Residents Expect Accountability From Town Officials, Advisory Boards
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Since my March letter to the editor related to two developments in Yorktown, Dorchester Glen and Underhill Farms, I have received additional information on Dorchester Glen that the public should be made aware of.
The correct calculation for the recreation fees on four single-family homes that are part of the Dorchester Glen subdivision should have been $10,000 per lot, not $4,000. My apologies. So, I underestimated the financial loss to the town Parks & Recreation Department by $24,000 ($16,000 versus $40,000). The loss of $40,000 in recreation fees for 12 acres of non-buildable wetlands that both our highly credentialed and dedicated Parks & Recreation Superintendent and Commission vigorously opposed, fell on deaf ears.
Additionally, the taxes on the 12 acres the town would take ownership of would be about $10,000 a year with the town responsible to pay the lion’s share (school/county). Should the town decide to declare the 12 acres is parkland, the school, town and county tax will be lost. As in the past, the Parks & Recreation Department will be given additional parkland to maintain with no additional budget to support it.
Volunteer Planning Board members and employees of the town Planning Department who cannot be held accountable by the voters should not be making such significant decisions whose fiscal impact will be felt for decades. These decisions belong with elected officials.
Did the Planning Board/Planning Department or developer consider any of the following: a conservation easement; an HOA (homeowners association); seven-acre lots instead of four; or implications of the town turning the 12 acres into am ATV/dirt bike park.
It’s not too late to go back to the drawing board!
I personally would welcome an ATV/dirt bike park since it might result in fewer ATV/dirt bikes roaming my neighborhood of Huntersville and force reluctant elected officials to address this significant issue of illegal ATV and dirt bike use townwide. Who in their right mind would pay $1 million-plus for a home on four acres with the potential for the town (the town’s right) turning the abutting 12 acres into an ATV/dirt bike park?
Bob Giordano
Yorktown
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