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

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v\ 34 1 Concerned Citizens of Orange .County Responding to the Buckhorn Village Project in Northern 2 ~ Orange County 3 4 As concerned citizens of northern Orange County in the district surrounding the proposed 5 Buckhorn Village development, we would like to petition the Board of County Commissioners of 6 Orange County to consider the following issues: 7 8 1) We do not with to see irresponsible and environmentally degrading development in 9 this area. New development should contain "green buildings and landscape." 10 Natural resources degradation is a concern with large-scale development in Northern 11 Orange County. 12 2) As stewards of our county, we ask the Commissioners to consider improving the 13 Efland and Northern Orange County communities by requiring the developers of the 14 Buckhorn Village plan to include enhancements to the community by donating the 15 following at or near the "Village" complex: 16 a. A community recreational sports complex for youth of Northern Orange 17 County.. This would include soccer fields, baseball fields; a playground, 18 outdoor and indoor pool facilities and an indoor gym and basketball courts. 19 This would be free to youth in the community. 20 b. Within this complex, include a Senior Center, which would have a small gym 21~ complex and meeting areas. 22 3) Donate a parcel of land and build a charter school for Orange County. Please 23 preserve our land and resources and enhance our communities when considering 24 development of Northern Orange County. 25 26 27 Aaron Nelson: I serve as the present CEO of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of 28 Commerce. I had planned to put something on the overhead, but it seems like that has long 29 since passed. So, let me just give you my comments and I'll turn in the slides. First, I just want 30 to say congratulations. For almost. my entire life, you have wanted that section developed. You 31 have three times reconfirmed your interest in that. You dispatched your Economic Development 32 Director to find somebody who could do that. She didn't have to go far and all over the place. 33 Most communities. have to go outside before they can find someone to develop a project like 34 this. She was able to go to people with tried and true records in our community. So I wanted to 35 say congratulations, you did it. You piqued the interest of local developers to bring forward a 36 project in along-identified economic development node. And I also want to say thank you to the 37 developers. This is a great deal of risk for them to come forward and be the first to propose 38 something in an economic development node that has sat empty for a very long time. It is a 39 risky proposal and it risks their professional record. I have confidence, I have $een their 40 projects, these are the folks who go above and beyond and bring twice the amount of affordable 41 housing, when there's a standard that most people object to or who are excellent at downtown 42 redevelopment or developing city centers, so I'm real pleased that you've found great partners. 43 Sustainability is a balanced approach, and unfortunately it is a word that's being used a lot, and 44 I'm worried that because it's said so often, it loses its meaning. What it really means, I believe, 45 is a triple bottom line -environmental stewardship; social equity; and economic prosperity. I 46 want to look at that not just project by project, but also to back that out and look at our entire 47 County. You all have. done a remarkable job with environmental protection in our community. 48 You are doing a remarkable job with respect to your social responsibilities. We have work to do 49 on our economy and balancing that. We are close to accomplishing the $125 million in 50 additional development in five years. I think the new issue of environmentalism is that we are 51 going to have to go dense and develop along our transit corridors. If we're going to protect the ~~ ~~