Agenda - 04-15-1993 - C-1-a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Barrie R. Vaden 8033 Old NC 86, Chapel Hill NC 27156 (919) 967-2184 Presentation to Rezoning Hearing, April 15, 1993 I speak to those who own hundreds of acres of land, and to those who own a few; to those whose properties are worth millions of dollars in todays market, and to those whose properties would bring the smallest fraction of that amount. I speak to the relatively few who actually farm the land, and to the many who work their small gardens; to descendants of the early settlers and their slaves, and to the carpet-bagger newcomers who are responsible for the astronomical rise in property values. I speak to all of us, and we are the community. Together we can create something of beauty and grace, working on behalf of the common good; from the values and goals that we share. No single one of us has the right to manipulate the lives of others. No single one of us has the right to tell others how to live, or to force others to re-organize their worlds on behalf of self interests. As a community, we consider benefits to the group, and plan before, not after, we act. We respect one another' s right to live as well as we can, so long as we hurt no one else in the process, because communal right supercedes that of the individual. We urge you, our mayor, our commissioners and our aldermen, to work for the common good. To insist that careful planning occur before, not after, action is permitted, using the orderly mechanism that you yourselves already have established to develop this land that we all want and need- perhaps for different reasons, but with equal intensity. Let us truly understand the momentous opportunity that we face today as we literally hold in our hands the shape and quality of this land for all time to come.