Over the top
We were a little dismayed at a recent Herald-Sun op-ed penned by Orange County Economic Development director Bradly Broadwell about Hillsborough’s exploration of a commercial building moratorium.
In a departure from the usual decorum of county officials regarding municipal matters, Broadwell scolded the town for even considering the idea. We’ll give him a pass over the headline for the column — “Town considers economic suicide†— since that’s more often than not the editor’s doing, but Broadwell was pretty over the top elsewhere.
To his credit, he did not call the town’s leaders bumpkins, but he all but called them ignorant of the consequences of “stopping†commercial development.
It should be noted that while the town is considering an 18-month moratorium, imposing one of that length might be difficult, given federal court rulings and state law that make a moratorium over a year difficult to defend.
Hillsborough has been on the grow for some time, and after trying to digest the latest round of it the town is rightly taking a look at how to better craft its rules and guidance. While doing so, enacting a moratorium is not an atypical move for a town to make.
Carrboro and Chapel Hill both recently went through the same process to help shape growth in their northern reaches.
But according to Broadwell, this is going to bring the economic-development world crashing down and lead to “tragic†consequences.
In the past, taking a town to task in a newspaper column has not been a common method for county officials to use in debating public policy. We’re not sure whether the moratorium in question is the right move, but experience says the consequences of a justified pause of a year is far from “tragic†and has yielded better results, better plans and certainly more clarity for developers in planning projects.
The consequences of a condemnation of the leaders of a local municipality by a county official, however, are probably not all that positive.
Broadwell is right. Good thing he had the guts to speak out. Not everyone thinks commercial development it bad, just the Orange county “progressives”. And why do you insist on using the term “bumpkin?” That is a highly offensive term that you are using. Shameful in fact. He has more class than to use that term, and so should you.
Think about it: Stop commercial growth in these financial times? Are you kidding me?