Applicants who wanted to place a rock quarry on a large piece of land across N.C. Highway 87 from the Carolina Trace subdivision withdrew their petition minutes before the start of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. Sanford City Council meeting, sources tell the Rant.
A standing room-only crowd of Trace residents and environmental activists had filled the council chambers ahead of the meeting, possibly due to the circulation of a flyer among Trace residents alerting them to plans for the placement of the quarry.
While Carolina Trace is not inside the Sanford city limits, the location of the proposed rock quarry is (subscription required).
Sources tell the Rant that more than 100 activists showed up Tuesday night to express their disapproval of the plan and that the chairman of the Sanford Planning Board announced to the crowd that the applicants had withdrawn their petition just prior to the meeting’s start. Many of the attendees left before things got under way.
I cannot help but wonder how different this issue would be if the quarry site was adjacent to a less affluent community. Economic progress is awesome, but not in my backyard? Don’t think that I’m a quarry supporter…I’m not. But for safety reasons, not because it hurts my property value.
The property owners of Carolina Trace are not affluent. Go on zillow and take a look at median price of a home. The difference is, there is a home owners association with concern for property value. This quarry was seen as a threat to over $1B in property which would have severely impacted the residents of Lee Co, not just those of Carolina Trace. The HOA spent north of $100K of its saved funds to fight this quarry.