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of economic development, not just to become a county of houses. Eventually, we would be like
<br /> the elite Poughkeepsie area, where basically people have houses that they use for property
<br /> taxes, and they all commute down to New York City for their jobs. I don't think that is the future
<br /> for us. I think we do need, within our County, economic development. I think this is the logical
<br /> place to have it. I think the proposal is very solid, and I'm very pleased that they are local
<br /> developers that are planning it, and that they are planning to have local businesses included in
<br /> this. I do think it would provide us jobs and taxes and bring more revenue into the County.
<br /> Thank you.
<br /> Margaret Cannel!: I have been sworn in. I am the Director of the Hillsborough/Orange County
<br /> Chamber of Commerce. However, I'm not here to represent the Chamber of Commerce, I'm
<br /> here to represent myself. There's been a lot of things that people have said that I would like to
<br /> rebut one way or the other, but that's not my position. I do want to say that I think it's very
<br /> important that the economic development districts have been in existence for 14 years with
<br /> virtually no economic development going on. One of the maxims of economic development is, if
<br /> you have a property that does not have infrastructure, water and sewer, then you really have
<br /> nothing. I think that it's very important to provide that, and of course Orange County does not
<br /> have the ability to provide water and sewer, because that's not the business that Orange County
<br /> is in. The City of Mebane has offered through the work of these people to provide water and
<br /> sewer to a very large area, and I think that this project has the potential to jumpstart the
<br /> economic development district, and potentially to get some activity going there. While retail is
<br /> not the highest and best use potentially of this project, and it would be really nice to have
<br /> something where Ph. D's could go to work, no one has come forward and said, "You know, I
<br /> think we'd like to put IBM out here." This is what has been presented to us. I think it is a great
<br /> use, and I say that not just because I'm a rabid shopper, but because I think that this is
<br /> something that the people of Orange County could really get behind and potentially enjoy.
<br /> Some of the things that the project proposes are to have entertainment in addition to shopping,
<br /> restaurants. Yes, Southpoint is one of those places that you go to, but I was out there the other
<br /> day, I was up there Saturday, and interestingly enough, I had to go to Southpoint to return some
<br /> items that I had bought at Alamance Crossing. So I drove through Orange County both ways to
<br /> do this shopping. And when I was out at Southpoint on a Saturday afternoon, it was a beautiful
<br /> day, and I had to park an entire parking lot away from the shopping center because it was
<br /> packed. Those people, I would guess that a great number of them were not from Durham
<br /> County, they were from Orange County, they were Chatham County, and they were from Moore
<br /> County, Harnett County. But, if we have a facility with destination shopping, we could capture
<br /> some of those dollars that are coming from other parts of the state. In addition, we could
<br /> capture those people to come back and visit the wonderful tourist attractions that we have here.
<br /> We already have over a million visitors that come every year to visit Orange County. If they
<br /> came and did some shopping, that would be great. These people are going to be driving down
<br /> 1-40 and 1-85 anyway, so perhaps we can capture some of their dollars while they're here. I do
<br /> have a question too. Some of the documents that other speakers have made reference to, will
<br /> those be part of the public record as well? It was answered yes.
<br /> Karen Pratt Morris: I have been sworn in. I'm just speaking as a property owner, a mother,
<br /> and a grandmother. I live in Timberwood Trail, which is off of West Ten Road, very close to
<br /> Gravelly Hill Middle School. One of my first and main concerns is safety. It is a proven fact
<br /> when malls go in, crimes go up. We're talking about firemen, how many policemen are you
<br /> going to put on the payroll, and will they protect our properties and properties away from the
<br /> mall. Number two, one of the main places throughout the country for child abduction are
<br /> amusement parks, malls, and country roads now, just within the last two or three years those
<br /> kinds of abductions have increased. So you are building a mall right next to a middle school in
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