Fayetteville destroying in the name of progress

What good are zoning regulations if they can be changed on a whim for developers with big bank accounts?

Thirteen years ago, I purchased a house on South Washington Avenue with the hope of retiring to Fayetteville at some point in my life. Well, life happened and now I am back on South Washington. I have been told South Fayetteville is “hot.”

It has taken a village to save my old house in South Fayetteville, and no, it is not to be branded SoFay or Southtown. It has always been South Fayetteville. Other houses in the neighborhood, or what is left of it, are being snapped up by developers who are purchasing the lots cheaply, tearing down old houses and then cramming too many new homes on small lots all because the Fayetteville City Council and Planning Commission allowed closer lot lines under the ruse that smaller lot lines would prevent urban sprawl. The same entities also allowed the smaller lot lines under the ruse that affordable housing stock is limited.

Now, we have 75 houses being built in a wetland up the street (The Houses at Willow Bend) and 300-plus houses being built down the road on 15th Street. I know change is inevitable — just look at Dickson Street over the years — but in other parts of the country, the travesties happening in South Fayetteville would be called gentrification, and gentrification is a dirty word in most places.

I have worked very hard to achieve my piece of the American dream and it is beyond disappointing to see that dream float away in the smoke of the fire. Yes, I could sell and move out to the country as so many other Fayettevillians have done, but I am too attached to my piece of Fayetteville history. If I don’t save this old house, they will bulldoze it like so many others. Wake up, Fayetteville, and pay attention to what is going on in your neighborhood, even if it is on the poor side of town. LISA MEEKS Fayetteville