Macon County residents are resisting another attempt to create a comprehensive land-use plan. The stated reason is they mistrust government’s outreach for buy-in because it has never listened to them in the past. Visioneers who moderate community forums have a way of knowing what the outcome will be and putting it in citizens’ mouths. If they don’t succeed in transforming it when they write comments on the butcher paper, things normally come out as expected when consolidating issues for consensus.
If the reporting is accurate, citizen resistance is not to be construed as a victory for property rights. As it turns out, the citizens complain the commissioners have not supported their NIMBYism. Citizens and commissioners are saying the same thing: If somebody buys land, maintains it, and pays taxes on it; he should build on it according to the whims of anybody who wants to appoint himself master of all he surveys.
County Planner Derek Roland, who is in charge of the visioning traveling show, stated:
I think people realize that future growth has implications and can have negative effects. They want to be able to have input rather than having the dollar determine that for them.
