Jan. 13 - 19, 2017
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Proposed PD zoning district would allow mixed uses, varied housing options Communities seldom stand still. They are continually growing, changing and evolving as places of human interchange and investment. Summerfield is no exception.” Carrie Spencer, Summerfield planning director
The first of two public hearings on proposed Planned Development zoning district will be held Jan. 23
lation was estimated at 11,243.
by PATTI STOKES SUMMERFIELD – The Town of Summerfield encompasses about 27 square miles, or over 17,000 acres. In 1980 the town’s population was estimated at 1,680; in 1990 that number grew to 2,051 and 20 years later it had reached about 10,000 (some of this due to annexation). In 2015, the popu-
Today, if you want to purchase a new house within the community, on an average lot size of one-and-a-half acres – and have about $475,000 or more to do so – you shouldn’t have any problem finding one to your liking. Once you’re settled into your new surroundings, hop in your car and drive just a few miles and you’ll find gas stations, a grocery and drug store and several other service-related businesses. If, however, you’re looking for a new home at a more modest price, on a smaller lot, and within walking distance of businesses, a grocer and
Dam explosions alarming to neighbors near and far by PATTI STOKES OAK RIDGE – When a sudden and deafening series of explosions went off on Dec. 18 in the middle of a quiet Sunday afternoon, many people in the surrounding area were caught offguard. And as firefighters and deputies with the sheriff’s office headed to the area where the explosions originated, people did what many do today – they took to social media.
At Nextdoor.com, a free nationwide online community for neighbors to share information, a dialogue started when an Oak Ridge resident asked if anyone else had just heard the explosions in the vicinity of Stafford Mill Road (off Alcorn Road in Oak Ridge). Several others confirmed they had, some from as far as four to five miles away. Kurtis Taylor, who lives in a subdivision off Old Oak Ridge in northwest Greensboro, wrote that he not only
maybe a restaurant or two, you’re probably going to be out of luck. Creating walkable and bikeable neighborhoods and destinations, allowing commercial and residential development to be designed together – and providing more varied housing options are some of the goals the Town hopes to achieve with a proposed text amendment to its development ordinance. Summerfield’s Planning and Zoning Board has been discussing the amendment, which would add a Planned Development zoning district, since October and will hold a public hearing for citizen
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IN THIS ISSUE News in Brief ................................3 Your Questions ............................4
heard – but felt – the explosion.
Oak Ridge Town Council ...........6
“I thought a big plane hit the ground,” Taylor later told the Observer. “There was a loud BOOM and I felt the ground shake!”
Business Notes ............................8
Dynamite was used to blow up a beaver dam, one person wrote. The Old Mill was destroying two beaver dams, someone else wrote. In the weeks since the explosions,
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