To the editor:
Ken Burns created the renowned PBS documentary “National Parks: Americas Best Idea.” Wake Forest must also have our “Best Idea” – an awareness of how open space is a valued resource and to preserve that resource for generations to come.
More than ever, we need to preserve land where people can reconnect with their surroundings. During the pandemic, E. Carroll Joyner Park and the Neuse River Greenway were packed with people. Our best option for maintaining mental health was being able to connect with each other and ourselves outdoors.
Wake Forest needs open space. Undeveloped land reveals more plant diversity, bird song and nesting sites, indicators of beaver, raccoon, deer and coyote that co-exist in this semi-urban area. Most of us recognize that fauna are displaced, as we watch deer and fox travel through our yards. A healthy ecosystem requires wildlife corridors through our communities for animals to thrive. The way to maintain wildlife corridors is to ensure we humans preserve interconnected natural land features.
Property owners and developers hold all the cards. Citizens of Wake Forest also have a right to be heard and ask for the preservation of their community’s resources. The land known as the Wake Forest Golf Course was indeed a manicured open space. Nature has taken this space back. Once it is turned over to the bulldozer and builder, there is no way to get this large tract of property back. It is incumbent on us all to make decisions about how to protect not just the Joyner/Old Wake Forest Golf Course property, but any sizable property that allows our natural environment to stand with equal importance as the next Wake Forest housing development. There is really no incentive for property owners to preserve land when they can profit so handsomely from its development. HOWEVER, there is an ethical incentive for the Town of Wake Forest to make green space a priority and legacy for future generations of Wake Forest citizens. I ask that the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners reject the Special Use Permit and rezoning request for the Joyner/Old Wake Forest Golf Course property.
Sincerely,
Mary Kircher
Wake Forest
5 Responses
Just want to add to my earlier comment and apologize to Mary Kircher because I misspelled her last name.
I am in TOTAL AGREEMENT with everything Mary Kirshner wrote and I honestly believe that we who live here should be sent ballots where we would all be able to tell the board what we want our beautiful town to be like and not leave these important decisions made for us by just a small group of people who say they want to slow down all the building, but then when they get on the board they do the complete opposite.
That would require NC to become a home rule state. I’m 100% on board with this!
I applaud Mary Kircher’s remarks. Very well said.
The author of this post is 100% correct. I will not rehash what she wrote other than to endorse it. I agree…the WF Commissionser needs to turn down the requests for developing the old WF Golf Course. Rows and rows on townhomes along with single houses on small lots is not what Wake Forest needs now.