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occupy a more valuable piece of commercial real estate that is more fittingly and profitably used for a commercial enterprise for which such spaces are more specifically designed. While the County has taken pains to designate Economic Development Districts within Orange County, such districts comprise less than one percent of Orange County, 20 a vanishingly small fraction of those designated acres are available for purchase, and any acres that are available are likely to have far better uses than as a location for a tree service. In choosing which lands to designate for commercial purposes, consider how the selection was made: These sites were selected because of their adjacency to the interstates, their proximity to rail facilities for the movement of goods and potential for future transit service, access to public water and sewer service, and the potential to divide large tracts in these districts into a range of building site sizes. Orange County’s location, midway between the Piedmont Triad and Research Triangle metropolitan areas, makes these sites highly marketable. Comprehensive Plan, p. 3-4 While these criteria fit the needs and desires of many commercial enterprises, they are not attractive to a residential tree service servicing south Orange County. As a local tree service, we have no need for easy access to interstates or to rails to send out and receive goods or materials. Since nearly all of our employees spend the majority of their work days off site (working on properties throughout town), we do not rely on access to public water and sewer services at our headquarters. Since we offer no onsite services or sales, we do not need, or even want, a location that has high visibility or accessibility to the public. Proximity to lines of public transportation is superfluous. All that we need, essentially, is a place that is close to the population centers of south Orange County where we can park vehicles and equipment, stage woody material, and train our employees without bothering neighbors. In these respects, our land use needs are most similar to a portion of Chapel Hill’s Town Operation Center. How the Town met its needs is telling. With its lease on UNC’s Horace Williams’ Tract expiring in 2006, Chapel Hill needed a new location for parking its trucks and equipment, for parking staff vehicles, and for storing and loading mulch, sand, gravel, asphalt, and related materials. We may assume that the Town had substantial freedom of choice in where to locate this equipment and materials storage and parking facility. The Town, after all, had a planning staff with knowledge of the area, extensive land assets, and deep financial 20 Comprehensive Plan, p. 3-4. The size of Orange County: 272,546 acres. The combined size of the designated Economic Development Districts: 2,379 acres. These numbers are taken from the County’s EDD maps summary (scroll to the bottom). 20 37