Rethinking The Oriental Growth Management Ordinance And Comprehensive Plan

Good for Janet Alexander.

A couple of days ago, she asked a good question on the Oriental Facebook site:

"Now what happens to the walmart property? Will the land be annexed to town before a new business moves in?"

A reader advised her to look at Town Dock.

She replied: "I have been reading town dock but did not see anything about the property being formally annexed to town."

Larry Summers commented: "The state legislature has substantially blocked any annexation except voluntary. They have even reversed some prior annexations. In addition,the Town of Oriental's Ordinance Changes five or six years ago prohibit any building over 6000 square feet. That would eliminate Walmart, Dollar General, Town and Country several of the churches and fish houses. The ones that are currently inside the town limits are grandfathered in."

Some thoughts:

1. We need to act now;

2.  Oriental's Growth Management Ordinance is just an ordinance and can be amended;

3.  Oriental's Long Range Plan omits any planning for annexation;

4.  Oriental has no business or commercial district - the town has only residential and mixed use;

5.  A decade ago the Town flubbed the ball on extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ);
6.  NC general statutes still allow involuntary annexation - just with more hurdles;

7.  Without effective planning, we will continue to drift. 

These facts feed in to an obvious plan.

More later.

More later.

Flip Flops

I get a bit tired of candidates accusing each other of "flip-flops."

I suppose no one remembers Ralph Waldo Emerson, who penned perhaps the last word on the subject:“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. ”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Mahatma Gandhi also touched on the subject; he often changed his mind publicly. An aide once asked him how he could so freely contradict this week what he had said just last week. The great man replied that it was because this week he knew better.

--- Gandhi



"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

--- John Meynard Keynes