Beaty Request for Proposal
The primary impetus and rationale that Town of Davidson elected officials and hired staff have repeatedly put forth to citizens to “substantiate” their writing/issuance of #BeatyStreetRFP (with no prior public input/approval) was that a church (Lake Forest Church) and developer (Blue Heel Development) directly solicited the Town for the same intent/purpose – i.e., to purchase the (entire) Beaty Street public property, AND specifically for the purpose of a mixed–use development to include the church. See Page 1 of attachment – (public statement from Town of Davidson officials).
However, Save Davidson has done further fact-checking and independently documented written statements that appear to directly contradict assertions by Town officials/staff. See Pages 2-4 of attachment (redacted FOIA email from Lake Forest Church pastor Dr. Bud Brainerd to Town Board/staff, and FB responses from Blue Heel Development Owner Bill Worsley).
According to these public record statements, Lake Forest Church did in fact solicit the Town to purchase property at Beaty Street, but it was only 5 acres. Further of interesting note (and not previously disclosed by Town officials to citizens), the church explicitly referenced a desire to aid in conserving the remainder of the public property as a community PARK, NOT a “mixed-use development” as described by Town officials!
And based on their own statements, the ONLY solicitation or proposal ever conveyed by Lake Forest Church and/or Blue Heel Development to Town officials for any “mixed-use development” was the Beaty Street RFP proposal submitted by Blue Heel Development, in direct response to the Town’s subsequent #BeatyStreetRFP – as arbitrarily written by Town staff (again, with no prior public input/approval) specifically REQUIRING “mixed-use commercial development” on the site and the sale/development of the entire 20 acre public property.