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<br />1 live in Orange County. We would live in Charlotte or Cary, and I just think that there is such a
<br />2 lack of leadership that people are being led by their noses by developers who are telling us that
<br />3 big box stores for the future. They're already the past, they're already failed, they're already
<br />4 abandoned and-empty and scars on the landscape. I just think that, with more Ph. D's per
<br />5 square foot than you can shake a stick at, this County ought to be able to come up with
<br />6 something beneficial to the future. He said big boxes are part of history and he said this county
<br />7 ought to come up with something that is beneficial for the future. f just don't think we're trying. I
<br />8 think the sales tax revenue is great, but it`s going to cost a lot of money. (read in the paper
<br />9 today, $314,000 for three firemen in Carrboro for three years. That's not trucks, that's not a
<br />10 building, that's not equipment. And three firemen aren't going to do it; I believe the first
<br />11 gentleman that spoke was a fireman. My father always told me, there's two kinds of wealth in
<br />12 the world -what you can make and what you can dig out of the ground. This spends wealth
<br />13 rather than produces wealth. It spends wealth on credit cards. We're already hopelessly
<br />14 indebted in this country. It produces jobs that are low-wage. I don't want my child, cooking
<br />15 burgers at Red Robin. With all the Ph. D's here, I know we can find something better. I'm trying
<br />16 to think of ideas, I'm a .college dropout, I'm a small business guy, but I know that there's going to
<br />17 be a lot of money, especially if the Democrats win, for green technologies. The people that
<br />18 thought of RTP could have put a mall there. Why can't Orange County be known for something,
<br />19 why can't we create a green technology center that trains new trades people that creates new
<br />20 jobs and new technologies. I just think it's very short-sighted, and we have enough malls.
<br />21 There's one 17 miles. that way and 20 miles that way. That's all the shopping I need to do, and I
<br />22 just think it's short-sighted. We can say no to this, 1 think. I have not paid enough attention to
<br />23 local politics, but I'm going to start counting who votes for what, and elections are close by. I
<br />24 think that people are concerned about this as whether this is the direction we want fhe County to
<br />25 go. ,,~
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<br />27 ~-nita Badrock: I have been sworn in. I currently serve as the Chairman of the Economic
<br />28 Development Committee for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, and I also serve
<br />29 on the citizen's advisory committee for the Orange County Economic Development
<br />30 Commission, which is-not taking a position tonight on this particular project. I would like to
<br />3~1 come to you as a 30-year resident of Orange County, as a small business owner, who has
<br />32 owned a small, local business in Orange County for a long time, and as a partial owner of
<br />33 another business, to encourage you to support this project for a couple of reasons. First of all, I
<br />34. know that for the last 15 years, we've had that economic development district identified through
<br />35 a process that involved a~lot of public input, a lot of hearings around the area, and we came up
<br />36 with three economic development districts. But I didn't know until I came tonight that we've
<br />37 actually been looking at that particular site for economic development for 25 years. So we have
<br />38 for a long time been waiting for the right. thing to go into this district. The current proposal
<br />39 proposes 130 acres out of a 900-acre piece of land for development to fill what we have
<br />40 identified as a gap in Orange County, which is retail services. The stuff that your own. staff
<br />41 showed you tonight showed you clearly that we have retail leakage that's going into other
<br />42 counties. Our residents are spending money elsewhere, and I'd like to see them spend that
<br />43 money here, because I'd like to see those voluntary tax contributions go to give my son's
<br />44 teachers a raise. And I'd like to see it used for Sheriff's Deputies and for emergency personnel,
<br />45 and to provide and mental health services to residents who need it. It-is consistent with the -
<br />46 County's Economic Development Strategic Plan in terms of promoting non-residential
<br />47 development for the taxbase. It is part of the identified gap, as I mentioned earlier, and most
<br />48 importantly, I think this project allows for the rest of that property to be considered for other uses
<br />49 down the road. As a local business owner, I know that my business, when I've had a retail
<br />50 outlet, has done better when good, high-quality regional and national retail has been around it. ~
<br />51 So, I think that the developers have stated that that's their goal. We're fortunate that these are
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