We live in a country where private property rights are highly valued and government control is limited. For Belmont to stop all future growth, the City would have to purchase existing development rights for all parcels within its planning jurisdiction. Even if everyone who owned property agreed to sell their rights and it was legal for the City to purchase them, the cost would be more than citizens could bear. It is simply not a financially feasible or fiscally responsible option. Nor would no growth in Belmont stop traffic from increasing. A great number of the average daily trips within Belmont are made by people moving through Belmont and not people living in Belmont. Even if Belmont stopped growing, the Charlotte region will continue to grow and impact our city. Cities are constantly changing, some by growing and others by declining. Much of the reason for change in Belmont is caused by factors the City cannot control. We could not stop the closure of our textile mills and other economic changes driven by national and global trends. We have limited ability to impact state and federal roads. What Belmont can do, however, is manage changes in land use and how those changes impact our citizens. Our Comprehensive Land Use Plan is one important tool that we use to manage that change.
