Chambers County Commission Planning and Development Committee Meeting
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
CHAMBERS COUNTY — The Chambers County Commission Planning and Development Committee Meeting was held on Oct. 10 at County Attorney McCoy’s office.
“I know we've tried to get this together for a while, but the purpose of this is really just to kind of have a general discussion,” said Chambers County Development Authority Executive Director Chris Busby. “I don't expect any action. I just think [this is] something we've talked about internally at the development authority with some of our board members and our stakeholders, we've heard from some of our communities, specifically the towns, about this specific topic. And there's just been several things over the last really, few years that have brought it up, as well as related to some of the projects we're seeing come up now. They're projects like I've never seen before.”
Busby said with seeing some of the projects and businesses interested in Chambers County land, he wants to involve the Chambers County Commission so collaboration can be done to ensure projects and companies do not negatively impact the life of residents.
“I don't think she [Gray] ever saw some of the projects that we're seeing right now to where we have to make very calculated decisions on whether to submit for the projects, because [we are having to ask ourselves] are these types of things that we feel are good for our community,” he said. “And I don't mean in terms of job creation wages. I'm talking about the type of companies and the impact they would have on surrounding areas, on our infrastructure, on our roads, our bridges, our water and sewer, power and natural gas. Because one of the things we're seeing with these things is that if some of these projects locate [here], then they will have such a massive impact.”
Valerie Gray has worked in development in Chambers County, but now is co-founder of Valor Strategies and works in Russell County. She said she has seen firsthand how industries can disturb the peace of county residents, and the local government does not have the authority to prevent it.
“It's amazing how counties that are more urban and more rural than Chambers County have some of the same problems that we have, and one of them is a noise nuisance,” she said. “While I'm not going to call any industry names, me staying with my mother over the last 14 nights, I didn't realize how bad the noise was … I just live right across the pasture, but it's just the way that she's located, directionally in the wind. So when that issue came up a couple years ago, I talked to the sheriff, and there is an ordinance on the books, but it has zero teeth to it. I say all that, and say Russell County has the same issue, and there was a very nice development out in the county, and somebody wanted to put a firing range right behind a brand new subdivision where over 100 or so houses are located, and the county, Russell County, is in the same situation.”
When deciding on the big projects or not, Gray said it would be helpful for Busby if the Commission collaborated to decide parameters on what the county could handle without disturbing infrastructure.
“When you're sitting in that role that Chris is, your job is to win, win projects,” she said. “I've said, you know, we don't ever turn a project down. I can count on my hand the times that we've just said, ‘No, we're not interested.’ But it would be great if there were some set of expectations that Chris knew as an economic developer, and that our towns knew that this is what we would like to see, and this is what will devastate our infrastructure. Josh, I have no idea how many times a truck [could drive through,] what it would do to a county road, but I do know going up and down my mom's dirt road, where Mikey's trucks come, how terrible it is, and how much money we have to spend on it to keep it up.”
County Attorney Skip McCoy said he also recognizes that many who are living in the county have no ability to protect their property against anything someone wants to do with the lot next to them, and the city has no power to help.
“The mindset of the people in the rural areas with regards to their desires to protect their property and their property rights,” he said. “I think that's where you start, as far as their feeling and their desires, because it's an investment that they made, and like you said, it could be easily damaged. I know we have a situation now on the outskirts of Lanett, where there's a nice subdivision, there's a bunch of golden joint trailers and just piled up out there close by, which has been a thorn for a while for those people. But you know, whenever it's not in the city, the city has no control.”
Gray said she wants to emphasize that the conversation at this meeting will not impact anything currently occurring in the community, and that these conversations are important to protect the locals and county infrastructure against industries looking to purchase large lots of land.
“Chambers County needs a reputation of a great place to do business and set those expectations to anyone, a commercial developer, a retail developer, an industrial developer, a site selector,” she said. “Economic development [has] changed dramatically, since I've retired. How [Busby] gets projects and where the projects come from. It's just amazing. The amount of technology people can [use.] [They] can pull up the area, and they can see the land. They’re like, ‘Oh, there's 500 acres right there, and there's only two roads around. We can go do whatever we want to do.’ For those that [have] access to technology it’s great, but it's also very scary.”
The meeting continued with discussions on how to engage the community and increase community education as the committee pursued ways to protect the county from harmful industry and protect homeowners and the value of their property.
The committee plans on scheduling another meeting in November when members are available.
