Meeting between Tony Glenn's group and the son of the developer of truck stop
I apologize for not getting this sent out sooner. I want to update everyone on the recent meeting with one of the three developers of the Branch Road property. Last Wednesday evening a group of us met with Frank Williams, the son of Francis Williams. Initially the meeting was to include both the junior and senior Mr. Williams as well as a third partner, Jimmy Johnson (not to be confused with the Jimmy Johnson living here in Farmington), but the other two men did not attend.
I'm really glad the meeting took place. I think Frank Williams was as nervous and unsure about the event as we were. We all seemed to get the impression that he himself does not really like the planned development but is simply looking at it as a business investment (emotional detachment). Seems to us that his father is really the one running the show and that he is a very blunt, old-style businessman that only sees land as a commodity and not as something to cherish. Ironically Frank mentioned that he, his wife, and child will soon be moving to Oconee for the schools. This lead to several questions of a personal nature: would he want to live next to this convenient store; why not take the land and build a house on it and a pottery studio for his wife (yes, his wife is a potter previously association with OCAF). I think we were successful in making him appreciate (if not outright understand) our view of the situation and our passion for wanting to defend the qualities that we hold dear to heart and cherish deeply. We made it quite clear that if this plan goes forward that we will fight it with full force, but that the battle wasn't personal. We stressed that if the rezone request is defeated, then we are more than happy to work with them to come up with alternative business ideas that would work within the current A-1 zoning. We stressed that we do not want business/commercial rezoning along the southern stretch of US441 at this time given the lack of infrastructure, the uncertainty regarding the widening project, and the inconsistency of such rezoning with the current Future Land Use Plan. We provided him a print out from a web site (http://www.lymanorchards.com/) as a model of the type of development we'd love to see there, but on a smaller scale of course since its only 14 acres. The meeting was at all times professional and cordial.
I'm really glad the meeting took place. I think Frank Williams was as nervous and unsure about the event as we were. We all seemed to get the impression that he himself does not really like the planned development but is simply looking at it as a business investment (emotional detachment). Seems to us that his father is really the one running the show and that he is a very blunt, old-style businessman that only sees land as a commodity and not as something to cherish. Ironically Frank mentioned that he, his wife, and child will soon be moving to Oconee for the schools. This lead to several questions of a personal nature: would he want to live next to this convenient store; why not take the land and build a house on it and a pottery studio for his wife (yes, his wife is a potter previously association with OCAF). I think we were successful in making him appreciate (if not outright understand) our view of the situation and our passion for wanting to defend the qualities that we hold dear to heart and cherish deeply. We made it quite clear that if this plan goes forward that we will fight it with full force, but that the battle wasn't personal. We stressed that if the rezone request is defeated, then we are more than happy to work with them to come up with alternative business ideas that would work within the current A-1 zoning. We stressed that we do not want business/commercial rezoning along the southern stretch of US441 at this time given the lack of infrastructure, the uncertainty regarding the widening project, and the inconsistency of such rezoning with the current Future Land Use Plan. We provided him a print out from a web site (http://www.lymanorchards.com/) as a model of the type of development we'd love to see there, but on a smaller scale of course since its only 14 acres. The meeting was at all times professional and cordial.
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