Others, mostly those who lived on Midland or remembered it as a unique historical corridor graced by longleaf pines, opposed such construction.
That’s the dilemma — the question of growth versus the environment — that is played out in one way or another every day in the rapidly growing Sandhills. Hardly ever has the outcome made both sides happy.
Growth in the Sandhills means a lot of new homes being built for new residents, mostly retirees. The influx of retirees is expected to double the population of Pinehurst, to about 20,000, in 10 years..
Recent new home construction, particularly in Pinehurst, is running ahead of growth, leaving some existing pieces of real estate on the market for years.
Decades ago, Diamondhead Corp. carved out at least 3,000 residential lots in Pinehurst. About 250 houses a year are being built on these lots, creating concern among some elected officials in Pinehurst about things like stormwater runoff (the infrastructure built back in the 1970s doesn’t include stormwater management systems), and, more recently, the cutting of some magnificent, old-growth trees.
Some of the cutting is done by people who have purchased homes and simply don’t want trees or limbs falling on their houses during an ice storm — or don’t want to have to clean up magnolia leaves.
“It’s a short-term loss, to keep a valuable tree even if it is close to your house, versus a long-term gain,” a spokesman for the Nature Conservancy’s Sandhills Program says. The program seeks to protect the last remaining large stand of longleaf pines in the country. But longleaf pines are being cut down daily in the Sandhills.
“We’re losing 500 acres of land a day in North Carolina that is being developed,” says Jim Fields, manager of the Conservancy’s Southern Pines office.
Organizations such as the Conservancy and the Sandhills Area Land Trust, which began years ago under the leadership of Southern Pines attorney Marsh Smith, are nonprofits that can, by law, buy valuable undeveloped forest resources or develop perpetual conservation easements.
They focus on sensitive areas such as the pristine forests along Drowning Creek, the town of Southern Pines’ water supply. They feel that it is important to keep the water clean for the town’s 10,000 residents.
The agencies have persuaded some property owners to sell land or provide easements to protect sensitive parts of the watershed. But many other areas continue to be used for homebuilding and clearing.
For the individual property owner, trees provide beauty and shade, an important consideration in the hot, muggy months of late spring and summer when air-conditioning bills go sky-high for unshaded houses. Old farmhouses were usually built in the shade of several old trees, to cool the home and provide a natural wind break.
But to some newcomers to rural areas, trees are inconvenient and messy. Some would rather have flowers. Pinehurst Village Council members recently remarked unfavorably on the person who was reported to have removed some large old pines bordering the famed Pinehurst No. 2 golf course and planted flowers in their place. The property owner had the right to do that, and the council couldn’t do anything to prevent it.
Tree roots help keep soil in place and prevent erosion and flooding. However, many don’t think about these things when a major inconvenience such as the December 2002 ice storm brings down limbs and trees on homes and power lines.
Loss of Trees
The Pinehurst Village Council has become concerned enough about the cutting of some venerable trees and resulting damage to the village’s ambience that it has explored an ordinance to regulate the cutting of trees on private property. But members of the council discovered that any such legislation would require enactment by the N.C. General Assembly.
Southern Pines had looked into the same thing years ago, when a lot zoned commercial just off Morganton Road was clearcut. Pinehurst’s council members are finding, as Southern Pines Council members did, that such a law is unlikely to be introduced, because the General Assembly and Moore County’s local representatives have bedrock belief in protecting the rights of private property owners.
State Rep. Richard Morgan and state Sen. Harris Blake, Moore County Republicans who would have to back such legislation, oppose it.
Federal laws already prohibit cutting trees designated as protected habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. The trees are identified by the white, diamond-shaped plastic devices attached to them. Hefty fines are imposed on anyone who removes such a tree.
But in most other cases, removing a tree on private property is pretty much up to the desire of the property owner or builder.
