Citizens of the county who had been approached by the Mashburn family to write a Letter to the Editor addressing the Sawnee Mountain rezoning contacted me. I am pleased to see that the citizens saw through this election ploy and declined. The letter published is from the sister in law of Pete Amos....
Citizens of the county who had been approached by the Mashburn family to write a Letter to the Editor addressing the Sawnee Mountain rezoning contacted me. I am pleased to see that the citizens saw through this election ploy and declined. The letter published is from the sister in law of Pete Amos. The following comments are my response to this political attack.
Ms. Mashburn Lappe’s Letter to The Editor “Commissioner chooses not to protect Greenspace” was published in the Sunday, July 30th edition of the Forsyth County News.
It was my understanding the FCN was not going to allow letters attacking a candidate in the final days of the campaign but as I am a believer in the “Power of the People” not a member of the sacred “People of Power” the rules may not apply.
Ms. Mashburn Lappe was not concerned with protecting “Greenspace. If protecting “Greenspace” was her concern she would be expressing outrage at the clear cutting and mass grading that is occurring throughout this county. But I forget the Mashburn family sold so much of that land being pillaged and increasing lot sizes, reducing density, and preserving natural Greenspace would have reduced the income to the seller.
Ms. Mashburn Lappe is so concerned over the omission of a condition requiring the developers to donate $50,000 to the county for a fence to protect the Sawnee Mountain Preserve from encroachment. The developer did not agree to the condition and it is not my, or county policy, to impose conditions the developer objects to, unless warranted by the need to protect the public safety or welfare. If the fence had been necessary for public safety, to protect residents from encroaching into an agricultural area with livestock, the county would have been justified in imposing such a condition.
I worked long and hard with the developer to arrive at a set of conditions that would appease those neighbors that opposed the rezoning, protect, and add to the Sawnee Mountain Preserve. Ms. Mashburn Lappe conveniently chooses to overlook the condition requiring a 100 foot undisturbed buffer along the property line with the park, rather than the required 25-foot buffer.
Ms. Mashburn Lappe also overlooked the donation of the property to the south of the development to the Sawnee Mountain Preserve. But then Ms. Mashburn Lappe also conveniently failed to identify herself as the sister in law of Pete Amos. This same Pete Amos was conspicuously absent from the Planning Commission meeting the night this rezoning was heard.
The citizens will never know how Mr. Amos would have voted on this issue. Would he have voted against the property rights of the developers, would he have voted in favor of family interest, or would he have done the right thing and voted to uphold the zoning laws of Forsyth County? How convenient for him that the citizens of this county will never know his true color.
I could have denied or postponed this rezoning decision to curry political favor with the citizens but I chose to do what I deemed right and follow the zoning laws of Forsyth County. I chose to address the Issue and not play Politics as my opponent, and his family, is doing.
Charlie Laughinghouse