It’s enough to make the Lorax cry.
What used to be 15 acres of mature woods along E. Lanier Avenue between Weatherly Drive and Knight Way is now a twisted mass of bare stumps, dead limbs and other debris.
Gone are the lush green trees at the entrances to the Weatherly subdivision, Bay Branch condominiums and Weather Walk apartments. The folks who live there have been left scratching their heads and shaking their fists wondering what the heck happened and who’s responsible.
Based on communication from city officials and discussions at recent public meetings, it seems that property owner, 54 Development Inc., hired Cox Land & Timber to clear-cut the trees to sell for timber.
However, Brian Wismer, Fayetteville’s director of community development, told homeowner Verletta Thompson via email that “the City did not authorize the deforestation.” He told her he sent Cox Land & Timber a copy of city code Section 42-66, which prohibits such clear-cutting, telling them to stop. They didn’t.
Cox Land & Timber didn’t return calls seeking comment for this column.
Residents say the logging lasted for nearly two weeks. Ana Dean, assistant director of the Fayette Montessori School that sits right next to part of the property, says she and the kids at her summer camp felt the building shake for days.
Timber workers knocked over a fire hydrant that serves the school and nearby homes, which the city has since fixed. A damaged storm drain has not yet been repaired.
“It’s an eyesore,” says Thompson, who has lived there for 22 years. “They can’t just leave it that way.”
The city’s ordinance requires timber harvesters to have a development plan and to replant new trees. The penalty for not doing so is a ban on developing the property for three years, plus restitution and possible fines.
Residents attended recent Fayetteville City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meetings looking for answers. City Manager Joe Morton and other officials have repeatedly assured homeowners that the city will hold the developer responsible for the damage and require both cleanup and restoration, but that the city has to go through proper legal channels, and that will take time.
Lorraine Romano, who’s lived in the area since 1992, says she’d like to see the site cleaned up and replanted with trees and shrubs to create a park-like setting for the neighborhood. She worries about the damage affecting property values and the ability of current residents to sell their homes anytime soon.
Already, residents are noticing they can now hear the traffic noise from E. Lanier Avenue that the trees used to block out. The view from the community pool now overlooks a swath of stumps.
A neighbor at the Planning and Zoning meeting described watching a deer wander into the middle of the once-woods, just standing there looking puzzled. The environmental impact of the deforestation affects wildlife too.
But if they follow the example of Dr. Seuss’s Lorax, those in Fayetteville who “speak for the trees” and “care a whole awful lot” will hold the developers responsible for what they have wrought.