The Moore County Home Builders Association “is working on a document we’re going to try to submit to all the building permitting agencies, that tells the person getting the permit the desirable kinds of trees to be kept,” said Home Builders President Alex Bowness. “We are in favor of maintaining trees in our community, because trees make homes more attractive.”
Sometimes, he added, “It seems like a lot of trees are being cut down … but in Pinehurst, there are many small lots where the village ordinances dictate the size of a house allowed. By default, the builder has to take a number of trees down to build the house to the village’s specifications.”
To get a permit, the builder has to obtain a topographic survey that shows trees where red-cockaded woodpeckers make their homes. Bowness feels this is sufficient regulation to prevent the cutting of these trees.
“That is not an issue from our point of view,” he said..
Pinehurst Village Council member Lorraine Tweed, who has been working with the Home Builders and the state lawmakers on the tree-protection project, said, “We would like to leave a buffer of significant trees around the perimeter of a lot.”
Mayor Steve Smith even suggested, “I’d consider going away from the perimeter and say we’d like to have major trees and specimen trees such as dogwoods remain that are not absolutely [necessary] to remove for building a house.”
Though the Home Builders may voluntarily cooperate during the construction process, ultimately the property will belong to the homeowner, who can do as he will with it.
Education Needed
The solution has to be education, several people interviewed agreed. Even the Home Builders can’t regulate what builders in general are going to do. They can only recommend or suggest. The municipal permit process is where the rubber meets the road, and even then, handing out educational materials is the obvious solution that Bowness said he hopes will become possible soon.
The Village Council has endorsed open space acquisition, a greenway trail system, and keeping some drainage lots undeveloped as far as possible to prevent flooding from development as trees and other vegetation are removed for house construction.
However, there isn’t enough money to buy or purchase conservation easements to protect all the woods that need protecting, Marsh Smith said.
Pat Corso, chief operating officer of Pinehurst Inc., cautioned that growth can be a double-edged sword for Moore County. Corso was opposed to the prospect of having a major shopping center off Midland Road, which would attract considerable traffic.
Midland is lined with golf resorts and contributes to the resort’s unique tourist appeal. Many Moore County residents earn a living working for the resorts, and many others get indirect income from Pinehurst Inc., working service jobs that are here because of the resort.
“We need a community standard,” Corso said.
Midland Road Development
The board of directors of Moore Partners in Progress chose not to take a stand on the Midland Road shopping center proposal, despite the urging of a couple of members, particularly since the Kmart Super Center was just then being vacated and leaving a huge shopping center empty in Southern Pines.
Some argued that the Kmart property would be a more appropriate place than Midland Road for the planned grocery store, drugstore and other shops. That issue continues to be discussed by the developer, his lawyers, and the village.
Some kind of development is likely to go into that area off Midland, which is zoned Neighborhood Commercial, though it might well be less extensive than the originally planned 136,000 square feet.
There is no unified community standard for growth in the environmentally sensitive Sandhills, and Corso warned that the current development and growth atmosphere is a “free-for-all.”
When the economy comes back from its current sluggishness, Moore County is also likely to begin to grow faster in commercial and other business development, as well as in homes.
Those concerned include affluent residents of Southern Pines’ horse country, whose equestrian events draw money and jobs here. These people recently got up in arms about a rough map from the N.C. Department of Transportation depicting a potential U.S. 1 bypass around Southern Pines and Aberdeen. The bypass would run straight through Horse Country and the Walthour-Moss Foundation, which is preserved for horseback riding and is left in its natural state for now.
When the map surfaced a couple of years ago, the storm reached all the way to Raleigh. DOT officials were quick to say that the bypass was just a dotted line drawn by a computer. It is unfunded and unplanned.
Depending on their priorities, different segments of Moore County’s population react in different ways when growth runs up against environmental concerns. But all have one thing in common: an expressed desire to protect the unique facets of the Sandhills that have attracted people for more than 100 years.
Contact Sara Lindau at 693-2473 or at slindau@thepilot.com.
