Keep Franklin Woods

Last update to the bubble plan proposal discovers the color green (locations may vary) What can you do now to help stop this?  Given the Planning Commission's 6-0 vote on August 3, 2017 in favor of the proposal - a vote driven by fear of a clear-cut threat by the landowners and other facts beyond the rezoning proposal itself - we are not likely to win outright on an appeal to City Council without overwhelming public support, with the presence of an overflow crowd of people, in the actual Council meeting.  We need the presence of residents all over town , not just next to the creek.   But given that 27 of the 41 acres on the southside of Franklin Boulevard are still owned by the City, even without a full stop of the project, work remains to insure just the City portion of the wooded buffer.   Please appear at the rezoning hearing appeal September 19, and stand to to answer these questions in the affirmative.  1. Would all those stand who want the ...

Duharts Creek, January 2010, photo by Thomas Hopkins The City has spent $4 million securing land for the FUSE district. Stopping neighborhood decay while adding commercial value can be a good use of community resources. The City is working with developers and private citizens to come up with an additional $15 million for investment in a multi-use stadium and surrounding commercial development to inject life into a stagnant part of our place. This guest editorial was published as a letter to the editor in The Gaston Gazette on July 5, 2017 While we are looking at ways in our historic downtown to improve its vitality, I believe it’s time to ask for something better in our current commercial downtown at a fraction of those other costs.   April 20,2016 Gazette reporting on the 7-0 Council vote to reject commercial zoning in Franklin Woods A year ago City Council rejected plans to build a big box store on wooded land south of Franklin Square.  ...