7 Lakes North, South cast vote for change - Seven Lakes Times

6 Seven Lakes Times March 21, 2008 AREA A
Area A plan headed back to Planning Board
by Greg Hankins
Times Editor
After hearing plenty of comment
both for and against, the
Moore County Board of Commissioners
on Monday night,
March 17, sent the proposed
Small Area Plan for Area A back
to the planning Board for revision,
review, and recommendation.
The five commissioners had
made clear their intention to do
just that in a Thursday, March 13
Work Session, but Monday’s
Public Hearing had already been
scheduled and advertised.
Each of the commissioners
expressed concern about some
elements of the draft plan, though
the overarching issues appeared
to be that, first, that they hadn’t
had enough time to study the
document, and, second, that
the Planning Board had not actually
voted to approve the plan
before forwarding it on to the
Commissioners.
Area A is a 100-square mile
area of the county centered on
West End and Seven Lakes,
and includes Jackson Spring
and Eagle Springs. The Area A
Committee has been working
for more than a year to develop
a Small Area Plan — a policy
document that can guide development
and preservation in the
area.
It was developed by a 14-
member Steering Committee
chaired by Seven Laker Dave
Kinney, working closely with the
county planning department and
gathering information from a
variety of state and county
sources — including the residents
of Area A, who were given
opportunities for input into the
plan through a number of public
meetings.
A copy of the draft plan is
available for download on The
Seven Lakes Times website.
Steering Committee member
Dr. John Monroe and Jesse
Wimberley presented the plan to
the Commissioners, Monroe
leading them through the goals,
objectives, and strategies of the
plan, and Wimberley providing
the “heart and soul.”
Area A Presentation
The plan’s four goals are:
• Sustainable Growth, defined
as “growth that meets the
needs of the current generation
without jeopardizing the
needs of future generations.”
• Protect Water Supplies, by
protecting existing supplies
from pollution and promoting
conservation.
• Sustainable Economic
Development, including
encouraging commercial development
in the Seven Lakes
Business Village and other
potential business clusters in
Eagle Springs and Jackson
Springs.
• Preserve the Natural Environment,
including wetlands,
open space, and working
farms and forests.
Wimberley said the cornerstones
of the plan are the protection
of water resources and
open space. He noted that the
headwaters of the stream systems
that supply much of the
county’s surface water lie within
Area A.
“The take home message of
this plan is that the most conservative,
the best insurance
we can buy to make sure that not
only we, but future generations,
have the best standard of living
we can buy, is to preserve
what we have right here,” he
said.
Reverend Don Welch of Seven
Lakes, another Steering Committee
member followed Wimberly
by saying ,”I’ve been praying
for all you commissioners
for weeks now. I pray that you will
honor not only the long hours and
hard work but the research and
study that has gone into the
Area A study.” The plan contains,
he added a vision of
“growth — responsible sustainable
growth. A vision of neighborhoods
that provide for quality
of life. Beautiful developments
that protect the environment. A
marvelous vision.”
“I pray for builders, developers,
and landowners who will see
the long term good of sensible
development,” Welch continued.
“I pray you will not walk away
from this plan or pick it to pieces.”
Public Comment
Members of the public commented
on the plan both during
a public comment period that
opened the meeting and during
the public hearing itself.
“Area A is under seige by developers,”
West Ender Ruth Stolting
of Save our Sandhills told the
Board, displaying a map of proposed
development — including
a recently assembled 1400 acre
tract near Foxfire. “County ordinances
are needed to back up
the Area A plan . . . Environmental
impact statements should
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The county must act
quickly “before our way of life
is gone forever, Stolting said.
Historian Ray Owen of Southern
Pines provided the Commissioners
with a brief synopsis
of the “Country Life” Movement
of the early 1900s that both
sparked and guided the early
development of the Sandhills.
After the War Between the States,
Owen said, the area was desperately
poor and, for all practical
purposes, a near-desert, as
residents had cut down nearly
every tree in sight.A combination
of government funding and private
development led to the
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(See“Area A”p. 37)
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