Land plan draws fire from citizens

An overflow crowd representing the Yadkin Valley community swelled the City-County Chambers Monday morning to urge the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners to delete language recently adopted in the county's comprehensive land use development plan.

In the end, the group got its way, with the board unanimously calling for the deletion of a passage that would sanction the voluntary cession of land along a planned greenway corridor.

As originally proposed in the zoning ordinance changes, new major subdivisions would have been required to yield land for a greenway. That proposal died following a public comment period, and the voluntary language was adopted.

Yadkin Valley residents still were not satisfied, and several residents of the area brandished signs at the Monday meeting with the word “Greenway” covered by a circle and slash.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Yadkin Valley resident Don Kincaid, a former North Carolina state senator, said condemnation provisions within state law for the development of parks or recreational uses threaten the area.

“I think the greenways and the pathways is one of the worst things you could do,” Kincaid said. “I've never seen people so concerned.”

Kincaid criticized groups, including the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund and local Rotary clubs, for using funds to develop a pathway along N.C. 268.

“It's not government's responsibility to provide greenways or pathways,” Kincaid said to boisterous applause. “It's everyone's right to enjoy the Yadkin River, but it's not anyone's right to enjoy it on my property without my permission.”

Commissioner Don Barrier said no one on the board supports the idea of condemning property for recreational purposes. But he pointed out that the policy is set forth in state law.

“The only way to effectively deal with this, and do what you are doing here, is to change the state statutes,” Barrier said.

He encouraged Kincaid to meet with legislators in Raleigh to begin the process of changing the condemnation provision while the North Carolina General Assembly is engaged in the so-called short session.

Commissioner Faye Higgins, who had proposed eliminating the voluntary provision at the previous board meeting but was defeated, lent her support a second time around.

“Let's start here and do this,” she said. “I just think we need to show that our property belongs to the property owners and not our community.”

The change marked another victory for the increasingly active Yadkin Valley area, for now. Previously, the group successfully lobbied for a 3-acre minimum lot size density in the region in the comprehensive plan.

However, the commissioners have called for a May 19 public hearing to reconsider all of the lot size requirements.

Commission Chairman Herb Greene said he intends to change his vote on parts or all of the zoning ordinance stipulations.

In an April 29 memorandum to the full board, Greene wrote, “I have the very strong feeling that most of the people who have ‘obtained theirs' want to make it difficult for anyone else to become part of their neighborhood by insisting that others must buy a larger piece of land to build a house on (more) than 1/2 or 3/4 of an acre. Part of this is driven by social greed and the other is to simply keep their neighborhood whole to their liking. But by doing so, we are harming folks who can't afford two or three acres of land to build a house and, even if they could, that's not the point.

“I don't like the snobbishness that is attached to the entire idea that since ‘we've got ours' we want to make it so difficult for others that they will be discouraged from moving into their neighborhood. This stinks to high heaven.”

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