Concerns on Growth

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The subject on many minds these days is the proposed widening of N.C. 211 between West End and Pinehurst. It seems like everyone is talking about it. But at the root of all their concern is the broader issue of growth: how much and what kind.

Any viable traffic plan the community might agree on — with or without a 211 Bypass — will probably have to include the widening of 211. If it doesn’t, the DOT will take one look at the staggering traffic counts and safety record and make its decision to widen the roadway anyway, regardless of public sentiment. We’re much better off working with the DOT and its engineers now to create an aesthethically pleasing corridor with a tree-covered median than fighting them.

In the past, we’ve seen hyperbole bordering on hysteria with the Pinehurst traffic circle controversy. This community used up too much of its goodwill with the DOT during the traffic circle debate and has nothing to show for it. We ought to start working proactively now with state government.

Three submissions featured in today’s paper — letters from Dr. Ray Sizemore and Dolores Gregory, both of Pinehurst, and a column by Dr. John Dempsey of Southern Pines — take a thoughtful look at the subject from fresh and interesting perspectives.

Sizemore, a retired college professor at Western Carolina University and a native of neighboring Chatham County, advocates the widening of the road for safety reasons as well as to improve access to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital.

“Good roads are essential to the continued success and growth of the facility, and to the Sandhills area,” Sizemore writes. “If you really want to do something for Pinehurst and the Sandhills, support the formation of the municipal planning organization … and develop lines of communication between Aberdeen, Pinehurst, Southern Pines and the DOT.”

Gregory, a native of Pamlico County and 13-year employee of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, has seen first-hand the ravages the pro-growth/no-growth debate can wreak on a community. She advocates avoiding that altogether.

“Let us apply the art of politics (in the very best sense) to the transportation needs of Moore County,” she writes. “Accommodate different points of view, develop a consensus and see that the needs of all communities in our region are met. We all should approach the problem in the spirit of cooperation and not encourage competing factions.”

Dempsey, president of Sandhills Community College, calls for the community to grasp the brass ring of progress and generously offers to host a series of public forums to examine the problems involved and work toward solutions.

“Highway 211, like the growth at Sandhills, is a metaphor really — a metaphor for the issues we all face as we seek to improve our community while trying to hold onto the characteristics that makes us love it so much in the first place,” Dempsey writes. “Our central question becomes: How can we grow, but not change?”

The three writers do not agree fully on an appropriate outcome for the project, but a common theme pervades their pieces: Maintain open lines of communications between the three main municipalities in southern Moore County and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, and work toward a general lowering of voices in the debate.

Perhaps most important, all three writers suggest — some more overtly than others — that the larger issue behind all the controversy is apprehension and anxiety that the growth adversely changing this special place is running out of control.

The Sandhills area is at a crossroads. Either we can build community consensus to chart our path progressively and plan for our future success, or we can react haphazardly as the pace of change continues to increase.