It has come to my attention that the anonymous group “Estes Neighbors” and the advocacy group Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT) have taken it upon themselves to portend to speak for the residents who live along North Estes Drive concerning the proposed AURA development.

There can be nothing further from the truth. Neither “Estes Neighbors" nor CHALT speak for me or for the neighbors I’ve spoken with in Lake Forest and surrounding communities.

Granted, I have not spoken with every neighbor about the AURA development. It may surprise the members of “Estes Neighbors” and CHALT, who have blanketed our neighbourhoods with flyers taped to mailboxes, emails to listservs, and un-permitted signs along Estes, that we have more pressing things to worry about than AURA. A global pandemic and its impact on our community comes to mind.

In fact, all who I’ve spoken with are in agreement that we elected you, our Town representatives, to assess this development in conjunction with the talented Chapel Hill government employees. Y'all have the skills and experience in urban planning, traffic flows, storm water runoff, and the like. That’s why we elected you and pay Town taxes - to have experts decide on these matters for us, so we can focus on what matters in our daily lives.

Hence, do not take our collective silence as agreement with CHALT. 

Please do your best tonight to ignore the shrill voices that only scream, “No No NO!” against any new development. They may talk traffic, runoff, and safety, and pretend they speak for me and others. Yet they are really just NIMBYs who only speak for themselves, and sadly, often resort to obtuse tactics to try and get their way.

The rest of us want the the incomes, the local purchases, the expanded tax base, and most importantly, the vibrancy that new residents and new businesses can bring to Chapel Hill.