Sarah Barkley, GNP contributor
You might not know this, but at least 127 citizens were so opposed to commercializing the Town Common that they committed their feelings to emails to the City Council.
That number doesn't include citizens who sent letters to the Daily Reflector or posted comments on the Nextdoor app or communicated to the city council by phone or letter.
At least two of the emailers supported the council’s plan to rezone part of the Town Common for some kind of restaurant and event space.
These citizen lobbyists worked behind the scenes. Their concerns didn’t make it into the public arena.
GNP obtained the emails through a public records request to the city. Few of the emails received responses from City Council members.
Rick Smiley was the only council member to respond to any of the emails. Mayor Connelly also responded.
Many citizens went into detail with their reasons for not wanting the Town Common along the Tar River to be commercialized. Among them:
“I live very close to the Town Common and frequently visit it. There are ample spaces for restaurants much closer to the underutilized parking deck,” Wrote Ann Harrington, pastor of Free Spirit Inclusive Catholic Community.
“As young people who enjoy the greenway and who spend time in the Town Common often, we are asking you to vote against [rezoning...]. We need to protect it in the name of money,” five preteens, ages 11 and 12, wrote.
“We are heading down the well-traveled road of taking land that was acquired at the expense of the powerless. The land was set aside ostensibly as a public common for the benefit of the community at large,” Wrote Joni Torres, a community garden technician.
Torres’ reference is to the mostly African-American neighborhood that once occupied that land. It was leveled by the city in the 1960s as part of a “slum clearance” program.
“There are a lot of already vacant business properties within a few blocks of the Town Common. The focus should be on attracting businesses into these existing spaces,” wrote Kori Brewer, an adjunct professor in emergency medicine at East Carolina University.
“You should utilize some of the plethora of empty commercial space around town for additional development, not part of the Town Common,” wrote Alise Rowan of the city’s neighborhood advisory board.
Ultimately, their concerns didn’t sway council members. They voted in June to rezone 1.4 acres of the 20-acre public park for commercial use.
Smiley later told GNP that “127 [people’s emails] was not a significant amount of citizens [speaking] out, at least not enough to make a difference.”
That doesn’t take away from the passion that leaps out the emails from these citizen lobbyists.
Plan to commercialize
The original Town Common Master Plan, adopted by the city in 2010, had three goals: maximize the full potential of the Town Common, address its deficiencies and safety, and address the needs and desires of citizens and stakeholders.
The 2016 update to the Town Common Master Plan envisions building an “event center & restaurant” as a partnership between the city and a private developer.
A presentation on the update calls the project a “premier, first-class venue” for meetings, conventions, “weddings & other private events,” city government events, and “indoor & outdoor dining with views of the park and the river.”
The presentation assures that the city will not allow a hotel, housing of any type, office space, bars or nightclubs to be built on the Town Common.
Brewer, the adjunct professor, noted in her email to the City Council that the central business district now called Uptown has ample empty retail space. “The focus should be on attracting businesses into those spaces first,” she wrote.
‘Keep it green,’ citizens say
Clay Barber was another one of the 127 emailers who were not impressed with the city's decision. “Everyone is highly concerned about the council's thirst for economic development over the wishes of the community,” wrote the East Carolina University alumni who has a bachelor’s in recreation and park management, and a masters in sustainable tourism,
Barber works for Knee Deep Adventures in Greenville, which provides kayaks to people who want paddle along the Tar River.
He said the river only allows for “back paddles” during ideal current conditions. This means one-way paddle trips are the more popular option. Not only is the current on the river strong, but the Town Common boat launch is also sometimes flooded by the river, making it impossible to access.
The Town Common sits in a Tar River flood plain, and prolonged heavy rains are known to swell the river and flood parts of the park. The 1.4 acres targeted for commercial development is particularly prone to flooding.
Emailer Dick Wolfe also worried about the long-term effects building in the Town Common’s flood zone. “Putting commercial uses in the park would necessitate more pavement for parking. Additional concrete would only compromise the already fragile flood zone,” he wrote.
Landlord likes park plan
At least one property owner likes the idea of commercializing the Town Common. He is Jim Blount, and his Blount Properties owns and operates student rentals in the neighborhood adjacent to ECU known as The Grid.
Blount told GNP that he would benefit from the city’s Town Common plan because he could offer rental properties within walking distance to retail space and convention center. That will let him charge raise his rent prices, which in turn will give him a bigger budget for maintaining and upgrading his properties, he said.
Other landlords in The Grid could do the same, he said.
Rental properties on the Grid are not cheap to maintain and keep safe due to their age, he said. Many of the houses in the neighborhood were built in the early 1900s.
Blount said there is a group in Greenville that is “anti-development. Many of the older residents are resistant to change and only want open park space. I hope the Town Common master plan will be implemented,” he said.
Still, the majority of the citizen-lobbyists who emailed the City Council do not want Greenville’s central park to disappear into just another commercial space.
That sentiment was summed up by former ECU professor Caroline Schact. “I have lived here for more than 40 years and have seen the ‘green’ in Greenville disappear year after year,” she wrote to council members.
Barkley produced this report for the Fall 2021 capstone course, In-depth News Reporting.
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