Citizens should unite against growth in 360 corridor

Dear Editor,

As I sat at the planning commission meeting [on Feb. 19] listening to the outpouring of feelings concerning the zoning request for a CVS [drugstore] at Winterpock and Beach roads, I was taken back to a time when people stood up for one another. Even though Chairman [Russ Gulley] had called for comments only to the deferral of the case, resident after resident stood and repeated their distaste for such a change. The one comment I remember best was the gentleman who threatened to return with 1,500 speakers if this case was deferred. The audience became so enraged that Gulley strategically called a recess to let things cool down.

The cool down period gave me a chance to recall what had been said and how it compared to times gone by. I recall the comments about the number of drug stores already along Hull Street Road, about the multitude of shopping centers, large and small, Lowe's and even the proposed Wal-Mart. I heard remarks about wanting to leave Chesterfield as it was when a lot of us first moved here. How we came to Chesterfield to get away from crowding, to have space to raise our families. The size of the pavement and rooftops is becoming dangerously close to the amount of open space remaining in the western portion of the county.

During this recess I began to reflect on my own situation in my neighborhood. We sit on prime real estate next to the reservoir, and yet we are fighting to breathe due to uncontrolled growth from previous administrations. We are being stifled by a road system from years gone by, shopping centers with vacant storefronts and yet new ones are on the horizon. Neighborhoods that were once quiet and serene are now nothing more than a cut through for traffic to escape the rush.

Then I heard the gavel come down and back to reality I came. Back to my opinion of today's up and coming lifestyle. What once was a generation of neighbors you could count on has become a "me" society - "if it doesn't concern me, then don't look for my support." For as compassionate as these folks were to stop CVS, where were they when the snowball rolled down Hull Street Road creating the very example they used to fortify their objection? How many stood up and spoke as the reservoir became more and more polluted?

This lack of concern for the whole county is exactly the mentality the developers and their "this will make the county a better place" lawyers are feeding on. We are allowing them to devour Chesterfield County. I have moved three times trying to find the Chesterfield I once knew, only to be once again pushed out.

Jerry Stroud

Lakepointe