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County needs land-use plan to protect communities
To the Editor:
Jackson County is growing and changing rapidly. Growth seems inevitable, but I don’t believe it’s inevitable that in the process of growth we need to destroy the basic good character of our community and the natural environment that sustains our lives.
I understand the concern many people have about property rights. I own 3 acres near Dillsboro, and I don’t enjoy the idea of anyone telling me what I can or can’t do on my land. But having the freedom to do with my land as I choose is only part of safe-guarding property rights. Our property rights can also be endangered by an uncaring neighbor, an irresponsible out-of-town developer, for instance, or a polluting industry that just doesn’t care about our personal needs or the heritage of the land.
Safeguarding our property rights also includes having the power to improve the value of our property by caring for it, improving its functionality, its appearance. We build houses, create gardens, terraces, flower beds, put up gazebos, create ponds – investing to improve our property and its value. Then, someone you don’t know buys your neighbor’s property and decides they’re going to build an asphalt plant next to you. Your years of investment are gone. Where are your property rights then?
This is where the good people of Tuckasegee found themselves when a company applied to build a rock quarry on N.C. 281. It’s where the people of Tilley Creek found themselves when a skeet-shooting range was proposed in what they thought was their residential area. It’s where people living near the Budweiser plant along Skyland Drive discovered themselves when suddenly a “propane farm” began to appear in their backyard.
I remember attending a hastily called meeting in the Qualla Community Center with about 150 very concerned local residents reacting to the news that an asphalt plant was to be located in their neighborhood. At one point someone shouted out, “They can’t build that here! This is a residential neighborhood!”
Well, no. It isn’t legally a residential neighborhood unless it is zoned a “residential” neighborhood.
I don’t think zoning has to have the negative impact on our property rights that it’s reputed to have. I think we can define the terms of zoning ourselves, as a community, to maximize individual self-control over our own property, while preserving and protecting the basic character of the various neighborhoods and rural areas from agreed upon inappropriate types of development for each area, thereby also protecting the value of our land and improvement investments. This seems to me a more complete protection of property rights than standing by watching unbridled, unplanned, haphazard development throughout the county.
The county government has reacted in a piecemeal manner to each crisis as it has arisen. But, given the rate of growth in Jackson County this issue is going to come up again and again, sometimes being dealt with better than other times. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a plan?
Avram Friedman
Dillsboro
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