There is so much land being developed

Did you feel that way 30 years ago when you moved your mouthy self in? No, but now you want to call the shots to stop it. Hell, just move again. I promise we won't miss you anymore then than we did before you helped invade our sanctuary called; Cleveland School Area.........................BEY

 

You do realize that we will still come back to haunt you?

Although I still own a home in the 4042 area, I have moved to the outskirts of Fayetteville.

 

Every road built or expanded is in response to CURRENT overcrowding. The problem isn't enough roads or schools, it is too much development at a rate that outpaces both roads and schools.

 

NCDOT will tell you they never get funding to prepare for overcrowded roads, but only to deal with roads which are already overcrowded. That is why I-40, I-440, I-540, and every other major road will always seem to be in some stage of construction. They cannot overbuild to prepare for the future growth because they do not get that funding.

 

NCDOT always seems to be playing 'catch up'
You know the stretch of 40 they are working on now? when they did it initially they did it to inferior standards. That is why they are resurfacing\repairing it now. They do not have plans on widening it for at least 9/10 years. Heck if they were the least bit budget conscience and forward thinking, they would be combining both projects and widening\resurfacing\repairing now.

 

True, but look at all of the other roads that also need to be worked on in those 9-10 years that would have to also be postponed. There is never enough in the budget to do what would be better, but just enough to try to get by.

 

I'd be all for one of those lanes on I-40 where you have a toll and the price of the toll increases to keep traffic flowing at the speed limit.

 

Anyone know anything about Hunter Apartments? They have about 110 acres of land off Cornwallis and Cleveland Rd. For comparison, Amelia Station on 42 by Sheetz is 288 units on 16 acres. I can't even imagine how many units would be on 110 acres. Even if they spaced them out a lot more, made them only 2 story, and added a park, it would still be over 1000 units.

 

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/garner-cleveland-record/article20562897.html

 

Our commissioners should really be ashamed of themselves. I realize commissioners need to have a day job, but it always kind of stinks when their day jobs benefit from their decisions on the board. Cookie Pope being one of them. No doubt she is good at her job as a legal assistant, but she is paid by Mast Law Firm and they inevitably are fine with her spending countless hours on her job as commissioner. So in essence she is a bought and paid for politician. She may no directly affect any of Mast's business, but every subdivision she approves is X number of more closings her firm may get and that is just the tip of the iceberg. There was a commissioner some time ago that owned a lumber company. Do you think growth was good tom him?

 

Do you some how think this is different here than any other town/county/city/state? lol

 

Not really. I just think it is especially apprarent in Ms. Pope's case. She is also (or has been) on the Johnston Memorial board of directors. Not sure how this would tie into to her employer who, I don't know, also specializes in medical malpractice cases. It's unreal. I would love to know how much actual paralegal work she does or does she does help run the County's business in a manner that might benefit her employers or employer's clients.

 

If her employer is happy with her work and you can't detect any specific thing she has done wrong; why the accusatory assumptions. Because you're just an ignorant jerk that doesn't like successful people? It's none of your business how or even if her employer pays her. Get your dumb ass out there and run for office . Maybe she will read this and sue you for slander. Attorney fees probably aren't that bad if you work there.

 

Quoted just so I can tell Cookie to read this accusatory tripe.

 

Harvey, without going into a ton of details on how wrong you are, let me just say this. You are way off base about Cookie and Mast Law. The idea, though, about her approving subdivisions so her firm might get a few closings out of it is laughable. Maybe you have not bought a house lately and have forgotten how things work as far as closings and who does what and who picks what. Its just laughable at best.

 

Okay. So you know her well and I don't. No one will tell me that a paralegal for a Smithfield law firm does any measurable work for that law firm while being a county commissioner for over two decades (including chairperson) and also sits on at least a dozen other important boards and/or committees. She has been very successful, but couldn't we all if we had an employer who was so supportive of extra curricular activities? Call me a cynic, but I can only think one reason a law firm would keep someone on a payroll like this: influence. I have served on a couple of small boards inside of my own profession and the only reasons my employer allowed it was to maintain certifications and to gain influence. Even then they were sure to keep my involvement in check so as to not interfere with my 'day job'.

She lives in the Cleveland area, I believe. How can she vote, in good conscience, to approve a 352 unit subdivision next to a elementary school that is at or over capacity? Granted, if it meets requirements there is little she can do. Show some spine and at least make an attempt to control growth at a pace where the infrastructure (schools in this case) can keep up. Start the process to write the book in Johnston County to do it better, smarter...before it gets bad.

I am all for growth and I don't want to stifle it like they do in Orange County. Most people here would say they moved out here to get away from it all, a little more country, not Cary, etc. We've all heard it. Hasn't Cookie?

I am no expert, but there are so many things wrong with how Johnston has managed growth in this area. From subdivision requirements, to schools. And before anyone says, "Don't like it, then leave"...I will say this: It wasn't like this 18 years ago when I moved here. Back then everyone knew Johnston was fastest growing. People cashed in without a second thought to reaping what they sow. They have had 20 years to manage this.

