It’s safe to say that some people who live in rural Johnston don’t want new neighbors. And we understand that; these people live in rural Johnston because they prefer not to have neighbors above them.

Opponents of new housing, however, rarely express their opposition so directly. Instead, they talk around the issue, complaining, for example, about the loss of farmland to new housing, or at least the loss of the farmland around their house. That said, we have never seen anyone from Cleveland Township attend a County Planning Board meeting to protest a subdivision in Corinth-Holders.

But at least these opponents are hinting at the heart of the matter, namely their desire to live without many neighbors. Less understanding are people who do not recognize their own self-interest and instead offer other reasons why the Johnston County Planning Board should reject zoning in their area.

Traffic, drainage and sewer systems are common nuisances, although they know for a fact that there are safeguards in place to address these legitimate concerns. The North Carolina Department of Transportation, for example, requires residential turn lanes and other road improvements when traffic counts warrant them. At the same time, engineers are legally required to plan residential areas to maintain existing drainage patterns. And Johnston County will not issue a sewer permit for a property that is not conducive.

Other objections are simply a slap in the face. We once heard a homeowner outside Clayton warn that a new development would destroy or displace wildlife in the area, so we assume he shed a tear because wildlife was lost or displaced when he cleared the land for his home.

But that being said, while we may sympathise with people who want their rural areas to remain rural, it is not our job to tell our neighbours that they cannot build houses on land zoned for residential use. Conversely, fortunately, those new neighbours cannot tell a farmer to give up farming just because they don’t like the smell of cows or pigs, or because they have personal objections to, say, tobacco.

It’s also important to note that subdivision lots in rural Johnston County must be at least 30,000 square feet, or about seven-tenths of an acre. That may not exactly be a homestead, but it’s not the postage stamps that some Johnston County towns are building on.

Part of us wishes Johnston County could stay rural, although we certainly appreciate the new grocery stores and restaurants that these new rooftops bring. But no matter how much we wish it did, the growth train has left the station and is heading east.

There is not much we can do about it, and frankly, there is not much we should do, unless we let our neighbors dictate what we can do with our land.