Category Archives: Lewisville

Transparency When No One’s Looking

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Last night we had a public meeting for the Lewisville Planning Board so that we could explain the access management ordinance that we've been working on for the town the last couple of months.  One person from the public showed up and since she represents a coalition of realtors and developers she was essentially paid to be there.  Now I know this stuff can be dull as dirt, but this is where the rubber hits the road.

Let's put it this way.  If you plan on building in Lewisville in the future and you want to know where you can access a road from your property, i.e. build a driveway, and you want to know what kind of driveway you can build, how far away it has to be from your neighbors' driveways and other details then you might want to take a look at what we're doing.  Or if you want to redevelop your land, you might want to know how the new ordinance will affect you.  Whatever, this is the kind of stuff that directly affects people but even when we advertise the meetings, as we did this one, people generally don't show up in droves.

Access management is just one of the things we're working on right now.  Because our Town Council declared a six month moratorium on development until we can get some new ordinances in place we're meeting every week to work on an access management ordinance, a stormater/watershed ordinance and a multi-family housing ordinance.  All of these will affect propert owners in one way or another so I would recommend that people check in on our meetings to see what's going on. 

Now, we're by no means the final word on these ordinances.  We'll eventually send our recommendations to Town Council and they'll make the final decisions, but most citizens don't realize that by the time it gets to the Council a ton of work has already been done and they've missed some golden opportunities to influence the ordinance before it even gets to the powers that be.  Every one of our public meetings has a public comment segment and we really do welcome any feedback we can get.  In fact we've already incorporated changes to our early drafts of the ordinances thanks to the feedback we've gotten from people who attended earlier sessions.

If you're a resident of Lewisville or are a business owner in Lewisville you really should check out what we're doing so you can be part of the process.  Don't wait until everything's 99% done and you have to fight the inertia of a downhill train.  It's not too late.  We continued our deliberations until our next public meeting which is May 13 at 7:30 at the community center next door to the library.  Hopefully we'll see you there.  If you'd like to catch up on what we've been doing you can check out our minutes here.

Talking About Driveways

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Last night we had a public meeting of the Lewisville Planning Board to show the public an early draft of the access management ordinance we're working on for the Lewisville business district.  In a nutshell we're trying to plan for what we think will be some pretty significant growth through the 2035-ish timeframe and trying to make sure our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is up to the task of managing that growth.  A big part of the future plans are to build a parallel road to Shallowford Road (the main drag through town), turn make both roads one way with two lanes, to build some connector roads between the two and to put in a couple of new traffic circles at entry points on either end of town.  That's the big picture, but as with most things in life the real work is in the details. 

Until we started this process I didn't understand the impact of driveways on traffic design.  Simply put you have to make sure that driveways, or road cuts, are spaced far enough apart and far enough from intersections so that they don't create a hazard by having people exiting and entering the roadway in close proximity to each other.  It sounds mundane, but if you've ever tried to enter a busy roadway from a parking lot that happens to be too near an intersection with cars turning into your path then you'll know why we're spending so much time on this.

As you might expect we ended up with quite a few comments from the 20+ members of the public who attended the meeting.  There was some understandable concern about the increased traffic through town, about motorists speeding even more than they do if we go to two lanes in each direction and about the impact on commercial property.  All were valid concerns and I think Marty Myers, our town planner, did a good job answering them.  Since we're only at the draft stage of the process we'll be able to incorporate any changes that might need to be made based on the feedback we get, but based on last night's meeting I think we've made some really good progress. 

Oh That’s What it Was; A Duathlon in Lewisville Last Saturday

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Celeste and I were driving through greater downtown Lewisville on Saturday morning when we encountered a closed lane on Shallowford Road and saw a race start/finish line set up by the square.  We figured it was a bike race and both of us commented about how often we see things happening in Lewisville that we'd heard nothing about before the actual day of the event.  We then wondered if it was a town sanctioned bike race since Lewisville is very popular with cyclists, or if maybe it was a race sponsored by a private company which is why we never heard about it.

Well, it ends up that it was a short course duathlon put on by a Raleigh based company called Finish Strong.  The racers ran three miles, biked 14 miles and then ran another two miles.  If that's short I'd hate to see the long course.  The competitor who wrote about the race on the blog I linked to thought the bike course was fantastic, describing it as "14 miles of gently rolling hills throught the wine country of the Yadkin River Valley."  I think we should borrow that for the marketing of Lewisville.