 

Harvey, chill out, take a xanex or something. Cookie was a TA when I was in kindergarden. Her husband is a farmer. They ain't out to get you. Theres a good chance I've rode a motorcycle through your subdivision when I was little. I know I have driven a john deere across most homes in the area way back when. Growth is here. Many of us have adapted and found a way to profit. Some of us still own substancial acreage. Please don't tell us it ought to remain "green space" just because we held on to it till now!

 

JoCo will always have many times more green space then Wake, for at least the next 50 years. Now the part on the northern side near the county line will certainly become more dense, of course.

It is not in JoCo's best interest to deny subdivisions. They bring jobs, raise the value of most land in the area, increase the tax base, and in turn grow services. Services will always lag behind growth, that is inevitable. They are not going to build new schools on speculative growth. They will request funds to build new schools as they approach critical capacity in the current ones. Then it takes at least a few months to a year or more to get the funds approved. Once approved, it can take a year or two to find land and build a school. So schools (or roads or other services) always lag 2-3+ years behind growth. They are not going to turn Cleveland road into a 6 lane highway just based on speculation that in 5-10-15 years population will be double or triple what it is today. What if they spent the $100M to do that and the growth never came? The county and state would be broke in no time.

Growth is inevitable in JoCo, especially in the 40/42 area. And in many cases when they approve a subdivision, Sheetz, or whatever, they make the builder make concessions to pay for (or build themselves in some cases) road, school, and utility improvements. In some cases even, they make the builder set aside land from their parcel, and even money at times, to build a future school. It just depends on the size of the development. Larger ones have to make more concessions of course.

A 300-400 home neighborhood will probably only have a dozen or two kids that will go to each elementary, middle, and high schools. So for a school that has 500 students, it's only an increase of 2% or so usually. Hardly pushing it over the edge of capacity unless it already was there. In which case the county should already be planning new schools.

 

Harvey, nice post. Still, quite wrong about Cookie. Ok you moved here 18 years ago. Congrats! I started working with land development here back in 1995 so we both came along around the same time.

To insinuate that Cookie, or any other commissioner, approves subdivisions on the off chance that their law firm or whatever company they work for might benefit from it is as i said, laughable. You do not understand how the development process works so let me break it down for you.

In Johnston County, in the last 20 years, you have less than 10 major developers. For sake of argument lets say a major developer is one who puts down 200 lots a year.

Short story long, a 100 lot subdivision gets approved and will take 3-4 years to build out on average, since it will be done in phases. Lets say 33 lots per year, 2.75 lots per month. The developer sells the lots to the builder, builder sells to buyer. Buyer comes in with their own realtor and buyer decides on place of closing. In the last 10 years alone there are maybe 5-6 attorneys who do the majority of home closings in the county. Mast Law Firm.....aint one of them. Mast did have a stretch for about 2 years (4 years ago) when they did a number of closings which was due to the fact that Jennifer Green got arrested and Mast got all her work. This was the Cleveland office only though, not Smithfield. It had nothing to do with Cookie. Trust me.

So to think that someone has the foresight to sit on a commission and think to themselves, "Hey, if i approve this subdivision, my office might get 2-3 closings a month out of it (if they got all of them that month!) and we may make $1500 or so out of it, is as i said, laughable. Its just not how it works.

Now as to how she can vote on a massive development next to an already overcrowded school is simple. The developer is doing everything that the JoCo Unified Development Ordinance requires and asks for. In JoCo, the planning board and commissioners dont vote "with their heart" so much as they may do in Chapel Hill or Orange County or even Wake County. You can get turned down there, trust me, even if you play by the rules because a commissioner doesnt like the project. In JoCo, if you develop by the ordinance, then generally it gets approved. Here, if you develop by the rules you normally get approved.

I was in a Board meeting once and the client wanted to add another section of building to his existing building. Meaning he had a 40x100 building and wanted to add another 25 feet in the back to allow more storage for his business. He had all the land needed and it was all within code. (this was Town of Clayton btw). One commissioner raised a stink about it because to access the new building area, the client would need to put down more crush and run to extend his vehicular use area. His whole storage area was already crush and run so he was doing nothing different. The commissioner felt that there would be too much dust from the trucks going over on to an adjacent subdivision and voted against the project. never mind that the existing business had been in their location over 15 years and was there before the subdivision went in (which was already buffered with tall cypress trees). The project met all the Towns development requirements and should have been approved but one commissioner raised a stink about it. Eventually, he had to pave the new area while leaving the existing area crush and run. That made sense.

You want different developmental rules, then change the UDO. You want the UDO changed, well then you have another issue on your hands.

 

Harv. Think a little. Cookie is going on 80 years old. Don't you suppose she may be drawing retirement? Dang dude, wake up and stop the accusations just because she is a Republican. Better yet , run for her seat next time. I'm sure you'll get lots of votes.