MONCURE — It takes a lot to get Louis Teleky out of the house.
The 75-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran needs a powered scooter to get around most places and it’s difficult for him to navigate new spaces. So when his neighbors and fellow residents saw him at Moncure School last Thursday, it came as a surprise.
Teleky’s home, which sits less than a quarter-mile from Merry Oaks Baptist Church on Old U.S. Hwy. 1, has proper ADA accommodations for him to do everything he needs. But the railings and ramps — along with the home he’s lived in all his life — may soon be taken to make way for the VinFast automotive manufacturing facility in Moncure.
Plans from the N.C. Dept. of Transportation for roadway improvements in Moncure leading to the VinFast facility continue to show 27 homes, five businesses and Merry Oaks Baptist Church being taken by the state. Teleky’s residence is one of those 27.
“I can’t afford to move anywhere in the county,” Teleky said. “Even if I could, I don’t know how I’d move all my stuff given my condition. I’m just at a loss for all that this is bringing onto us.”
For months, Teleky and his wife have been looking for a potential new home in the county. But nothing is affordable to them, they say. The median home sales price in Chatham County is more than $600,000, according to recent estimates. Teleky said the lowest-priced residence he found for sale was $300,000, which was still well out of his price range.
That price doesn’t include the ADA accommodations, which were installed in his current home using a one-time fund he received from Veterans Affairs.
To voice his concerns, and seek potential solutions, Teleky made the trip to Moncure School as part of a listening session for the small area plan, Plan Moncure. The plan is meant to balance the needs of the existing community with the economic opportunities coming to the region through VinFast and other growth.
Designing the small area plan was triggered as soon as VinFast announced last year it would construct an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Moncure. A condition in the 2017 Unified Development Ordinance, Plan Chatham, said that once a tenant was found for Triangle Innovation Point in Moncure, a small area plan would be designed.
The listening session, like the previous Plan Moncure community engagement event, was hosted by consultants and county staff. The evening was split into two parts: an open forum where residents could ask questions of the consultants and staff, or share their worries with other attendees; and a small group discussion where facilitators took notes on residents’ vision for the future of their community.
About two dozen residents came to Moncure School for the event. Notably absent from the event in Teleky’s opinion, however, were representatives from NCDOT. Consultants with Plan Moncure said they invited NCDOT, but representatives were unable to attend. NCDOT reps did attend the previous listening session for the project in March.
“I still feel lost,” Teleky told the News + Record after speaking with consultants. “We just don’t know what’s happening. All we know is what the consultants here are doing, but we don’t know what NCDOT is doing.”
Teleky said he believes many of the anxieties and desires he has for his community are not under the scope of what Plan Moncure can accomplish. He and his neighbors have questions such as, will this home be taken? Or how will we mitigate traffic from all the growth? These are questions under the jurisdiction of NCDOT, and cannot be addressed by Plan Moncure.
During the open forum, several residents voiced confusion about which entity was in charge of which plans and changes.
Ben Hitchings is one of the lead consultants for Plan Moncure. He said the goal of the evening was to help clarify many of those misunderstandings and gather input for the plan.
“At the end of this process, we want residents to say ‘We are building Moncure our way; this is what we want Moncure to look like going forward,’” Hitchings told the crowd before the forum.
More than a dozen residents took the microphone to share their thoughts with the consultants and staff. They addressed a variety of issues, including the desire for a closer shopping center, safer street design and the environmental impact of the new VinFast facility.
“Most of us in the community have to drive 20-30 minutes to the nearest grocery store,” Gordon Parker, a Moncure resident, said during the forum. “Chatham County just opened a very elaborate ABC Store right up the road … I’m sure if we can have an ABC Store, we can also have a daggum grocery store.”
Parker said he’d also like to see more restaurants and shops in the Moncure area to minimize commute times to community amenities.
Other residents feared the developments in the region may lead to higher taxes and price them out of the community.
The listening session was part of phase two of Plan Moncure: gathering input. The data gathered from the session and online surveys will be used for phase three of the plan: scenario planning.
In this stage, the Plan Moncure team will devise four different scenarios for the potential future of the town based on feedback gathered from residents. This could include scenarios like changing land use policies, deciding on the speed of development or understanding the environmental threats caused by certain decisions. For example, a scenario could include building a grocery store in Moncure, and data would also show how many homes and other amenities are needed to support that store.
By evaluating the impact of these choices, the Plan Moncure team hopes to guide future decision-making. Consultants say this will help ensure Moncure’s growth is built on a shared vision of residents and opportunities.
The scenario planning meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 24, at Moncure School, More information about Plan Moncure can be found at www.recodechathamnc.org/planmoncure.
Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport