By Kirk Ross
The Town of Chapel Hill could raise a considerable sum of money if it added a fee that charged developers every time they used the phrase “big-box.â€
As you may have heard, we’re leaking. Retail dollars that belong right here in the Big City are spilling over the eastern border to Southpoint and in the northwest to Alamance. And so there is, by policy, a yearning for something, somewhere that will pull those retail dollars back home.
Since it became apparent that the council, the board of county commissioners and even some leaders in planet Carrboro might be willing to buy into a huge project with a big-name anchor, developers have been repeatedly “dropping the box†to sell their projects to the boards.
Meanwhile, behind the curtain, there are occasional flurries of activity, as ideas are floated to fit potential tenants to the relatively few spots around town that fit the potential. In short, that means a big developable spot, close to a major highway.
Since a few years back when Chapel Hill declared itself open for business, there have been a number of signs that local governments are willing to bend over backwards, a posture that is apparently required to snag one of these big fish.
The county, for instance, agreed to an extensive reworking of water and sewer, among other things, for the Buckhorn Road area to accommodate a mega development. Carrboro considered the idea of opening up land to its west. And last year, Chapel Hill officials listened intently as Roger Perry talked about his dream of a Target and 10-story condos across from Southern Village on land a previous council wouldn’t even consider for a high school.
What the three projects mentioned above have in common is that they didn’t happen and probably won’t, especially if the newest addition to the big-box lures on the north side of Chapel Hill succeeds. But each project offers a good example of what bending over backwards means and what could be compromised in the rush to stop the retail leakage.
Having seen a few pie-in-the-sky projects that used the potential big-box as leverage, it’s easy to believe there’s a risk in the current climate of letting projects drive policy.
Let’s put aside for a moment the envy – or maybe jealousy – over the retail draw of Durham and Alamance and remember for a second why we’re so desirous of a big-box: sales-tax dollars, commercial property tax, large employers and less travel time (sustainability).
Each project should be evaluated not only on whether they meet or exceed our requirements for development, but whether they are a plus for the town in all the above categories. The whole idea of adding to our commercial tax base is predicated on the idea that unlike residential development, commercial is revenue positive for the town.
Traffic has to work, of course, and the cost of additional infrastructure, police and fire protection and so on that will be required of the town has to be more than offset by the tax take. And while looking at the economic model of the place, like the average wage of workers, may seem like government intrusion, it’s a legitimate point of review considering the town’s own living-wage policies and the high cost of living in southern Orange County.
Chapel Hill has its work cut out for it. Given all the effort, landing a big-box may seem like the biggest side of the struggle, especially in this economy. But making it work for the town and seeing that it becomes the economic plus big-box advocates have been touting will require a lot of work by town planners and diligence on the part of council members to keep their eyes on the prize and not get bedazzled by the blue-light special.
Carrboro will never be a big-box mecca not for political or cultural reasons but because it’s fundamentally just too far from I-40. Big retail clusters need lots of external traffic, not just the locals.
If getting to your “big box” from I-40 involves looping a couple of miles around 15-501/54, not enough people will be interested to make it sustainable.
Really the only places for that kind of development in southern Orange are on 15-501 at the Orange-Durham line and right around Chapel Hill North at the 40/86 interchange. Anywhere else is too far from the highway to work.