11/01/2021
Election Day is Tomorrow!
Friends and Neighbors, many of you have taken advantage of early voting these past two weeks, thank you for voting! For everyone else, please vote on Election Day, Tuesday November 2nd. You must cast your vote at your precinct polling location. Your vote is vital to the future of our town!
I thought I would take the final opportunity to address "The Contract" four challenger candidates to the current town board have committed and promised to honor if elected.
These four candidates pledge to call for a 6 month moratorium on all new residential projects to allow time to update the master plan. What they don't tell you is that, pursuant to N.C. Gen Stat 106D-107 a moratorium on residential uses is not permitted absent an imminent threat to public health or safety. They don't want apartments in Cornelius, but that does not constitute an eminent threat to public health or safety. They have all been told this, they have all been provided the General Statute text, yet they persist in their promise to enact this moratorium. Such an action would place the town in jeopardy of significant legal action, resulting in spending your tax dollars defending the town in court.
Their pledge implies they will eliminate three things:
1. Trailer Class Rooms
2. High Density Residential
3. Traffic
REALLY???
First, mobile learning cottages, or whatever the proper term is in CMS vernacular, are absolutely NOT used to curb overcrowding. They are, in fact, legitimate classrooms that are counted in the capacity of the school. The town board has no authority to remove these units from the capacity metric at CMS and no amount of reduction in residential growth in Cornelius will change this model. Further, Cornelius schools are not at capacity with Cornelius Students! In fact, fewer than 1/2 of Hough High School students live in Cornelius. Cornelius schools are near or at capacity because they are educating children from Davidson, Huntersville and North Charlotte. Your town board does not have the authority to change school assignment, and to suggest that this is a promise this group of challengers to the current town board will be able to keep is disingenuous and playing on emotions.
Second, this board simply cannot institute a moratorium on high density residential for any period of time without placing the town in violation of North Carolina Law. This promise cannot be kept by this pledge group without significant risk to the fiscal health of our town.
Third, to suggest that these actions and this group alone will correct the current traffic situation is absolutely false. These four are well aware that the roads in Cornelius in need of congestion relief are controlled by NCDOT. Additionally they know that road improvement projects have not only already been approved and funded, but are in fact already underway! Just because orange barrels will not appear on most of our major roadways until after Nov 2nd, does not mean if elected these four would have had any influence on the improvement. Projects like the Bailey Road intersection at HWY 115, the widening of West Catawba, the roundabouts on either end of I77 at Catawba and the Hickory Street - Hwy 115 intersection improvements are all underway with actual construction or right of way acquisition and/or utility movement in process. Yet, their pledge would have you believe the only solution to traffic is to stop all development. Put simply, shutting the doors to Cornelius is their only solution.
In short, this group of four challengers have banded together and pledged to Cornelius that they will place the town in legal jeopardy by enacting an illegal moratorium, stated they can mandate the removal of CMS classroom trailers. and promised to solve your traffic concerns simply by stopping all growth. If elected, I for one will hold them accountable to their pledge. Will you?
Here's what I believe, and what I commit to you:
1. Public Safety is my #1 priority. I commit to you that I will provide support to our Police and Fire departments that will keep our turnover low and your public safety fully staffed.
2. Fiscal responsibility, I am committed to keeping your tax rate the lowest in the area! The road and arts bonds approved by the citizens of Cornelius will improve our traffic concerns and provide us with an amazing cultural arts center, the Cain Center for the Arts, but will also require escalating bond debt payments. I will balance responsible growth that builds our tax base with the growing revenue demands to reduce any reliance on increasing taxes to our current residents and business owners.
My message to Cornelius friends and neighbors is simple, I want the best for our town. You'll need to each decide for yourselves what your definition of best is. You can put your trust in me. I will not deceive you just to represent you, I will represent you to the best of my honest ability.
I love our town, and I want to see that Cornelius remains a vibrant community, an amazing lake community, a community we can be proud of. To make sure that happens, I need your vote!. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.
Thank you again for allowing me to serve as your Town Commissioner, I sincerely hope you will choose me again. But no matter who you choose to vote for, please vote. Every vote counts! I thank you in advance for your support, and I would be honored to earn your vote!
