Against Community Long-Range Plans

From the 2007 Franklin Corridor plan

Joe Lineberger, who told neighbors that this property should be preserved as a natural preserve, passed away in 2005 at the age of 95.  Interesting to note, as someone who moved back into the area in late 2012, that that vision was in fact preserved in the form of several significant community  committees and reports over the last ten years.

In Vision for a Healthy Community: A Plan for Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces, 2005-2020, Greenway Map,  the  2007 Franklin Boulevard Corridor Master Plan from the Gaston-Cleveland Lincoln Metropolitan Planning Organization (p. 62-65), the 2013 City of Gastonia 2025 Comprehensive plan (p. 160 and following), and the 2014 Gastonia Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan (p. 50) plan for this area, all of these groups have the southside Franklin parcel left primarily a wooded greenway and undeveloped area, primarily because of its use as a floodplain and stormwater runoff site for the Franklin Square development.

Headline touting gift as a fast forward on greenway plans - but wait 24 hours....

Briefly, it looked like the Lineberger gift to the City last winter would be a jumpstart to those greenway plans.   With the subheading "Move could mean greenway and speedier development", the December 16, 2014 Gaston Gazette (above) reported:

Supporters say it will give the City land for the construction of a long-sought greenway. It would preserve woods that would serve as a buffer between the Franklin Square shopping area and an adjacent residential subdivision, said Archibald Lineberger III, of Belmont, whose family owns the land to be donated.

Curiously - or maybe not - the local paper the next day was singing a different tune about the fate of the greenway.  "City leaders have abandoned thoughts of building a greenway along the creek-side 27 acres they now own. They will instead move forward with establishing a conservation easement there through the state, which would further ensure it could never be disturbed."  The greenway proposal had been part of at least four city planning documents since at least 2005 and was included in the 2014 Gastonia Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan just earlier last year, though to my knowledge was never brought before voters as part of a bond package for parks construction. I do not know if The Trust for Public Land or Catawba Lands Conservancy were ever contacted about ways to reserve this wooded parcel for conservation with compensation to the family.  And yet in one falsely publicized move, our leaders took it off the table. I guess no one wanted to keep up the charade of making a greenway out of just a sewer pipe easement.

We are a city with a diminishing percentage of land dedicated to parks and greenways.  We rank as a county near last in our growth rate compared to the rest of Metrolina.  Would we grow better if we spent a little money and effort on a few amenities for our citizens rather than just add traffic and the next big box?