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27 <br /> occupy a more valuable piece of commercial real estate that is more fittingly and profitably <br /> used for a commercial enterprise for which such spaces are more specifically designed. <br /> While the County has taken pains to designate Economic Development Districts within Orange <br /> County, such districts comprise less than one percent of Orange County,20 a vanishingly small <br /> fraction of those designated acres are available for purchase, and any acres that are available <br /> are likely to have far better uses than as a location for a tree service. <br /> In choosing which lands to designate for commercial purposes, consider how the selection was <br /> made: <br /> These sites were selected because of their adjacency to the interstates, their proximity <br /> to rail facilities for the movement of goods and potential for future transit service, <br /> access to public water and sewer service, and the potential to divide large tracts in these <br /> districts into a range of building site sizes. Orange County's location, midway between <br /> the Piedmont Triad and Research Triangle metropolitan areas, makes these sites highly <br /> marketable. Comprehensive Plan, p. 3-4 <br /> While these criteria fit the needs and desires of many commercial enterprises, they are not <br /> attractive to a residential tree service servicing south Orange County. As a local tree service, we <br /> have no need for easy access to interstates or to rails to send out and receive goods or <br /> materials. Since nearly all of our employees spend the majority of their work days off site <br /> (working on properties throughout town), we do not rely on access to public water and sewer <br /> services at our headquarters. Since we offer no onsite services or sales, we do not need, or even <br /> want, a location that has high visibility or accessibility to the public. Proximity to lines of public <br /> transportation is superfluous. All that we need, essentially, is a place that is close to the <br /> population centers of south Orange County where we can park vehicles and equipment, stage <br /> woody material, and train our employees without bothering neighbors. <br /> In these respects, our land use needs are most similar to a portion of Chapel Hill's Town <br /> Operation Center. How the Town met its needs is telling. With its lease on UNC's Horace <br /> Williams' Tract expiring in 2006, Chapel Hill needed a new location for parking its trucks and <br /> equipment, for parking staff vehicles, and for storing and loading mulch, sand, gravel, asphalt, <br /> and related materials. We may assume that the Town had substantial freedom of choice in <br /> where to locate this equipment and materials storage and parking facility. The Town, after all, <br /> had a planning staff with knowledge of the area, extensive land assets, and deep financial <br /> 21 Comprehensive Plan, p. 3-4. The size of Orange County: 272,546 acres. The combined size of the <br /> designated Economic Development Districts: 2,379 acres. These numbers are taken from the County's <br /> EDD mans summary (scroll to the bottom). <br /> 20 <br />