Orange County NC Website
think we did get a little bit of a promise from DOT to give us some money for improvements, but <br /> certainly not sufficient to do all of these improvements. <br /> One of the things that was discussed, and I agree with Commissioner Nelson, I think in the <br /> economic development plan that we have, that we do talk about the kind of jobs that we're <br /> encouraging and they are all at least living wage jobs. I would think that it would be important <br /> for the developers to talk about, within your control, whether that's the kind of jobs that we're <br /> talking about. Any development that we've encouraged, I guess the only one was the window <br /> sash company where we gave them a $50,000 water and sewer grant in order to hook into the <br /> Orange-Alamance system for water. <br /> Geof Gledhill: And also the Builder's First Choice project. <br /> Chair Jacobs: In those circumstances, we require that they be living wage jobs, that there be <br /> insurance provided for workers. I know those are the kinds of jobs that we envisioned when we <br /> talked about getting 5,000 new jobs. We weren't envisioning McDonald's or Wal-Mart. Again, <br /> within your capacity to assure those kinds of things, I think that would be important in Orange <br /> County. <br /> Finally, I agree to some extent with Commissioner Nelson, we do have a plan for the <br /> Hillsborough EDD, we developed that over about 16 months with Hillsborough, and it's within <br /> Hillsborough's jurisdiction. Commissioner Foushee has been working with the owners and staff <br /> to do a very detailed plan for the Eno EDD, which is on the border of Durham and Orange <br /> County. But, despite the requests over a number of years from several of us, we never did <br /> develop a plan for this economic development district. That's not to say positively or negatively <br /> whether retail or anything else should be in that economic district. But the fact is that, while we <br /> could have done various things, we're kind of caught. This is the one economic development <br /> district that really does not have a specific plan. That's not to say that it can't adapt to your plan, <br /> yours is about a quarter of acreage that would be possible, if you take out the middle school and <br /> the soccer complex. <br /> Commissioner Foushee: I only have one other thing that I ask that we consider, and that <br /> would be how we might recruit local businesses for this development. <br /> Commissioner Gordon: I would just like to reinforce what's been said about the transportation <br /> plan, for one thing. I have brought up before that there were concerns about the inner- <br /> circulation and the walkability and how it would work out within the development. But there are <br /> of course concerns about how the traffic would be handled outside the development, what kind <br /> of road widening would be included, and then also what provisions would be made for transit. <br /> Long-range, not only in Orange County, but regionally, we are thinking about an east-west <br /> public transit line. But that could be given a big boost if this development were in a place where <br /> that would be one of the parts, not only of the system, but if somehow the developer would <br /> contribute to the system. This is all assuming that the development goes in this economic <br /> development district, which has general guidelines, but it does not have specific guidelines. The <br /> Economic Development Commission did start to talk about target industries, but I don't know if <br /> they've ever adopted them. Of course the whole economic development district has changed <br /> when we approved the middle school and the soccer complex; it changed the scope of what <br /> could be accommodated there. It's correct that we have a general economic development <br /> strategic plan, but we don't have a specific plan. I guess the thing I would like to have explored, <br /> and my comments now do have to do with transportation, includes the points that have been <br /> made about how much of the traffic and the patronage of the businesses do we expect are <br />