Dear Editor:
I am a citizen of rural Agricultural Zoned Rutledge and am one of over 3,000 citizens in the opposition group to the Rivian project here. Our JDA and County Commissioners made many claims in a letter about the project here recently, and I would like to dispute their facts, and set the record straight!
Rivian is not the local “job creator” that our JDA and county commissioners claim it to be.
It is, at present, a “risky” EV “start-up” company that our four-county JDA, our State and our County Commissioners have tried to “sell” to citizens, who do not know the facts, as a “tax generating” machine and a “local” job creator. It’s not!
They promised 8,500 local jobs at the proposed Rivian plant and an additional 8,000 support jobs from all the “accessory businesses” that come with a plant this size. A mega industrial auto plant on 2003 acres, 20 million sq ft, 7 stories high. This “mega site” is inappropriately placed on our rural agricultural zoned farmland. Ignoring our 2017-2036 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, keeping this land zoned AR agricultural/residential use through 2036!
This land holds our water, has (or had) soil enough that we need to filter our water clean, and a source of multiple natural springs, ponds and lakes.
Water sources that we all depend on for life. We citizens and our City of Rutledge are all well dependent. So water is our No. 1 concern.
The JDA’s own expert from the beginning said this mega project would affect not only our water here, but will also negatively affect Lakes Oconee and Sinclar. Which should be of particular concern to the readers here.
Pamela Jones, Rutledge