated so much interest that it was not presented at the Goldston session. When asked why, county staff reportedly responded that it would confuse the citizens, and that they only wanted input on the long-range plan.

At the sessions there were posters about county wealth and income distribution, housing, transportation, environment, and recreation. Citizens were invited to place sticky notes with their comments on the posters. County staff were friendly, knowledgable and very open to input from those attending. At least one commissioner was at each session. Hopefully we as citizens of the county will be able to see comments were given to the county staff, and before they have been homogenized by consultants and approved by the commissioners.

I keep wondering why the push for zoning so quickly. I don’t see a lot of developers anxious to build McMansions in the southwest part of the county. Why? Perhaps because it is 30 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart!

The composition of the commission may change from the extreme liberal to more conservative in the November elections. After that, the zoning process may become more open to county input and may not fit current commissioner desires.

As always, follow the money. If zoning R1 and R5 is in place, anyone wishing for a variance will have to request permission from the board of commissioners. Permission requests cost money to file, perhaps additional money for legal fees, certainly for inspections and permits. Is the zoning push really a means of gaining more funds for the county which can then be spent by the commissioners on their particular priorities?

Overheard at the Goldston event was a comment that what we need is smaller government and more churches. How profound!