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

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Concerned Citizens of Orange County Responding to the Buckhorn Village Project in Northern Orange County As concerned citizens of northern Orange County in the district surrounding the proposed Buckhorn Village development, we would like to petition the Board of County Commissioners of Orange County to consider the following issues: 1) We do not wish to see irresponsible and environmentally degrading development in this area. New development should contain "green buildings and landscape." Natural resources degradation is a concern with large-scale development in Northern Orange County. 1) As stewards of our county, we ask the Commissioners to consider improving the Efland and Northern Orange County communities by requiring the developers of the Buckhorn Village plan to include enhancements to the community by donating the following at or near the "Village" complex: A community recreational sports complex for youth of Northern Orange County. This would include soccer fields, baseball fields, a playground, outdoor and indoor pool facilities and an indoor gym and basketball courts. This would be free to youth in the community. Within this complex, include a Senior Center, which would have a small gym complex and meeting areas. 2) Donate a parcel of land and build a charter school for Orange County. Please preserve our land and resources and enhance our communities when considering development of Northern Orange County. Aaron Nelson: I serve as the present CEO of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. I had planned to put something on the overhead, but it seems like that has long since passed. So, let me just give you my comments and I'll turn in the slides. First, I just want to say congratulations. For almost my entire life, you have wanted that section developed. You have three times reconfirmed your interest in that. You dispatched your Economic Development Director to find somebody who could do that. She didn't have to go far and all over the place. Most communities have to go outside before they can find someone to develop a project like this. She was able to go to people with tried and true records in our community. So I wanted to say congratulations, you. did it. You piqued the interest of local developers to bring forward a project in along-identified economic development node. And I also want to say thank you to the developers. This is a great deal of risk for them to come forward and be the first to propose something in an economic development node that has sat empty for a very long time. It is a risky proposal and it risks their professional record. I have confidence, I have seen their projects, these are the folks who go above and beyond and bring twice the amount of affordable housing, when there's a standard that most people object to or who are excellent at downtown redevelopment or developing city centers, so I'm real pleased that you've found great partners. Sustainability is a balanced approach, and unfortunately it is a word that's being used a lot, and I'm worried that because it's said so often, it loses its meaning. What it really means, I believe, is a triple bottom line -environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic prosperity. I want to look at that not just project by project, but also to back that out and look at our entire County. You all have done a remarkable job with environmental protection in our community. You are doing a remarkable job with respect to your social responsibilities. We have work to do on our economy and balancing that. We are close to accomplishing the $125 million in additional development in five years. I think the new issue of environmentalism is that we are going to have to go dense and develop along our transit corridors. If we're going to protect the