Annexing Lake Junaluska

[Forum Member]

Do you trust the Town Manager, the Town Planning Department, and the current City Council to decide the future question of annexing Lake Junaluska into the Town of Waynesville?

It's possible that all some people can see is dollar signs. How much can we make the citizens of Waynesville borrow and pay to get Lake Junaluska into the Town Limits? How much tax revenue can we get from Lake Junaluska once they are annexed?

https://www.themountaineer.com/news/lak ... 2ccf6.html

Think hard about this in the 2023 elections. The deck is being stacked with or without the knowledge of City Council. So far, the voters of Waynesville have not been consulted or even informed how that groundwork is happening. Kinda sneaky, right?

[Forum Member]

Also, consider the topic of "gentrification". Current Town Manager, Rob Hites, is on record with his opinions on gentrification and how the taxpayer must pay for "affordable housing" is a strategy to reduce gentrification. Imagine what Rob Hites et. al. will do to Lake Junaluska! All those nice homes organized into a community! Not on his watch! LJ would be a GREAT place for a low barrier homeless shelter. Just reference the yet-to-be-released "study" done that comes to that foregone conclusion so that our City Council and local media can point to it and say, "LJ NEEDS A LOW BARRIER SHELTER!" There might even be a developing 20XX land use plan that would consider this place being a good location with a bus pickup/dropoff station: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9woLqErDcv3FsBH7A (You wouldn't know it until after a City-hired consultant cherry picks some people to give "community input" that says what they want to hear.)

(Isn't that how Pathways got into our community? Look at how well that works for the annexed town of Hazelwood!)

[Forum Member]

Effective elected representatives need to understand the Overton Window on the topic of annexing Lake Junaluska:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvKxGehKok