The nearly 1,700 acres that make up the proposed Pine Forest resort development are better protected under the PUD-Hamlet zoning recently approved by the Moore County Board of Commissioners than they were under the previous mix of residential, agricultural, and business zoning.
That's the bottom line for Commissioners Chairman Nick Picerno, who told The Times that the golf course resort and residential community envisioned by developer MHK, Inc. will have less density, more open space, and less commercial square footage than would have been allowed under the old zoning.
Reflecting back on the nearly two-year rezoning process, which included many hours of testimony in a quasi-judicial public hearing, Picerno said he felt some key facts had been lost among the details of the debate about Pine Forest. He asked for a meeting with The Times in order to highlight those points.
"We have actually moved the land into a better position than it was," the Chairman said, noting that he was speaking not for the Board as a whole, but strictly as one Commissioner among equals.
Though there is no way of knowing how the property might have been developed had the rezoning failed, the old zoning of the property would technically have permitted subdivision into 1,182 residential lots, Picerno told The Times, providing documentation of the point prepared by the Moore County Planning Department. That compares to a maximum density of 710 homes and/or hotel rooms in the Pine Forest plan.
In addition, the substantial acreage along NC Highway 211 that was zoned B-2 could have been developed to include more than one million square feet of commercial space, compared to the 240,000 square feet plus hotel included in MHK's design.
Picerno's point?
Many opponents of the the Pine Forest rezoning argued that the land should not be developed at all, either because of its environmental value, because the county is already well-supplied with golf course developments, or because of a desire to preserve the rural character of Area A.
"But that wasn't what was before us as a Board," Picerno told The Times.
"Once he [MHK] bought the land, that allowed the new development. He then had the opportunity to go in there and develop the land."
"That is capitalism. We were not in a position to tell him he couldn't develop the land."
"That's why the environmental argument had less validity," Picerno continued, "because the current zoning would allow him to chop it up and make it a whole lot worse."
"I'm not an expert on land use planning. Instead, I rely on the experts we have hired. Years and years ago, they created this thing we call a PUD. The idea is that, instead of haphazard development, you could take what would otherwise be a mishmash and instead design something that would have visual appeal."
"This developer has a vision," Picerno said. "And that vision includes golf courses on that piece of property. I'm not going to dictate who can and who can't build a golf course in Moore County. If you're going to take your money and risk it, that's capitalism."
"I envision another Pinewild. That's what I see. I don't see a twenty-story hotel. As you're driving down 211, you'll never know what's behind there. And who wouldn't want another Pinewild?”
Water & sewer agreements
Though the Board of Commissioners has approved the PUD-Hamlet zoning sought by Pine Forest developer MHK, Inc., the project can't move forward until the County and the developer work out agreements that will bring County water to Pine Forest, that will allow the community to be served by a private wastewater treatment plant, and that will also allow that plant to serve a second MHK development, the Dormie Club, located off NC Highway 73.
Those agreements are as important to Picerno as the rezoning itself -- if not more so.
"There greatest concern I have is if something happened to the sewer plant that produced an untreated spill," he told The Times. "We have to make sure the chance of that is minimized to almost one hundred percent."
"It's the number one issue, as far as I am concerned, going forward. It has to be beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt that it won't happen. If we can't come up with that assurance, I won't be voting to approve the agreement."
The small rivulets and creeks that make up the headwaters of Nick's Creek are spread throughout the acreage that makes up Pine Forest, and the Town of Carthage relies on Nick's Creek for its water supply.
That fact underlies Picerno's concern that the Pine Forest wastewater treatment plant be throughly vetted.
During the rezoning debate, however, another concern was raised about Nick's Creek: that developer MHK could withdraw water from the stream to irrigate the development's golf courses.
It only takes a little poking around on the Pine Forest property to discover that concern was overblown, Picerno told The Times.
"There's not enough water in Nick's Creek up that far to water one green on one golf hole," Picerno said, noting that he had recently walked the property. "It's a little bitty stream. There really isn't any major source of water for them to tap into."
Carthage is able to use Nick's Creek as a water source, because they built a reservoir that can capture and hold the runoff from significant storms, Picerno explained. "But with no dam on Nick's Creek, there is no water source."
Another concern raised by Pine Forest opponents was that runoff from residential streets and golf courses would pollute Carthage's water supply. But Picerno said the ground adjacent to the creek is "swampy, with lots of undergrowth to filter the water."
"Enlarged buffers are one of the conditions" the Commissioners placed on the rezoning, he added. "I think we have done a lot to address that concern."
As for where the county will find the water to serve the residents who will eventually live in Pine Forest, Picerno said that agreement remains to worked out with the developer, who has already offered to provide up to $3 million in funding toward the project.
"I hope that plays into our overall water strategy," Picerno told The Times, adding that he expects negotiations on the water and wastewater agreement will be underway by the end of the year.
It's why you plan
"I truly respect the other arguments," Picerno said. "The water argument, the environmental argument. But when you took it all in and threw it through the grinder, I felt that the developer is taking his property and putting more definition on what's going to happen there."
"This guy bought the land; it was on the market. I don't know how you can go in there legally and say you can't do that."
"When I saw the plan for Pine Forest, I thought, 'It's just another Pinewild. It's another McLendon HIlls.' And who wouldn't want another Pinewild or McLendon HIlls? They are building homes that bring value to our community.”
Picerno explained that a development like Pinewild attracts retirees who build a strong tax base but create low demand for county services. "That helps keep the tax rate low," he said.
"The alternative is not to plan," Picerno told The Times, returning to the point that the PUD zoning was created to foster well-designed development.
"Why would we spend the money, and do all this planning, and not use the plans?"
