Agenda - 01-22-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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I Chair Jacobs said the Board will likely have a conversation about this at the work 2 session on January 27th. He said Orange County has never been in the business of funding 3 roads, but there is a possibility of pulling out the part that is storm water management. 4 He asked if there will be any metrics regarding decreasing storm water flow, or is this 5 just a stasis type of plan. 6 Ken Pennoyer said he is out of his depth with that question. He said he would refer that 7 question back to their engineers. He believes there have been some significant changes to this 8 in the past few months. 9 Steve Brantley said there has been a lot of subjective information about this project in 10 the media and through public opinion; however, he has chosen to seek objective areas to 11 consider this from an economic development perspective. 12 Steve Brantley presented the following PowerPoint slides: 13 14 Ephesus Fordham Renewal Potential Economic Development for Orange County 15 The proposed redevelopment of Chapel Hill's Ephesus Church — Fordham Boulevard 16 district offers several realistic economic development benefits: 17 • Significantly greater property tax valuation is created, per acre, due to the higher density 18 allowed by the proposed redevelopment. 19 • Retail sales tax potential will reduce our local sales tax leakage, and help retain wealth 20 currently flowing out of Orange County and into our neighboring counties. Although 21 Orange County ranks #1 in N.C. for highest per capita income, we rank 81 st among all 22 100 N.C. counties in retail sales tax collected per capita. 23 • The inventory of available commercial office locations will grow, thereby making Orange 24 County & Chapel Hill more competitive to recruit new and expanding corporate 25 headquarters site search projects. Currently, larger office headquarters projects are 26 able to find suitable commercial space in Durham County & Wake County that is not 27 available in Orange County. 28 29 Ephesus Fordham Renewal Potential Economic Development for Orange County 30 • Promotes a new and exciting destination for tourism. 31 • Generates opportunity to attract more affordable housing options. 32 • Creates more shopping, dining & employment opportunities here at home, which reduces 33 transportation & out - migration to adjacent counties. 34 • Identifies and improves critical infrastructure needs such as road improvements, mass transit 35 and storm water systems. 36 • Synthetic Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a commonly used & successful financial tool 37 that regularly assists other North Carolina communities in promoting local economic 38 development and land use goals.