BY NATASHA ASHE
SALISBURY POST

CLEVELAND – Some people who live near Cleveland say they moved away from the hustle and bustle of the ‘‘big city’’ to a more serene environment. But the sounds of nature, the country smells and even the howls of coyotes, some say, have recently been drowned out by the growls of bulldozers.

In less than a year, the Cleveland town board has heard from at least five developers who proposed building new subdivisions in the West Rowan area. Two of the developers have already purchased land and are moving forward.

HMS General Contractors and Roger Harris of Advance plan to build 50 to 60 modular or manufactured single-family homes on Maple Street and Third Creek Church Road in the town of Cleveland. Randy Reamer, Malcolm Blankenship and Kenny Steele also want to build a subdivision of more than 230 manufactured homes that will begin inside town limits and spill outside the town. Reamer says he and his partners plan a very nice family development.

But some Cleveland residents as well as some outside the town limits are opposed to the sudden growth in their area. They have united to give voice to their concerns, and they promise not to stop until someone listens.

The name says it all: Citizens for Responsible Growth. They wouldn’t call themselves an organization, simply a group of concerned citizens who don’t want rapid growth in their community.

They have talked to Cleveland town officials, county commissioners and officials in other counties to find out what is going in their areas. They say other counties aren’t currently having this problem.

‘‘Other counties have been through this. They have already enforced the laws to reduce the rapid growth,’’ said Andy Hinson, who lives outside Cleveland. ‘‘Rowan County is behind. History has all the answers for us if we just pay attention to it and take care of our business, we don’t have to make the same mistakes.’’

Twenty-five to 30 members attend the group’s meetings, and a number of them attend meetings of the town board and the zoning/planning board.

Cleveland board members recently approved several amendments to the zoning and subdivision ordinance, including requiring brick or finished masonry foundations and mandating curbing and guttering on all subdivision streets.

At the same time, board members and Cleveland Mayor Jim Brown have told members of Citizens of Responsible Growth that they can’t tell developers what to do on their land if it’s properly zoned. They can only enforce the town’s ordinances and regulations that are on the books. Can’t ignore problems

One day recently, members of the group gathered outside Hinson’s home, which sits back off Chenault Road, to talk to a Post reporter. Only three attended but they said many others share their views. Hinson leaned against his pickup truck, while Eric Pence and Mary Taylor moved closer to talk.

Less than 100 feet away is the property where Reamer, Blankenship and Steele plan to add about 230 homes they call Silo Hill.

They say they’re not trying to stop change; they say change is inevitable. But they don’t want to ignore problems that change brings, like overcrowding community schools and overburdening roads.

Taylor questions why new developments are coming when existing subdivisions aren’t full. The Hill-N-Dale subdivision, a development of site-built homes, began nearly five years ago and is not yet full.

‘‘If someone wanted to build a new house, there are still lots available in that subdivision,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘We don’t need another new subdivision in or around Cleveland.’’

Taylor showed a reporter and photographer how Silo Hill will pick up right where Hill-N-Dale stops. Even as she explained, Scarlet Hall walked out of her house on Doe Ridge Drive in Hill-N-Dale.

She recognized Taylor as a member of Concerned Citizens and said she supports their efforts.

Jimmy and Scarlet Hall bought their home with the idea of living in a nice, quiet community for themselves and their 9-year-old daughter, Katy. Now the Halls’ back yard faces future lots in the Silo Hill development.

In a later interview, Hall said she and her husband would not have bought their home if they had known of the new development coming. ‘‘We absolutely would not have built here,’’ she said. ‘‘I thought we would have privacy in our back yard, but we’ll lose that. It’s a shame this community is not willing to hold to a standard and provide a more upscale environment.’’

Hall said she is not opposed to the new development because it’s proposed as a mobile home subdivision. Instead, she’s worried about the *itnumber of homes and the people and cars it will bring.

