Orange County NC Website
a lot of what was presented tonight was designed with catch phrases and key words to make <br /> me feel good about sustainability and jobs and things like that, but that one phrase is the one <br /> that gave me the most pause. Some specifics, I'm concerned about commercial traffic, <br /> obviously there's going to be tractor-trailers to load these stores and the products they're going <br /> to sell. Where will they be accessing the property? Will it be restricted to the interstate <br /> exchange, or will this traffic be coming down West Ten Road past the middle school that my son <br /> is one day going to be attending? I'm somewhat concerned about the traffic on West Ten Road. <br /> I'm also concerned about noise, air, and light pollution coming from the highway. Their plan <br /> shows that they're basically going to take down most of the trees in the area, and those trees, in <br /> addition to helping with air pollution also provide a lot of noise reduction to those of us who live <br /> on that side of the highway, and I'd like that to be taken into consideration, particularly since the <br /> economic development district marches all the way down West Ten basically to the middle <br /> school, providing a great deal of buffer of sound and noise and light as well to those of us who <br /> live south of it. Thank you. <br /> Mark Zimmerman: I have been sworn. In the past few weeks, there's been an awful lot of <br /> discussion about revenue, and I've been involved in a lot of that discussion with you all. But, <br /> through all of that, there's actually one thing that stuck in my mind that wasn't about the issues <br /> that we're talking with taxes, it's the parallel process that's going on with your CIP ten-year plan. <br /> It's the one thing I kind of think back on an awful lot. Pages and pages, dozens and dozens of <br /> projects that will improve the quality of life here —schools and parks, social services. Despite <br /> our tight property taxes, we don't have enough money for those projects, and I know you're <br /> keenly aware of that. My question really is, if we're going to accomplish those goals, where are <br /> we going to get that money? Here we have a group of people who have stepped up and said <br /> that they can help us with that. According to their projections, upon full buildout, this project will <br /> generate about $6 million a year in sales tax revenue. To put that in context, if my memory <br /> serves me correctly, that's about 20-25% of the sales tax we take in in this County right now. <br /> It's not often that someone steps up and gives you a 25% raise. If you combine that with the <br /> million dollars plus in commercial property taxes that are going to come with this project, at $7 <br /> million a year, that equals the two revenue choices that we've all been talking about for the past <br /> couple of weeks. With that having been said, it's not really the money itself that's important, but <br /> what that money will go to. You just have to go back to your CIP document to look at those <br /> projects —all of those services that will help citizens across Orange County, and at the same <br /> time provide more diversity to our tax base to alleviate this relentless pressure on our property <br /> taxes for residential property. Thank you very much. <br /> Bob Ward: I have been sworn. I've been a resident here for 60 years, and my family goes <br /> back prior to the Civil War. Orange County EDDs have been sitting for almost 15 years. The <br /> only tangible development we've seen at this point is a soon to be open branch of the <br /> community college, and we're proud of that. The Buckhorn Village presents an opportunity to <br /> develop a well-planned, coordinated, substantial improvement to that area of the County. The <br /> commercial tax base is in desperate need of being expanded. Commercial property equals <br /> money for schools and public safety. We've heard how commercial development pays for itself <br /> with a 4:1 ration, where residential development actually has a negative cost factor. There are <br /> many residential units that are proposed or planned now in western Orange County jurisdiction <br /> in the Town of Mebane. That is going impact our schools and our public safety. Most <br /> importantly, the track record of the people involved in this development should give us <br /> confidence that this project will be done in a way that we can all be proud. <br />