There has been a plethora of letters to the various papers in the region recently attacking the current Jackson County Board of Commissioners and their land-use regulations and subdivision ordinances. Most of these letters are written by or for members of the real-estate business community, which should be a red flag. From the very beginnings of the moratorium process in Jackson County, these same nay-saying, whining, Bush-and-Reagan free-trade-capitalist Realtors have been singing the same old tune: The end is near.
These folks are going too far in laying blame at the feet of a group of locally elected officials who are trying their best not to destroy Jackson County. So I say: Consider the source!
We need to give our current commissioners a fair chance to get the new regulations up and running. The ink has barely had time to dry on the paper. Every board member I’ve talked to has told me the same thing: “We’re still tweaking the regs to fit the demands and needs of all the residents of Jackson County. … It takes time to work these things out.”
I am convinced that the present board—elected to create restrictive land-use regulations for our county—is working diligently to try and do what is best and right for Jackson County. We need to let them finish what they started. If, at the end of the next voting cycle (in two years) we don’t like what they’ve done, we can start talking about replacing some of the members of the board.
Jackson County is not going broke, isn’t broken, and is going to be OK—if we can regulate the development and real-estate industries here. We need to give Mark Jones and Joe Cowan a vote of confidence and let them finish what they started.
— Thomas Crowe
Tuckasegee
Hear,hear! Thomas Crowe’s letter is very well-written, and makes a very good point. I for one applaud the visonary determination of the board. Far too many boards engage in hand-wringing and whining until it’s too late – ours stepped up and took a decisive swing at land butchers. In future years we may well see that they hit one out of the park!