Suggestion to your writer who penned the Feb. 17 front-page headline, "Area's preservation efforts could derail development": Switch to decaf.

The article goes on to describe how all of six rural property owners between High Point and Winston-Salem are using so called "conservation easements" to preserve their property from planners who might see other uses for it within their Heart of the Triad corridor.

Come on now, News & Record. Is there anyone who actually believes that when the government, business and financial interests of the Triad want this corridor to be developed, that a handful of property owners could stop it from happening?

Let's consider a more realistic possibility - that our planning and zoning commissions look at how a balance between rural beauty and development might be struck this time.

We're all witnesses over the last 20 years of the all too common, "Clear cut, bulldoze, and see what comes next" school of development. Could not the Triad use this opportunity to show the communities of Charlotte, Raleigh, plus the industry we seek to attract, how it can be done well for a wonderful change?

Bill Yaner
Jamestown