Hopefully they'll come back and do it again in the future, and if they do hopefully we Lewisville citizens will hear about it and come out to spectate.  I for one wouldn't be caught dead competing.  Actually if I competed I would be dead.

Is Duke Energy Taking Lewisville Trailer Denizens for a Ride?

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WXII is reporting that some residents at Lazy Acres Mobile Home Park here in Lewisville may have been overcharged for years by Duke Energy.  Apparently Duke charges a higher rate to homes that aren't 100% electric, and some of the mobile home residents say they were charged that rate despite being entirely electric.  The difference is less than a penny a kilowatt hour, but for people on a fixed income that can make a big difference.  One resident said she'd lived at Lazy Acres for 25 years and had been paying the higher amount the entire time.  If that's true then Duke could be ponying up a hefty refund for her.

According to the story Duke has set up a special phone number for Lazy Acres residents to call.  I wonder if the state regulators will have anything to say? 

Now pardon me while I go check my bill.

Lewisville Historical Society Scores $25,000 for Nissen House

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Lewisville Photos has a story about the Winston-Salem Foundation giving the Lewisville Historical Society $25,000 for the Nissen House move and restoration.  There's a picture of Foundation president Scott Wierman presenting the check, and now I really wish I'd been there.  Scott and I were both assistant coaches for girls challenge soccer teams (girls born in 1993) in the Twin City Youth Soccer Association club and I haven't seen him for a while so it would have been nice to catch up.

The $25,000 donation brings to $75,000 the amount of money the Historical Society has raised towards the project.  They still have a ways to go before they reach their fundraising goal, but obviously the Foundation's donation makes a nice dent. 

The article also mentions that there's a reception to celebrate the progress in the Nissen House project this Sunday, February 8 at 3 p.m. at the Lewisville Library.  Light refreshments will be served and the reception is open to the public.

Souper Bowl Sunday

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Our church is hosting a Souper Bowl of Caring lunch tomorrow (Sunday, February 1) starting at noon.  All donations will go to Sunnyside Ministry and as you can imagine Sunnyside needs every bit of help it can get.  We donated a few dozen chocolate chip cookies, and our oldest son Michael went over this morning to help cook. The entire youth group will be helping serve tomorrow afternoon.

The main feature is, well, soup.  I got to taste-test the soup when I dropped off the cookies and I can tell you it is w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l.  So come on by, feed your face and support a good cause all at once.
  

Souper Bowl of Caring
8300 Concord Church Road
Lewisville, NC 27023

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Wanna Buy a Gas Station in Lewisville?

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There's a gas station – conveniene store – car wash for sale in Lewisville.  Asking price is $675,000.  With the credit market in the state it is I don't know if there are many people out there that are able, or willing, to pull the trigger on that kind of purchase.  Hopefully that doesn't mean we'll be down another small business in Lewisville in a few months.

Nissen House Move December 31, 2008 in Lewisville, NC

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Nissen House Lewisville NCThey started moving the historic Nissen House in Lewisville today, but they didn't have enough daylight to complete the job so they played it safe and decided to leave it on the edge of it's current lot and move it down the street tomorrow morning at 7:30. That's 7:30 a.m. on New Year's Day.  I wonder how many people will be hung over during the move tomorrow?

While I was hanging out and taking pictures I got to speak to the former owner of the house.  He told me that the foundation, parts of which you can see in front of the house in the picture to the right, was in such bad shape that no one would touch it for less than $30,000.  He said that was one of the reasons he ended up putting it on the market and selling it to the dentists who plan to erect a new building for their practice on the lot.

The house is being moved a block down the hill and will be on the corner of Arrow Leaf and the side driveway entrance for Lewisville Elementary School.

Below are more pics I took of today's "action".  The first picture gives you an idea of the scale of the operation since there's a man standing under the house.  In the second picture you'll see the cameraman from Fox 8 TV.  He's a co-worker of Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman.
 

Nissen House with Man Standing Under It

Fox 8 Cameraman in front of Nissen House

Lewisville’s Historic Nissen House to Move Tomorrow

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Lewisville's historic Nissen House has been lifted off of its foundation for a while now in preparation for its move to a new lot so that the owners of the land where it currently sits can build a modern building for their dental practice.  It looks like the house will be moved tomorrow, December 31, 2008 but the time isn't certain.  I've heard it will likely be in the morning, but you might want to plan on hanging out for a while just in case.  Shallowford Square is just across the street from the house so might I recommend a nice picnic?  You also might want to bring your video camera.