by The Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition
Editors note: The following letter was submitted by the boards of directors of these organizations: Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce; EmPOWERment Inc.; Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors; Homebuilders Association of Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties; and The Village Project.
In the face of fiscal challenges expected to last well into the new decade, economic development is the most critical issue in the primary election. Absent more focused and aggressive economic-development strategies, what basis do we have for expecting an increase in local revenues, which are vital to maintaining the quality of life we all value?
Moreover, lacking a clear vision for where future development takes place and how it will concentrate everyday activities around existing and new transportation infrastructure, how will Orange County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan accomplish its stated goals?
Like last year, the Orange County Board of Commissioners will close the budget deficit with short-term measures that impact our common welfare. They will rely mostly on staff attrition and budget cuts. Local nonprofits, already coping with declining private donations, will increasingly compete for shrinking public resources. County social services will be reduced and our schools and libraries will have to pare their budgets. Recent steep property-tax increases further exacerbate the financial difficulties many of our households face.
In pursuit of much-needed new revenues, the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition believes the commissioners must prioritize and energize our quest to expand the county’s commercial tax base. The decisions they make now and for the next several years are critical to our ability to maintain valued institutions, programs and services.
Several critical economic building blocks must be quickly put in place in order to improve Orange County’s fiscal health and bring about increased local employment and business-ownership opportunities. Some building blocks being considered to support economic development in the county are:
• investing in water and wastewater infrastructure in the Buckhorn and Eno Economic Development districts;
• creating a unified development ordinance;
• recapitalizing the county’s small-business loan fund and dedicating county funds to leverage the state’s economic-development incentives and;
• implementing the economic-development element of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan.
In July 2007, several local organizations formed the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition to advocate our common interests in a future where environmental conservation, affordable housing, economic development, farmland preservation and compact mixed-used development are realized concurrently. Throughout the county’s effort to draft its plan, the coalition advocated for a plan that stated where new walkable, mixed-use, transit-supportive growth and development would occur, as well as one that committed the county to making infrastructure investments in order to stimulate development that would, in turn, promote economic prosperity, social equity and environmental health.
The coalition believes it is more important than ever to coordinate the implementation of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan with immediate infrastructure investments in the Buckhorn and Eno Economic Development districts. Within a few years, these investments will yield revenues vital to improving our fiscal health and maintaining valued community services. Furthermore, coupling strategic investments with careful implementation of the comprehensive plan will concentrate future growth, support greater effectiveness of public transportation and foster the development of vibrant mixed-use centers, all while furthering resource conservation. The coalition believes this approach will serve us well in the face of looming energy price volatility and the unpredictable consequences of climate change.
Voters can be active participants in this debate by informing themselves of the positions held by the commissioner candidates as they relate to economic-development strategies.
Will candidates pledge to invest the funds necessary to provide water and wastewater infrastructure in the economic development districts, recapitalize the small-business loan fund and dedicate county funds to leverage the state’s economic-development incentives?
Will they expedite adoption of a unified development ordinance that makes it easier to develop quality projects in Orange County (as Chapel Hill and Durham have done)?
Will they immediately charge staff and the advisory boards to develop a work plan for implementing all elements of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan and establishing evaluation criteria for periodic plan review and evaluation?
Now is the time to make critical decisions. The three commissioners elected this fall will share responsibility with four incumbents to recalibrate our growth-management policies so as to bring about a resilient economy that sustains our families, our institutions, our environmental health and the way of life we cherish.
For more information about the coalition, contact cpucoalition@gmail.com
Shocking! Organizations like the ‘Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors’ and the ‘Homebuilders Association of Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties’ want public tax money spent to “improve” an area so they can make big money on developing the properties? Next in the news: “Water’s wet and the sun is hot.”
Shocking! A response villifiying the (some of the) messengers yet ignoring the message and the shared interests of disparate groups. Five weeks later the county commissioners are seriously considering investing in economic development, but have to find the $ in perhaps the tightest ever budget climate. Thank gosh the commissioners are finally motivated to consider sustainably balancing their investments in $ and public policy beyond those advocating substantial investments in our public school systems and zero-sum environmental conservation standards.