How can YOU help "Keep Franklin Woods" NOW?



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 City to honor its commitment to reduce commercial stormwater runoff in this basin but not eliminate any of the City-owned woods in doing so.   2.. Would all stand who wish, if the Lineberger parcel is rezoned, that the City work with the developer to maximize the integration of wooded landscape into and around the development as a buffer for residential neighbors.   3.  Would all stand who would prefer that the wooded lands south of Franklin Boulevard remain woods, both those owned by the Linebergers now and those gifted over to the City. There's actually a fourth question that should be asked while we are gathered:  would all stand who would support the purchase of the Lineberger parcel by the City to insure that greenspace in perpetuity.  Details of how that process might work are at the "ask for something better" link on this blog.

The City of Gastonia City Council will meet Tuesday, September 19, 2017, in the Public Forum Room in the Gaston County Courthouse. The Gaston County Courthouse is located at 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Gastonia.  The meeting will begin at 6:00pm. Write our Council members in advance of the meeting at the emails on the weblink in this paragraph and tell them in advance how you feel. A large public presence will be key to any success, to show that this issue matters to many folks, not just a few. Thank you in advance for any help!


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