Victory! Citizens Stop Massive Apartment Complex on 41 near Tennessee Exchange.
How citizen action sent a message and serves as a model for the county.(Still needs Action by Commissioner Steve Taylor - show up Wednesday 4/12 at 10 am).
A massive, hyper-dense apartment complex in Bartow county was defeated Monday night at the Bartow County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The 350 unit complex would have been squeezed into a small space of about 37 acres. This property was sandwiched between two, classic, single family home residential developments. The location is immediately located just south of Highway 41 and next to another massive townhome complex near the Tennessee Ave exchange.
How did this happen? Citizens showed up, that’s how. It is hard work, but these days it is the only way to ensure the local government knows your will and will ensure to deliver decisions based on the “consent of the governed”. The Bartow Planning and Zoning Commission heard from citizens who said “no” and “enough!”. They recognized they have reached the limits of the people’s patience. And that is good. It is time for more action by citizens to ensure hyper- dense and high density development stops in Bartow county.
The way to organize is to get your neighbors together. Learn all you can, and do your homework on the process. Send emails and letters and phone calls to planning commission members and the County Commissioner. Then organize action. Get people to speak for three minutes at a time on specific topics. Use all the time you can to speak. Teach people how to speak. Get signatures on petitions. Put messages out on social media. Sadly, the government and the developers have many more recourses than average citizens. But they don’t have what citizens have: the ability to stand as a group and say “no”.
Citizens will have to be on guard. Please show up at the County Commission meeting on 4/12 at 10 a.m. at the Courthouse on Cherokee avenue. There, Commissioner Steve Taylor, will certainly hear a plea to go against the recommendation of the planning commission to “deny” this re-zoning. Citizens must show up to prevent that from happening.
If you see big developments like this coming your way, please reach out to the Bartow Freedom Coalition at BartowFreedom@proton.me and we will cover it.
Great example of Democracy in action. Government works when the electorate is engaged mentally and participates. Hopefully what the electorate wants actually turns out to be good for the county.