ORD-2008-012 - Orange Co Zoning Ordinance -Buckhorn Rd Associates LLC Rezoning

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not people that we've never seen or heard of before, these are people who live and work in Orange County, and have done other developments in Orange County, and we see that in the way that they lease and use their property that that's what they're trying to achieve is a mix of national, local, and regional business owners. I hope that you will consider this as part of a jumpstart of an overall economic development strategy for Orange County. Thank you. Ben Lloyd: I have been sworn in. I'm a longtime resident of Efland. In 1981 Ken Thompson came to Orange County as the County Manager. He didn't have enough money to pay the bills from July to December when the new tax money came in. He created what he referred to as an 11-point plan, which was nothing more than to rob Peter to pay Paul. He kept moving money around and kept us afloat. The following year, I became a member of that Board of County Commissioners. We were in the same predicament. I became partially responsible to provide for the needs of Orange County. Relative to this, I contacted the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Three of them visited with me, one being their chief environmentalist. I rode them from Durham County to Alamance County, up and down 70, 85, came back and sat down and they looked at me and told me that I didn't need to show them anything. "With this US 70/Southern Railway/Interstate 85 corridor, you have the most potential area in the state of North Carolina and any surrounding state that we're aware of to attract good, clean, high- paying, low water using, non-polluting, economic growth." But due to the lack of interest and cooperation from Orange County over the prior 15 years, when economic development interests come to Raleigh looking at North Carolina, they had Orange County marked off the list. Twenty- five years later, not one brick has been laid in this so-called potential corridor. As a result of that, the property tax in Orange County has increased 524% in the past 20 years. In the last 19 years, we have increased property tax every year. Orange County is known widely as a no- growth county. In October of last year, I was visited by a gentleman who's job is to promote economic development within the state of North Carolina. He had been on his job approximately a year. He told me when he accepted that job, his peers told him, "Don't waste your time in Orange County, they don't want anything." That's such a shame, when nearly half of Orange County's workforce has to leave the County. They should both live and work in Orange County, which would lower the traffic and lower the pollution that people complain about so much. This Buckhorn Village proposal, I applaud. It's the first positive step in years relative to providing the needs for the people in giving us tax relief. I support them 200%. With the projected needs of Orange County and the school capital needs over the next ten years being in excess of $300 million and the debt service payment on current projects exceeding $60 million, something has to give somewhere. People are paying all they can pay. I would suggest that this be project #1. We need to Continue to live without these outrageous property taxes that we now pay. Thank you. Joan Jobsis: I have been sworn. I'm a resident of Orange County, I live in Efland on Bushy Cook Road, approximately a mile and a quarter south of the proposed Buckhorn Village, and I came to support the project that's proposed. I've been in my current home for the past 23 years, and am committed to this section of Orange County. I have been a past member of the Orange County Planning Board for six years, and the Chairman of that board for one year. Back in the 90's, I was part of the process that established the three economic development districts, one of which we're now talking about, and talking about converting it into another version of that. To give you some frame of reference, back in the 90's, when we were discussing this and basically promoting it, our thinking was that Orange County needed economic development, it didn't have anything going in the way of economic development, and the logical place was the I-85/I-40 corridor. It is still the logical place for economic development. I think we chose our geographical placement correctly at that time, and I think this is where we do need development in this County. I don't think there's any question that we need some kind