No surprise, opponents of Bluegreen Corp.’s Patriots Landing project will appeal the Guilford County Planning Board’s decision giving the uh, green light:

The project is on land that state officials hoped to buy for the new state park, but Bluegreen closed a deal with several land owners before the state could make an offer.

Project opponents will focus not only on the park, but also on environmental threats the project poses to the larger Haw River watershed, said project critic Lisa McHenry.

“I don’t want to come off as a screaming environmentalist, but this is not responsible development,” said McHenry, who worked until recently as an event scheduler at the park.

She said Bluegreen’s plans are irresponsible because they would take large amounts of water from the relatively small Haw to irrigate the golf course during construction, put a sewage plant near the river and build homes near wetlands key to the Haw’s health.

At the planning board meeting, representatives of Bluegreen said state rules would prevent them from taking too much water from the river and that the sewage plant would be a modern unit under close state scrutiny.

Most controversial topics coming before our county commissioners are entertaining. But sometimes, as was the case with Ricky Proehl’s sports park off Horsepen Creek Road, commissioners will just sign off on a project without debate. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen in this case.

It just so happens that I recently finished an article on state oversight of water transfer. Officials will tell you that they take into account every possible scenario when contemplating requests to move water from one point to another. As someone who has looked pretty closely at such situations over the years, I tend to believe this is true. Environmentalists just don’t buy it, though.