“How lovely. New York must be so wonderful this time of year,” Aunt Rita marveled, then added, “We love living here in Creekstone, just two hours from Atlanta. Close enough to the big city, but far enough away to enjoy the mountains. The quiet life.”
“That’s great.” William smiled warmly at Aunt Rita. I saw his eyes dart over toward me and then back to Aunt Rita. “The two of you live here in Creekstone?”
“Oh, yessss,” Aunt Rita said with an extra thick Southern accent. “In addition to the property by the river, Kit and I own a house here in town, just over on Fifth Street.”
“It’s a beautiful historic home,” Nick added as he gestured for us to take a seat at the table across from William. “They converted the bedrooms into studio apartments and rent them out.”
“Oh, yes. With just the two of us now, the house is much too big. We had to find a way to use all that space.” Aunt Rita smiled much too eagerly.
“Well, first I want to say thank you for joining us today,” Nick started.
“Of course, Nick,” Aunt Rita said, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs. “We’re always happy to find out how we can help Creekstone.”
“Well, I think we’re at an exciting point in Creekstone’s history,” Nick said. “For the first time in decades, we have a potential development project that could help keep our young people in Creekstone. You know as well as I do that to make a decent living, you have to leave Creekstone as soon as yougraduate high school. You have to move away to go to college. You have to move away to get a decent paying job. This kind of out-migration is hurting not just Creekstone, but all the rural communities.”
Aunt Rita and I exchanged glances. What Nick was saying resonated with both of us. We both had to leave Creekstone to go to college, and the only reason either of us returned was because my mom got sick. Since returning, we were barely getting by on Aunt Rita’s nursing pay and my librarian salary. The rising cost of living and steadily rising property taxes were killing us. We decided the only way to make it work was to convert our upstairs rooms to rentals.
“The development firm Braithway & Randall approached me when I first took office about some redevelopment opportunities for Creekstone.” Nick looked at William.
William started, “Creekstone is a lovely community. Braithway & Randall has worked in several communities like Creekstone.” William picked up a remote for the projector and started moving through slides. He explained that there were opportunities to redevelop areas of town that were run down and opportunities to develop areas that had never been built on before, like our land. William had a deep, clear voice while he was presenting. I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t smile much as he talked through the slides, but his face was still very handsome. Each time William clicked the remote a new slide with an impressive artistic rendering of our town glided across the screen.
“Wow.” Aunt Rita said as she admired the proposed new buildings. “This is really impressive.”
“Thank you,” William said. He had a reserved, polished manner. I caught myself staring at him and made myself look back at the slides on the screen.
Nick picked up where William left off. “You can see that the proposed development includes quite a few infrastructure improvements for the town, stop lights to improve intersections, road widening, storm water drainage. All kinds of boring stuff, but if we don’t have those things in place, we can’t build new buildings because our infrastructure couldn’t support more people.”
“I get that from my experience at the library,” I smiled encouragingly at Nick. I turned to William, “And your company would build these things as part of this development plan?”
“That’s right,” William nodded, measured and polite.
“And this plan requires us to sell our land to your company?” I asked.
“Well, not exactly,” William started slowly. He remained composed. “We can still build on the land that we do purchase, but your land, with the riverfront, provides us an opportunity to build something the entire town can enjoy.”
“Like a park?” Aunt Rita asked.
William used the remote to return to a slide he’d shown us previously. The drawing was not even recognizable as Creekstone, but in the distance, I could see the buildings that looked like the ones on Main Street. “We would work with our engineers and architects to build something like this.”
“So, a shopping mall,” I said flatly.
“Well, a mixed-use development,” William said, turning to look more directly at me.
I tried not to squirm under his cool gaze. “It looks like a strip mall with houses on top.”
“Ha.” Nick let a nervous laugh out. We all turned and looked at him. “The truth is, we need affordable housing, and the apartments and condos that could be built would positively impact our whole community.”
“I think apartments are great, Nicky,” Aunt Rita said gently. Like me, Aunt Rita was trying to be supportive of the mayor. “But you know, old timers around here won’t go for apartments.”
“Well, that’s why we were hoping that you and Kit would show your support for the development by selling your property. I think it would show the town that you support the idea.”
“We do support the idea of development,” I said. Nick’s eyes lit up with hope. “I’m just not sure about giving away control to a company that wants to profit from apartment and commercial rentals is the way to go. What would stop developers from going back on their promise to create affordable housing?”
“Are you trying to develop the land yourself?” William asked. I turned to him. I didn’t like his tone. He seemed to be pushing back.
“Let me be honest. I am here as a courtesy to the mayor and my aunt. I like the way the land is now. Untouched. Natural beauty,” I said.
“And what about the people in Creekstone? The development would offer tremendous opportunity economically and socially for them.” Willam crossed an ankle over a knee and leaned back in his chair. My cheeks burned red with anger. I looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. I couldn’t believe that someone who had never been to Creekstone before would be so bold as to tell me what was best for my family and for the town. William tried again, trying to restrain himself from seeming rude. “It’s just that…”
