Pittsboro, NC – Folks around here know SMALL means little. Something you can hold in one hand. But the Chatham Park Investors are hollerin’ for a “Small Area Plan” that swallows 5,000 acres, bigger than all of Pittsboro. One quick vote, and boom; we’re on the hook for a tangle of new roads, pipes, and curb-to-curb asphalt nobody priced out loud. That ain’t planning; that’s a power grab with a pretty bow.
Let’s talk plain numbers. Town records say every fresh mile of two-lane road runs about ten million bucks to build and near forty grand a year to patrol, plow, and patch. A spread this size will need a good hundred miles of new roads. Do the math, y’all. We’re staring at a billion-dollar pothole we’ll pay on for decades. Sure, ol’ Jim Goodnight and the rich boys from Cary will pay for it the first time, but who do you think will pay to repave it and repair it? That’s right — you and me.
And traffic? I hear engineers call it Vehicle Miles Traveled or VMT. Stretching houses like peanut butter over 5,000 acres pours roughly 700 million extra VMT miles a year onto our blacktop. That’s more waiting for two lights at the bypass, more busted shocks, and slower rescue trucks when seconds count.
Worst of all, those ol’ Preston boys will clearcut the woods, creeks, and deer paths our granddaddies hunted and our kids should still know. Once those trees hit the chipper, they don’t grow back.
Chatham Park’s own 2014 master plan had little village centers; neighborhood size places on truly SMALL Area Plans of 150 to 300 acres. They ought to bring each one to the Pittsboro Town Board, kick the tires, fix mistakes, then move ahead. That step by step rhythm guards our wallets, our two lane roads, and the rural heart that makes Chatham county special…