bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042
CARRBORO — A group of farmers and other rural property owners who live outside of Carrboro plan to present a petition to the Town of Carrboro asking that the town relinquish its control over them and return them to the county’s jurisdiction.
A press conference to discuss the petition and show off the signatures of those who signed it is scheduled in Calvander at 10 a.m. today.
Marilyn Kille, who has been feuding with the town and its elected officials over an apartment she built in her barn on Old Fayetteville Road, has been attempting to organize the farmers to oppose the town. She has led some private meetings with farmers, and they’ve discussed the issues they face as property owners whose land is under Carrboro’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) and University Lake watershed restrictions.
Warren Womble, along with his father, Numa Womble, own about 100 acres on Smith Level Road south of Carrboro. He signed the petition.
Their family has owned and farmed the property since the late 1800s, and he believes Orange County, which employs agricultural experts, is better designed to regulate farms than the Town of Carrboro.
“In our opinion, they don’t have any idea on how to run a farm,” Warren Womble said.
He also believes it’s unfair that the Carrboro Board of Aldermen can place regulations on their land, but they are not allowed to vote in Carrboro elections.
“Most of the farmers, as far as I’m concerned, the ones that I know, they just want to farm and be left alone,” he said.
Although farmers, as Womble claims, might want to be left alone, not all of them have signed the petition.
Rob Hogan, who owns a farm just north of the town limits on Old 86, said he attended all the meetings with the other farmers, but in the end he decided not to sign the petition.
“We’ve been undecided about what exactly to do about that,” he said. “We haven’t found out even with legal advice whether it’s the right thing to do or not.”
He decided it was better to remain neutral, he said.
Kille claims Hogan was “a little bit intimidated,” by Carrboro officials.
Wayne Lacock, another farmer who once spoke out at a Carrboro Aldermen meeting about restrictions on farmers and who owns property near Kille, also decided not to sign the petition.
“My very close neighbor came over last night [with the petition], and I just elected not to sign it,” he said. He declined to say more.
On Thursday afternoon, Kille said farmers and others had collected signatures representing 33 property owners in the ETJ. She claims there are 21 or 22 farms in ETJ.
“I’m very proud of these people,” she said.
