NewCore is an honest effort by the village of Pinehurst to fix up a 19-acre area of town that sorely needs it. A consultant drew up an imaginative plan to put the tract to new uses. But the plan went a step or two too far, giving rise to concerns about the effect the proposed changes could have on the village’s cherished lifestyle.
Though municipal officials can point to several well-advertised public meetings on the NewCore project that were held to give all interested people ample opportunity to offer comments in advance, some key affected parties still ended up feeling blindsided and threatened. The result was a lot of unnecessary ruffling of feathers, setting conspiracy theories in motion and causing a good thing to get off to a bad start.
Good Riddance, Parking Garage
The result was the unpleasant scene that arose at Tuesday night’s council work session. A few people in the crowd came prepared to raise hell, but the council adroitly took the wind out of their sails at the beginning by announcing that the unwelcome parking structure proposed between the Holly Inn and the Pine Crest Inn was being placed on the shelf and shoved way to the back, to be dusted off and reconsidered only in the distant future, if at all.
That’s welcome news. Good riddance. No one has yet demonstrated any pressing current need for such an expensive and unsightly piece of infrastructure.
Also gone is the “promenade,” which would have provided a pedestrian link between NewCore and the existing village center. In addition, several proposed small commercial buildings that had been shown outside the service area have been blessedly nuked. That’s just as well, since planners had taken the liberty of drawing them in on the land of owners who didn’t want them there, giving rise to fears — apparently ungrounded — that the village must be preparing to condemn private property in pursuit of its master plan.
Major Objections Removed
Downtown merchants said that their opposition to NewCore was based not on the prospect of competition from new retail businesses that might go into the project area, but rather on concerns about the parking facility. Now that the Village Council has prudently taken it off the table, perhaps things can proceed more harmoniously.
Indeed, the area in question, bounded by McCaskill, Magnolia and Community roads, could potentially attract much more large-scale retail activity under its current zoning than under changes proposed as part of NewCore.
We believe the members of the council and the village staff had only the best interests of their storied community and its residents at heart in setting out to explore various possibilities in NewCore. They made a mistake or two, but they have now corrected them.
Most parties agree that the service area is an eyesore that needs to be put to tasteful new uses better befitting Pinehurst’s quaint, pleasant and historic ambience. Now that the major stumbling blocks have been removed, here’s hoping the discussion can proceed on a more constructive level toward a consensus plan agreeable to all.