‘‘Now this is a quiet and quaint area. It won’t be for long,’’ she said. ‘‘When I look out into my back yard I see beautiful country. Later, it will be developed into a lot of homes and a lot of people.’’ New rules might help

The Concerned Citizens group wants Cleveland and Rowan County commissioners to enact rules that they say will help manage growth:

nAn ‘‘adequate public facilities’’ ordinance giving the county power to reject a subdivision that would overburden roads, schools, law enforcement or other services.

nAdding a ‘‘commercial’’ designation to subdivisions of more than eight houses, giving the community more input and the county more control.

nExcluding single- and double-wide mobile home subdivisions in a district bounded by U.S. 70 on the south, and Cool Springs and Carson roads on the north and extending from Cleveland west to the county lie.

nA moratorium on development until the new rules go into effect.

Hall, like others, is worried about the expansion of local town services, burden on the roads and the overcrowding of the schools.

‘‘This community is facing too many people in certain areas. My concern is for the overcrowding of our school system and too many students for teachers and staff to handle,’’ Hall said. ‘‘The police won’t be able to handle it. If we expand services, we’ll face higher taxes.

‘‘If this group can do something to help stop this sudden growth, I’m all for them,’’ Hall said.

Taylor say they don’t mind another subdivision like Hill-N-Dale in the area that offers ‘‘nice’’ homes for people. ‘‘That is a nice and well developed subdivision. The homes there have adequate lots and are well maintained,’’ she said.

But proposed new subdivisions, particularly manufactured homes, ‘‘may be nice homes, but young couples are not getting a deal,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘Some of these homes require no money down and an interest rate that balloons.’’

Taylor explained that once people feel they are deadlocked into a home that has no increased value, they’ll move. ‘‘If first-time home buyers – which will probably be the bulk to purchase homes in these new subdivisions – don’t feel an obligation to the community, they won’t take care of it. The land will depreciate, the payments will increase and they’ll move. We’ll be left to look at something that will eventually become an eyesore.’’

Taylor said she is also concerned about absentee landlords or property owners, because no one will be responsible for maintaining the new properties.

Taylor, a former Cleveland commissioner, Hinson and Pence said they have lived in mobile homes at one time. ‘‘We had to live somewhere until we were able to either build or buy a house,’’ she said. ‘‘We are just opposed to the landlords who are robbing young couples with their ‘dream homes’ that have these no-money-down deals and high interest rates. That’s not affordable housing.’’

Even as Hinson, Taylor and Pence talk, they can see bulldozers grading land for the Silo Hill subdivision.

That land was sold and development began even before they knew it, Hinson said. They promise it will be one of the last sites that comes into their area without their knowledge.

‘‘We realize we can’t do anything about the new developments, but we don’t want to see more like it,’’ Pence said.

Hinson agrees.

‘‘We’ll know what’s going to be brought to our area from now on,’’ Hinson said. ‘‘We have to. We’ve invested too much here.’’ Impact will be felt

The residents have spent most of their lives in the western Rowan community. They are all small business owners, who have worked hard to build their properties and say they simply take pride in their area.

‘‘Everyone in the community is concerned to some degree,’’ Pence said. ‘‘This sudden growth will impact everyone whether they know it now or not. Something that affects a community so dramatically and quickly needs to be regulated.’’

If the growth is gradual, people have time to adjust, said Pence, who owns a dairy farm.

‘‘Farmers used to be able to farm their land and the land around it,’’ said Pence. ‘‘Now with all the new development going up around us, we can’t expand. It’s not truly agriculture around here anymore. That’s what attracted many us to this area. That’s how we make our living.’’

Hinson says he smells slight odors from neighboring dairy farms and maybe from hog farms around his home, but those are things Hinson said he doesn’t mind.

The group even admitted to hearing sounds that obviously comes from a coyote, but Hinson and the others don’t mind that either. It’s the bulldozers across the road that he’s concerned about.

‘‘I moved away from a city to get away from that type of stuff,’’ Hinson said of the developers breaking ground for a subdivision with about 234 proposed homes. ‘‘I don’t mind the smells. Hell, I live on a farm and there are neighboring farms around. I just didn’t expect so many people to be moving in so quickly.’’

Anyone interested in joining Citizens for Responsible Growth can attend the next meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Cleveland Lions Den on Cemetery Street in Cleveland. For more information, call Taylor at 278-4548.