By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
Questions flowed during a more than two-hour meeting of the Rowan County Land Use Steering Committee Thursday night.
Members asked for a wide spectrum of information from projections on population and available water supply from the Yadkin River to school attendance projections.
County planners and Benchmark, the Kannapolis-based firm assisting with the land-use study, promised to scratch deeper and wider in search of answers.
A 32-page booklet filled with facts and projections touched off the call for more.
Turning to schools and projected enrollment through 2017, committee members were stumped at figures that show enrollment at both South Rowan and West Rowan High Schools will drop.
The projections provided by the Rowan-Salisbury Schools shows South enrollment at 1,169 for the 2007 school year, shrinking to 1,086 by 2017. Also, the figures show West Rowan declining from 1,172 to 1,002 for the same periods.
During the same period, enrollment is projected to grow at Carson High School by about 300 students.
Planners and committee members agreed that those projections appear to run counter to all other data about expected growth.
Ed Muire, county planning director, said school officials get information from the Planning Department and from municipalities. “I’m not sure how to plug it in,” said Muire.
Population data projects Rowan County will surpass state projections. Based on building permit data, the county is on pace to grow to 150,000 people by 2010 ó nearly 10,000 more than the state expects.
Overall, the study area ó all of the county west of I-85 ó grew by 35 percent between 1990 and 2000. That rate is expected to slow to around 10 percent.
Jason Epley of Benchmark and Muire led discussions on topics including housing, growth patterns in neighboring areas, historic properties, economic development, agriculture, recreation facilities and transportation.
Some committee members lamented the ill effects of growth.
“What good is unbridled growth?” asked Jeff Morris.
“Quantity is not always quality,” said Wendy Wilson, going on to point out the growth that is here now is causing new schools to open with trailers. “We’re not keeping up.”
At one point, Muire asked committee members to define quality of life. Answers ranged from open space to freedom.
During a discussion of historic sites, Steve Poteat noted there are Indian sites all over the county. “You can’t preserve everything.”
While discussing the economic development component, Morris noted the importance of rail corridors for industry, particularly with the rising price of fuel. He suggested some of the county’s lesser-used lines might be put back to use in the future for industrial sites.
Near the end of the session, James Rollans urged the committee to revisit the vision statement adopted last month. Rollans said the statement needs to be more comprehensive.
Unable to get through the complete agenda, the committee agreed to meet again on Jan. 31.
Muire said he hopes the committee co-chairs, Chris Cohen and Paula Holte, will be able to attend. Both were out Thursday because of medical issues.
The committee is scheduled to set public hearings or workshops for February.