Agenda - 06-03-2008-5b5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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~`~/ 32 1 a lot of what was presented tonight was designed with catch phrases and key wards to make 2 me feel good about sustainability~ and jobs and things like that, but that ane phrase is the one. (`~ 3 that gave me the most pause. Some specifics, I'm concerned about commercial traffic, 4 obviously there's going to be tractor-trailers to load these stores and the products they're going 5 to sell. Where will they be accessing the property? Will it be restricted to the interstate 6 exchange, or will this traffic be coming down West Ten Road past the middle school that my son 7 is one day going to be attending? I'm somewhat concerned about the traffic on West Ten Road. 8 I'm also concerned about noise, air, and light pollution coming from the highway. Their plan 9 shows that they're basically going to take down most of the trees in the area, and those trees, in 10 addition to helping with air pollution also provide a lat of noise reduction to those of us who five 11 on that side of the highway, and I'd like that to be taken into consideration, particularly since the 12 economic development district marches all the way down West Ten basically to the middle 13 school, providing a great deal of buffer of sound and noise and light as well to those of us who 14 live south of it. Thank you. 15 16 Mark Zimmerman: I have been sworn. In the past few weeks, there's been an awful lot of ~ . 17 discussion about revenue, and I've been involved in a lot of that discussion with you all. But, 18 through all of that, there's actually one thing that stuck in my mind that wasn't about the issues 19 that we're talking with taxes, it's the parallel process that's going on with your CIP ten-year plan. 20 It's the one thing I kind of think back on an awful .lot. Pages and pages, dozens and dozens of 21 projects that will improve the quality of life here -schools and parks, social services. Despite 22 our tight property taxes,. we don't have enough money for those .projects, and I know you're 23 keenly aware of that. My question really is, if we're going to accomplish those'goals, where are 24 we going to get that money? Here we have a group of people who have stepped up and said 25 that they can help us with that. According to their projections, upon full buildout, this project will 26 generate about $6 million a year in sales tax revenue. To put that in context, if my memory (\. 27 serves me correctly, that's about 20-25% of the sales tax we take in in this County right now. 28 It's not often that someone steps up and gives you a 25% raise. If you combine that with the 29 million dollars plus in commercial property taxes that are going to come with this project, at $7 30 million a year, that equals the two revenue choices that we've ail been talking about for the past 31 couple of weeks. With that having.. been said, it's not really the money itself that's important, but 32 what that money will go to. You just have to go back to your CIP document to look at those 33 projects -all of thane services that will help citizens across Orange County, and at the same 34 time provide more diversity to our tax base to alleviate this relentless pressure on our property 35 taxes for residential property. Thank you very much. 36 37 Bob Ward: I have been sworn. I've been a resident here for 60 years, and my family goes 38 back prior to the Civil War. Orange County EDDs have been. sitting for almost 15 years. The 39 only tangible development we've seen at this point is a soon to be open branch of the 40 community college,,and we're proud of that. The Buckhorn Village presents an opportunity to 41 develop awell-planned, coordinated, substantial improvement to that area of the County. The 42 commercial tax base is in desperate need of being expanded. Commercial property equals 43 money for schools and public safety. We've heard how commercial development pays for itself 44 with a 4:1 ration, where residential development actually has a negative cost factor. There are 45 :many residential units that are proposed ar planned now iri'vvestern Orange County jurisdiction 46 in the Town ofi Mebane. That is going impact our schools and our public safety. Most 47 importantly, the track record of the people involved in this development should give us 48 confidence that this project will be done in a way that we can all be proud. 49 SO (~_