Agenda - 06-03-2008-5b5e - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ 7Q. Glitterinu Obiect? 12ethiukinn Buckhorn Have you ever walked along a stream and seen something sparkling at the bottom, something you couldn't resist reaching into the most frigid water to capture, a little thing that often turned out to be a wadded up bit of fail, a gum wrapper, completely without value? Similarly, the promised tax revenues from Buckhorn Village dazzle us and we seem not to want to think about what maybe the real costs of approving a project of this size and type. But make na mistake, .there will be very real environmental, economic, and social costs, and we need to figure them out before we embrace this development The land use model. A primarily retail center set apart from population centers will be a big carbon dioxide (COz) emitter, especially from cars. The developers estimate 40,712 daily trips in and out of Buckhorn Village. The County's draft COz inventory shows transportation contributing 49% of our emissions. The purpose of this inventory is to help us set a CO2 emissions reduction target, and identify strategies to achieve it; the need to do this is urgent It is now widely accepted that Climate Change results from human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels. Letting Global Warming continue its current path risks epochal and. catastrophic impacts worldwide. It is not just a question of whether we'll be able to continue producing the food we need, or to accommodate the refugees from inundated coastal azeas, or of how many species will perish or how many tropical diseases will chase us to the Arctic Circle. It is a question of how "modem human civilization" will hold up in the face of challenges of unprecedented magnitude. The planet is reacting swiftly to the modest temperature increases webe observed thus far, a result of carbon emissions from decades ago. Scientific consensus is emerging that dire global impacts will be evident when CO2 concentrations reach 350 parts per million, a threshold we have already exceeded (383 ppm). Indeed, polar ice has been melting at unprecedented levels and temperature records are being broken regularly. Since our CO2 from transportation is already so high, it would be reckless to approve Buckhorn without having in place multiple strategies to slash the projected daily car trips. Buckhom has to be truly "mixed use" to da that Rather than. primarily a retail center, it has to have a lot of office employment and many homes so that employees can live within walkiug distance of their jobs. Residential density has to be allocated in and azound Buckhorn sufficient to support bus service, and perhaps future rail service along the nearby NC railroad; otherwise, shoppers can only get to Buckhorn in their cars. A big component of the housing has to be affordable to Buckhorn's retail workforce because. most housing in Orange County will not be. The economic model. There is plenty of research showing how outlier retail shopping centers like Buckhorn can do us more harm than good. Our local economy will only retain about 13 cents of every dollar spent at Buckhorn -compared to keeping over 50 cents of a dollar spent at a locally owned business. Low-wage retail jobs are highly unstable. Big box stores may be a net revenue deficit because the poor wages and benefits they offer translate into higher demands far government services and health care. Typically, franchise retailers in these centers price their goods so as to eliminate local competition, often putting local folks out of business. So we end up even more dependent on them for important daily needs -and increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of spiking oil prices on the cost of imported goods and the cost of gas to get us to the stores. The sustainable alternative is a "Local Living Economy," Our Community Supported Agriculture movement, for example, will help us secure a dependable local food supply. We can expand that approach to tap residents' abilities, transform local materials and knowledge into the products and services we need. We can focus on creating a resilient economy integrating diverse, locally owned businesses into adaptive entrepreneurial networks. They'll be mare likely to offer stable, high-quality jobs, treat employees fairly, pay living wages, provide health & retirement benefits, and support environmental constraints. Orange County's Comprehensive Plan Update has the potential to get us on a path to sustainable local economies and land uses. Once it is complete, much remains to be done to ensure that future decisions and policies advance sustainable outcomes. The Board of Directors of The Village Project respectfully asks the Buckhorn Village developers and County officials to utilize the forward-tlunlcing goals and objectives being drafted for the Comprehensive Plan Update to drive decisions about use of the Buckhorn properly sa that it benefits our local economies and is an asset to our communities. James Carnahan; for the Board of Directors The Village Project; Inc. This commentary appeared ire the Chapel Hill Herald on January 26, 2008, and in the Chapel Hill News on February 3, 2008. The Village Project e PO Box 685 ®Carrboro NC 27510 ~ 919-942-6114 ~ wwwthevillagepraject.cam