Saturday, April 22, 2017

Beaty Street delay...or diversion.

On Friday, Davidson Town Hall published the agenda for Tuesday's upcoming Board meeting.

One expected contentious item was missing however.  That would be the expected vote to proceed with the Beaty Street property sale and development proposal for Davidson Development Partners' "Luminous" project.   The project has been roiling the citizenry these past few months, as has much of what's been emanating from Town Hall.

At roughly the same time, the below email from Assistant Town Manager, Dawn Blobaum, began circulating on local social media.


Eric Giangiordano who has been one of the community leaders opposing the project posted this along with the email.


So, while any delay in moving forward with this effort should be seen as a positive, residents are right to be skeptical.  This show has been seen before...and recently.

Davidson Town Hall recently delayed their vote on the RAP rezoning by a few months, but ultimately passed it after making a few relatively minor tweaks.

What could make this one different is the length of any delay.

Within 90 days, filing for the next election will be over, and those opposing this project and others have been beating the bushes for new candidates.  A delay of more than 30 days puts any vote on this Beaty Street project squarely in the election cross hairs.

While no Davidson Commissioners have said publicly whether or not they will seek re-election, pressure will begin to mount on that front as the July filing period gets closer.

The public deserves to know if the people taking these contentious votes are doing so as lame ducks or are willing to stand behind them while facing the voters.

The clock is now officially ticking on answering that question.

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