Agenda - 04-29-2004-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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As one participant urged: "The community must move together and come to a consensus on what they desire, and then make it happen." Additional Criteria to Consider After voting on the same initial list (which allows the apples-to-apples aggregation shown in Figure 1), the breakout groups had an opportunity to discuss and add other criteria for evaluating economic development strategies, As a general comment, several participants said that the county should be judging new ideas and projects on economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability. Some of the specific additions people suggested to the criteria list were as follows: o Encourages development ofcross-sector alliances and paztnerships o Builds and sustains the creative class o Fully supports the socio-economic infrastructure required to meet the socio-economic needs of all residents o Sustains and creates an economically diverse citizenry o Emphasizes businesses that pay living wages and/or provide affordable housing o Fosters social and economic diversity.. o Recognize venues for cultural/arts/performance o Does not bring in business (and therefore population) that our current infrastructure (roads, schools, water, etc.) cannot support. Big Questions Related to the values and criteria discussion, some of the respondents to the county-wide fall poll, as well as some of the summit participants, emphasized the importance of articulating whether and how Orange County wants to develop. One question someone posed, after observing local attitudes that are skeptical about nearly any commercial development, was: Does Orange County want its own commercial development, or just to be a lrigh-quality bedroom community for good jobs in Durham and Research Triangle Park? At least one of the breakout groups addressed this question in its discussion, and said: "Orange County needs its own corrunercial economy. It will not be able to be an ideal bedroom community due to the cost of housing if there's no industry here. Neighboring counties are building affordable housing, which is not available here." Another big question posed in some of the groups, as they discussed supporting "smarter" transportation systems, was: "How much are we willing to change to support mass transit and development around transit hubs?" And finally, one group asked the question: "Does Orange County care about supporting development in the northern part of the county, or is that in conflict with its rural buffer policy?"