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Elon Residents Try to Save Green Space: University Has Considered Developing Williamson Avenue Property

Posted on: Thursday, 16 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Mike Wilder, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Mar. 16--A group of Elon residents asked the town's governing board this week to try to preserve a large stretch of open land on Williamson Avenue. The land, owned by Elon University, is across from the fire station on one of the town's main roads. The only way the town could guarantee the 13-acre property will be kept as green space would be to buy it. Elon University uses the land for student recreation. It also recently developed playing fields on land it bought along South Antioch Avenue from Elon Homes for Children. In 2003, the university discussed plans for a shopping center on the Williamson Avenue land with a Raleigh company, but the development never happened. That was one of two instances in which the school has discussed possible uses for the land with a developer. Several Elon residents came to Tuesday night's board of aldermen meeting to ask that the land be preserved as green space. Their requests prompted Mayor Jerry Tolley to ask, "Do the citizens know something that's happening to that property that the board does not know ?" One woman in the audience said the residents were simply "being proactive." Residents who spoke said the beauty of the property along one of the town's major roads makes the town more attractive to residents and visitors. "We're one of the few places that has something this large," said Jimma Causey. "I think it adds to the charm of the town," said Mary Marshall. "Sometimes other things are more important than money," she said about potential tax revenue if the land is developed. Hilda Oxford said she and her husband, Ralph, have lived in Elon since 1947. "We've watched that ballpark with much pleasure," she said. "We need to keep it." Tolley works for Elon University as director of annual giving and the Elon Society. He said someone from the university has mentioned in a "casual conversation" the possibility of the town buying the land, though he didn't know if the university would consider that option now.

Gerald Whittington, an Elon vice president, said it may be premature to speculate on whether the university would consider selling the land to the town. "It would depend on when, and what they wanted to do with it," he said. He said the ideal use for the property from the university's perspective would likely be a high-end, village-style retail development to provide more of a downtown area for the school and town. Whittington said Elon University is in no hurry at all to sell the property. On Tuesday night, Tolley mentioned a likely asking price of more than $1 million. "We'd probably have to have some kind of tax increase" for the town to buy the property, he said. Tolley briefly mentioned the possibility of a voter referendum to determine if the town's residents would be willing to spend the money to buy the land. He said the property might be a good location for a post office or for a new town hall if Elon were to outgrow its current town hall. Mike Wilder can be reached at mike_wilder@link.freedom.com or 506-3046

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Copyright (c) 2006, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

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Source: Times-News

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