
{"id":20717,"date":"2011-09-08T13:45:44","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T17:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20717"},"modified":"2011-09-08T13:55:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T17:55:20","slug":"letter-the-best-we-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/08\/letter-the-best-we-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: The best we can do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Among many changes on the Carrboro development horizon is the disposition of the Lloyd cow farm across from Carrboro Plaza, beside the post office. The current site plan, unveiled at a Town Hall information session on Aug. 25, is for a 40-acre shopping mall, anchored by a grocery store. By my count from the existing map, the planned mall \u00e2\u20ac\u201c twice the size of Carrboro Plaza \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would host 11 buildings, including stores, chain restaurants, apartments and 824 paved parking spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Although described proudly as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153high-end\u00e2\u20ac\u009d retail center by a spokesman for the Cary planners and potential Charlotte buyers, residents living within 1,000 feet of the site expressed concerns. Who wants to find their house suddenly behind a grocery, with its dumpster and delivery truck traffic? Others worry about increased crime, noise, heat, light pollution and water runoff destined for Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Creek, Jordan Lake or their yards. <\/p>\n<p>The developers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 goals were not these quality-of-life issues. But even from a practical business standpoint, there were questions about the viability of this type of mall. As one gentleman put it neatly, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I could throw a baseball from where you have the new grocery to where Food Lion is now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Many noted how similar outdoor malls around town, even indoor University Mall, with plenty of parking, struggle. What would be the repercussions on other town businesses?<\/p>\n<p>The developers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plan not only raised questions of potential urban blight and ecological degradation, it presented a stark contrast to Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vision for itself as sustainable, local, diverse, socially just and aesthetically unique. When the adjacent property values decline, and those who are capable move away, a less diverse and more segregated hometown will remain. <\/p>\n<p>Would the Cow Farm Mall support local enterprises that pay commercial taxes and employ workers in promising occupations? Couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the talented people of this community launch useful businesses, employ the unemployed and still preserve the site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stunning topography, waterways and old oak trees? There are many excellent possibilities, but how about a small and diverse farm-and-village community for Carrboro? It could sport local restaurants, shops, retirement housing, farm markets \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even keep the Lloyd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appealing brown-and-white cows, like Fearrington.<br \/>\nOr do we just want fries with that?<\/p>\n<p>The big question that the town and citizens need to ask is this. Do we really want to take the last, large parcel of farmland that exists inside Carrboro and turn it into a cookie-cutter mall, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anchored\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to franchises that sell mostly generic imported goods and processed foods? Surely, we in Carrboro can be more thoughtful and creative than that.<\/p>\n<p>Lorraine Aragon<br \/>\n<em>Carrboro<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among many changes on the Carrboro development horizon is the disposition of the Lloyd cow farm across from Carrboro Plaza, beside the post office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20718,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717\/revisions\/20718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}