Why I donated to the lawsuit to stop Davidson's new Griffith Street Hotel

Nobody wanted to be here.  That much I assure you.

Homeowners near the proposed Griffith Street Hyatt Place Hotel who filed a lawsuit last week to stop the project certainly don't want to be fighting their own town to protect their home values and neighborhoods.  Parents of children at the nearby schools reasonably don't want a hotel right next to where their kids' walk and play on a daily basis, and they certainly didn't want to see their Town Hall scoff at any and all of their safety concerns.  Neighbors and others who frequent the area don't want a parking situation made worse in an already crowded part of town.

All of these groups rightfully expected their town leaders to not put them in this situation, but here we are.  Instead of looking for truly smart growth that protects and improves the entire community, by approving this hotel project Davidson Town Hall proved it was more concerned with wonkishly improving the town's walkability score.

On top of all this, there is that sense the fix was in since the beginning; that sense the cake was already baked by the time the public knew what was happening; that sense Davidson Town Hall was just going through the motions to give the developers what they wanted - a too big hotel on a too small plot with too little parking in absolutely the wrong place.

So, no...nobody wanted to be here.

And to be very clear, when I day "Davidson Town Hall" in this case, I don't mean our current elected officials.  I mean former Commissioners Beth Cashion, Brian Jenest, Rodney Graham, and Stacey Anderson.  Their approving votes as elected officials created this situation by ramming this through on their way out the door, leaving others to deal with the mess.

So, while nobody wants to be here.  Here we are...with a lawsuit...against our town. 

Now of course, there are those who say lawsuits are risky.  They say lawsuits are uncertain.  They say there is no guarantee you will win.  To that I'll just say this... 

The naysayers are right.  The outcome is not guaranteed, but the things in life most worth fighting for never are.  If they were, you wouldn't have to fight for them because they would just happen.

This lawsuit is one of those times.  It's one of those things worth fighting for.  It is not just the home values, or the nearby schools, or the traffic.  It is all of those things and much more.  It's about stopping this from happening again - somewhere where it impacts you directly.  It's about fighting for a system that is transparent, a system where developers don't get an outsized say in what gets built when a community doesn't want something.  It's about making sure towns follow not just the letter of the law but the spirit behind it as well.  While this case is about something happening in Davidson, those concepts apply to towns everywhere.

That is why I donated to the lawsuit to overturn this approval, and that is why I encourage you to do the same.

You can donate online at:

https://www.gofundme.com/stop-the-griffith-st-hotel

You can send a check to:

Luke Charde, PO Box785, Davidson, NC 28036. The checks should be made to "Luke Charde, Special Account"   Mr Charde is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

You can read the filed complaint here.