Quality of Life

(City of  Belmont photo)

The City of Belmont grew larger after the September 4 council meeting approving a voluntary annexation request by Southland Resources.

34 additional acres just south of South Point High School will be incorporated into the city. Southland Resources plan to build as many as 118 homes on the narrow stretch of land now called South Point Village.

Apparently, one road will feed the new development, and the land will be clear-cut of trees to enable the site to be worked for higher density house placement. The current site is a mixture of pasture and woodland.

More importantly, this development has not yet received permission to build an outlet road through the South Ridge Development that lies just west of the high school campus. South Ridge has its only access road feeding onto an already congested Nixon Road.

The annexation was approved unanimously, with property rights advocates, Charlie Flowers and Charlie Martin, bringing the proposal to the table.

Our concern is two-fold on this annexation and proposed development. First is the road access. Under Traditional Neighborhood (TND) guidelines that the city attempts to live by, roads in developments will be interconnecting and have multiple outlets. The proposed development has neither. Second, a rush to approve clear-cutting in developments concerns us a a community. Developers like to get rid of as many trees, mature or not, to increase the density for the greenspace set asides. Of course trees can be planted.

However, non-native species of trees, ornamentals, and indiscriminate plantings affect the whole community over time.

Lifelong resident and retired Duke Power employee, George Hall, pointed out a concern over the massive clear-cutting that is taking place in the Belmont area. He noted that several older developments, Glenmere and Fallingbrook, incorporated the mature trees into their plans. Of course these developments were also 1-acre lots. The new developments are cramming 3 sometimes 4, and in rare occasions 5 lots in an acre of land.

The Hawthorne project that was recently completed in the old Imperial Mill Village area, did a very good job in the replantings. The developer, Bob Clay, representing Pharr Yarns, replanted oaks, maples, poplars, birches, and several versions of evergreens.  

We need more people to participate in “watchdog” type of activities as developments are brought to the council for approval. This is a development happy group that only looks out after the city coffers for the growing city employee population, not the taxpayer.

We like a good joke from time to time on the Front Porch. We have some friends, relatives, and neighbors who are sterotypically represented in these jokes. So if you are sensitive, don’t read them… again, we wouldn’t publish some of the really bad stuff that gets one pushed into the bushes…

Tom, a handsome dude, walked into a sports bar around 9:58 PM.  
 

He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV. 

The 10:00 PM news was coming on.  The news crew was covering a story of a man on a ledge of a large building preparing to jump. 

The blonde looked at Tom and said, “Do you think he’ll jump?”

Tom says, “You know, I bet he’ll jump.”

The blonde replied, “Well, I bet he won’t.”

Tom placed a $20 bill on the bar and said, “You’re on!”

Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy on the ledge did a swan dive off the building, falling to his death. 

The blonde was very upset, but willingly handed her $20 to Tom saying, “Fair’s fair.  Here’s your money.”

Tom replied, “I can’t take your money, I saw this earlier on the 5 PM news and so I knew he would jump.”

The blond replied, “I did too; but I didn’t think he’d do it again.”

Tom took the money….. 

MMM, good eatin’ !        

The Gazette continues to publish recipes from the “Gaston Cooks” Cookbook that was published some years back.

We have all tried things from this cook book and the link to the article brings back a few favorites.