[Opinion] Aug. 4. By Bill Russell. This month marks my 30-year anniversary as a chamber of commerce executive. It seems like only yesterday when in 1996, elected, community, and business leaders of our area met in the lobby of the Visitors Center to welcome me to Lake Norman. I still recall my earlier interview when they drove me through the area, passing by the many farms which still operated in North Mecklenburg back then.

Having been raised in rural Rock Hill with a family farm of our own, I instantly felt at home.

At that time, many of the residents of Lake Norman commuted to Charlotte daily for their jobs, and if you wanted fine dining or were looking for that perfect gift, you typically turned to the “Queen City” and traveled down to SouthPark.

Our sleepy little towns were just that – bedroom communities of Charlotte. However, our citizens wanted more!

Parents wanted neighborhood schools. Workers wanted jobs where they lived. Our residents wanted nice restaurants, high end retail, and all the other amenities a great community should have to call home.

An openness back then

In the years that followed, our city leaders and citizens embraced exciting new developments like Birkdale, Antiquity, and Bailey’s Glen which created density and brought much-needed retail and fine dining to our towns. People from all over the country were welcomed to Lake Norman by families who had farmed the countryside for generations.

Over the course of the next three decades, our little region became one of the most desired destinations in the country to live, work, and visit. The Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce and the economic development corporation, working in concert with our towns, recruited businesses and international corporations to Lake Norman, creating employment with significant salaries.

Then, almost like the dark storm that sweeps across the lake bringing waves and fury, things seemed to change. People signed on to social media accounts and began berating each other over the smallest issues. What they would never say face to face became common place posts on Twitter and Facebook. The internet became the source of information, even though much of what was posted was often inaccurate and personal opinions, rather than facts.

Malicious social media

Over the last year, I have witnessed concerning comments made at Town Board Meetings and read malicious posts on social media—things that I never would have believed could be said just three years ago.

Many of these statements were made from the very people we welcomed to the Lake Norman area as new neighbors, just a few years ago. And most of them were related to revitalization in our area, including improving and rezoning Birkdale Village and the new Cornelius Business Park, a commercial development that Greenberg Gibbons Properties planned to bring to Cornelius.

One of the concerning aspects about the Cornelius Business Park project for me personally is that generations of property owners have farmed that land. Their hope was to sell their farm which would provide money for their retirement.

But now, if the owners are unable to sell the land at a fair price for the very purpose the Town’s long-range plans specified for the property, this action by the Town not only prohibits future business growth—it hurts the very residents who helped build Cornelius in the first place.

Land Use Plan approved in May

The Cornelius Town Land Use Plan, approved unanimously in May by both the Planning Board and Town Board, defines the proposed site of the Cornelius Business Park as “business campus.” This project met that criterion perfectly. It would have provided our region with additional high-quality space for smaller, local businesses in the 2,500 to 10,000 square feet range—commercial space that is much-needed in Cornelius.

We need quality businesses, not only to create jobs in the area, but to diversify the tax base. Right now, residential taxes do not cover the breadth and cost of services required to support our towns. Rezoning the land from rural preservation to commercial for the proposed Cornelius Business Park will increase the ad valorem taxes received by the town from approximately $10,445 per year to $210,549 per year.

Development is inevitable, and no matter what is proposed for any property, it’s a sure bet someone will not like it. It’s important for our Town Leaders to make decisions in the best interests of every one of our neighbors and businesses, not just the vocal few, many of whom are new to the Lake Norman region.

Opportunities lost

I am not sure whether the owners of Birkdale Village will make another pitch next year. I don’t know what Greenberg Gibbons’ plans are now that they have withdrawn their application on a small business park in Cornelius. But I do know that we have lost, for the moment, an opportunity to bring two very good projects to our community—projects that would have achieved exactly what our community envisioned in its approved land use plans. What I fear most as president of the Chamber is we’ve lost sight of something even more important—how we treat each other.

There’s a generation that is coming behind us watching everything we do and everything we say. We need to find our hearts that somewhere we lost along the way. Our region needs leaders who stand up to the critics and bullies and who do what is right for our community. Leaders who will choose the more difficult right than the much easier wrong. Leaders who give their absolute best… because they will never settle for anything less.

—Bill Russell, president and CEO

Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce

Cornelius