Save Davidson began February 2017 as a Facebook group called ‘Save West Davidson's Tree Canopy.’ The grassroots group was centered around informing Davidson residents of the sale and private development of Town-owned Beaty Street Property located at Beaty/NC115, the loss of its tree canopy, and the Town’s failure to follow proper procedure around sale of Town-owned land.

In the past decade the face of Exit 30 has changed as Town planners employed New Urbanism. Many residents experienced the area as over-developed and suffering from nearly complete loss of tree canopy that left scant protection from I-77, light and noise pollution. Significant Town planning resources were used in gaining approval for a four-story hotel on Griffith beside a K-8 school and overlooking a West Side neighborhood already encroached on by an auto facility with insufficient buffer. Final word on a suit brought against the Town’s handling of the hotel request will be known soon.

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In late 2017, as citizens began to coalesce and unify against unpopular projects, historical Town bullying and corruption; it became evident that Save Davidson should play a role in the election. It was a lively election season but Save Davidson carefully chose and recommended candidates.

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Although prior mobility plans largely emphasized expanding foot and bicycle movement around Town, residents frustrated by narrow streets and overflow of I-77 traffic through Davidson pressed for expansion of the current $120,000 study ($25,000 from TOD taxpayers) to include automobiles and public transport. Following consultant hosted walking tours, citizen surveys, other public input modes, and a late May three-day “drop-in” session in Town Hall, planning professionals are mapping suggestions that show greenways, biking trails, need for sidewalks (and size), possible one-way streets, and more. Many presentations and votes (by Planing Board and a final by Board of Commissioners) will occur before a late fall comprehensive mobility plan is approved.

The Rural Area Plan (RAP) was a plan impacting over 3,800 acres in the ETJ and rural areas of Davidson developed over the course of 12 months and adopted by the former Board of Commissioners in September 2016. The RAP holds as its base open space preservation, connectivity, and walkable neighborhoods which all sound wonderful on paper—-the reality is quite different. The plan doesn’t address issues with existing infrastructure (roads mainly) and many of the roads in the ETJ are NCDOT roads, therefore, the RAP relies on connectivity through neighborhoods which then leads to issues with our Traffic Impact Analysis process and whether the Town will be able to mitigate the impact of new developments with adequate roads and traffic calming. Much of the ideology in the Rural Area Plan is based on higher density, clustered housing which based on the 2017 election is not the direction many citizens in Davidson wish to pursue.

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Save Davidson discovered and questioned the Town of Davidson regarding erroneously billing citizens who qualify for the Homestead Exclusion the Davidson Solid-Waste Fee of $201 per year. Citizens with income of less than $29,500, and who are 65+ years of age or who are totally and permanently disabled qualify for the exemption. The Town of Davidson Ordinance, adopted on July 12, 2011, specifically states that citizens who qualify are not subject to the solid-waste fee. In many cases, this fee represents 25-35% of these residents’ tax bills. When making inquiries, citizens were ignored by previous administrations and paid the fees for at least 5 years.

Davidson Town Hall, specifically police and fire are growing out of their space and in the process of assessing options.

In 2016, after years of attempting to be heard by town hall, a citizen of the west side halted a construction project by alerting surveyors that there was asbestos in the area they were working. After that, sites all over the west side were tested and remediation was done.