The Mayoral Message
Like many of you, I hope my first few weeks
of the New Year have started on a positive note as I have squeezed my activities
between cheering on the Panthers, and
watching my high schooler work through
the stressful two weeks of reviewing for
and taking end of semester exams. The
Town has been no different. We have started off the year with some positive news:
• Our YMCA partnership has been
enhanced through the donation of land by
Union County.
• The Town received a matching grant of
nearly $515,000 to improve our downtown
bike/pedestrian/streetscapes.
We also went through our version of semester exams. We have been reviewing
our strategic initiatives, and studying two
issues critical to the future of Waxhaw transportation and growth. At our Board
meeting on January 12, we discussed our
six month progress report.
Waxhaw is in an interesting spot – how do
we develop our future while embracing our
past? What makes this so interesting is that
we face a whole new set of challenges unlike those that brought us to where Waxhaw
is today. And, we face these challenges
amid a 29% growth rate in the area. These
challenges differ from much of what anyone has experienced. This is why Waxhaw
is repairing old and building new relationships, and engaging firms to help us better
understand how these challenges impact
our business recruitment, marketing and
communications. Most importantly, these
changes also have a dramatic impact on
how we plan and develop Waxhaw. “Getting somewhere” – be it on Highway 16, on
75, or as a community - is not good enough
anymore. At stake is the quality of life, not
only for ourselves but also for our children
and grandchildren.
Amid this change, if we desire to keep our
safe community, preserve our culture and
heritage, and improve our traffic and quality of life, our progress report indicated
the need to focus our immediate attention
on how we plan for and develop Waxhaw.
The approach for planning and developing
any community is critical. How we plan and
develop Waxhaw determines how we can
meet both our community’s current and future needs. The approach for planning and
development is also very complex. While
the Town Board may provide guidance
through local decisions and policies, staff
must implement through a host of tools that
keep pace with the Vision for Waxhaw development guidelines, standards, how
we enforce the rules, comprehensive
planning, capital budgeting, transportation
policies, zoning, ordinances, regulations,
and building codes – to name a few.
In Waxhaw, our Development Services is
the lifeline for creating, shaping and managing Waxhaw. To that end, the Town Board
requested our Town Manager, working with
staff, to bring forward the next phase of
services we need to focus on at our Board
Retreat on February 10 and 11:
•Develop and prioritize the investments
needed in Development Services
including policy,
practices, tools and
resources.
•Build a prioritized
plan that will be
shared with the community.
•That sharing will occur in current and new
ways as we improve our two way communication with the community.
There are also a number of other initiatives
and activities already in progress.
•Planning for our 2016 Events is well underway.
•Staff will be conducting a public workshop
on our ordinances, our rules, and how we
enforce them on February 4. Approaches
will be discussed and priorities established. Similar work is being finished on
our Comprehensive Plan.
•We are sharing this work with County and
neighboring municipal partners to determine both local and regional approaches.
•Every month our volunteer committees
meet. You will hear about the work they are
doing at our February Town Board meeting.
Clearly, we have a lot of work in front of us.
Prioritizing all this work is one of the many
challenges. As we progress we will:
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Town of Waxhaw - 1150 North Broome Street - PO Box 6 - Waxhaw, NC 28173 - 704-843-2195
Managing Editor/Events and Promotions Manager Lisa Hoffman ~ Editor and Layout Artist/Events and Promotions Assistant Kayla Harrity
Mayor Steve Maher ~ Mayor Pro Tem John Hunt ~ Commissioners Fred Burrell, Paul Fitzgerald, Brenda Stewart, James Warner
Town Manager Warren Wood ~ Town Clerk Melody Shuler ~ Deputy Clerk Kathy Queen ~ Director of Human Resources Wendy Davenport
Town Engineer/Development Services Director Dennis Rorie ~ Planning and Zoning Administer Lori Oakley ~ Chief Inspector William Whaley
Public Services Director Todd Matthews ~ Chief of Police Michael Eiss ~ Chief of Volunteer Fire/Rescue Rob Fitzgerald
Director of Parks & Recreation Natalie Jackson ~ Main Street Manager Curt White ~ ^