Ten Things to Do Before the City Council Votes

Christie Williams' dog Ruthie has the right idea

The City Council will vote on the rezoning proposal for the Lineberger parcel portion of Franklin Woods on September 19.  The item has been scheduled to be the last public discussion item that night.  The meeting starts at 6pm on the second floor of the county courthouse, but our item may not be heard for an hour or more.  We ask folks to sit patiently with us, and then stand with us at the end to show your opposition to commercial rezoning here and your desire to Keep Franklin Woods. I will asked to be certified to speak on behalf of our neighbors and friends who have opposed this effort and those who are part of our 200-person email list.

But there are things you can do now, this weekend, before that vote occurs, to maximize our chance for success. Here's a list of ten of them.



1.  Tell City Council "just say no."
2.  Post a sign in your yard that says "Keep Franklin Woods" -ours, or your own!
3.  Tell ten friends, neighbors, or acquaintances about the vote next week and ask them to write council, post a sign, and show up next Tuesday at 6pm to ask in person to "Keep Franklin Woods."
4.  Write a note to the Gaston Gazette saying you want our City to Keep Franklin Woods.
5.  Your and your friends sign the petition to Keep Franklin Woods.
6.  Read our online resources about the forty-year fight to keep this parcel from commercial development. The history of this fight is at our blog, nobigboxinfranklinwoods.blogspot.com The story of this year's battle is here at www.keepfranklinwoods.com  And you can scroll down at https://www.facebook.com/nobigboxinfranklinwoods to see videos and pictures of past flooding at this parcel.
7.  Drive by Franklin Woods on Saturday, September 16th, between 11am and noon, and wave and honk in support of keeping "Franklin Woods" as woods.
8.  Like our Facebook page and share it with your friends.
9.  Donate to your favorite charity to support victims of flooding and damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and support good water stewardship at places like Catawba Riverkeeper.
10.   Listen to their words, not mine. Three times over the last seventeen months, City Council discussed the terrible problems with stormwater at and next to this site.
  -  April 19, 2016, Council rejects Academy Sports
  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=785951264874759&id=669301999873020           
  -  May 3, 2016, Council charges staff to seek plans to reduce Duharts flooding
  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=801064383363447&id=669301999873020 
  -  Dec 6, 2016, Council approves action plan for Duharts flooding (unfunded)
  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=909460725857145&id=669301999873020
 
Thanks for your interest and support on this issue.  City Council and City government have tough jobs to do, tough decisions to make.  They often don't know what folks feel is the right way to go.  Please get the word around to Council and to your friends:  Gastonia, ask for something better!  Keep Franklin Woods!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gastonia, ask for something better

Image
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.    A local dev
Read more

Gaston Outside, City Version: Rewarding Threats to Clear-Cut Woods by Giving those Threatening a Shopping Center

Image
Notes from Gastonia Planning Commission Meeting, August 3, 2017 Despite assurances from their first meeting with neighbors in January that they would do a commercial project and help with flood control, Pearson Properties made clear early on Thursday that flooding was not their concern.   Charlie Pearson gave the initial presentation for the developer and said that “neighbors had purchased into floodplains and that floodplains flood.” I pointed out that last year’s Commission spent a long time during the Academy Sports review talking about increased flooding concerns.   Seventy minutes of our required neighbors meeting with the developer had been filled with people worried about greater frequency and intensity of flooding.   We were worried that we did not know any details of Pearson’s solution that they proposed to us and city councilmen - the building of a retention pond of unknown dimensions on the city-owned land upstream and buffering the Lineberger parcel from neighbor
Read more

Hold That Thought

Image
...and Your Yard Sign. Five Council members expressed opinions last night about the rezoning vote, three for (Kirlin, Gallagher, and Pierceall) and two against (Humphries and Kellogg), before a substitute motion tabled a final vote on the matter until November 21 so that City staff might provide more information on water issues at the parcel. The vote starts afresh then, so your continued lobbying and support is appreciated. The current Council will be votin g on the matter then, no matter the results of the election. We will post a curated link to a tape of the meeting in the next day or so. A video summary of the meeting is at this WCCB newslink. Thanks to the dozens who showed up September 19, the several who spoke on our behalf, and the over two hundred of you who so far have signed our online petition .  Let's use the delay opportunity to be civil, and share respectfully with those who might differ with us why commercial zoning is not a good solution
Read more