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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD
<br /> March 11, 2025
<br /> Carolina Club— Peebles Room#112
<br /> 150 Stadium Drive
<br /> Chapel Hill, NC 27514
<br /> Minutes
<br /> Members Present: Estella Johnson, John Kim, Tom Proctor, Kristen Young, Elise Tyler, Emilee Collins,
<br /> Hasan Abdullah
<br /> Members Not Present: Jane Saiers, Lisa Kaylie, Joy Mercer
<br /> Orange County Staff: Steve Brantley, Amanda Garner, Lindsey Hirni
<br /> Guest Speaker: Crystal Morphis
<br /> Call to Order
<br /> The meeting was called to order by Kristen Young at 11:35 a.m.
<br /> Approval of Minutes
<br /> A motion was made by Estella Johnson and seconded by Elise Tyler to approve the Minutes from the
<br /> January 13, 2025 meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
<br /> Old Business
<br /> Kristen asked for an update on any new Advisory Board applicants for the upcoming 3 vacancies. Staff
<br /> informed the board that a past board member, Sharon Hill, has applied. The board should continue to
<br /> recruit for the 2 Core Business Community positions.
<br /> New Business
<br /> Crystal Morphis, Founder& CEO Creative Economic Development Consulting, introduced herself to the
<br /> board and went over the scope of work she and her team will be doing on the Economic Development
<br /> Strategic Plan. After board member introductions Crystal had everyone participate in a SWOT (Strengths,
<br /> Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis so they could share their feedback on each category
<br /> for Orange County.
<br /> Strengths—location, schools, education/public university, medical facilities, Article 46 '/4 cent sales tax,
<br /> arts, talent.
<br /> Weaknesses—cost of living/higher taxes, affordable housing, transportation, water/sewer, lack of start-
<br /> ups, labs, private sector companies.
<br /> Opportunities—transportation, EDD (more industry = adds to tax rev.), land use plan (additional property),
<br /> UNC new arena, innovation center, workforce development.
<br /> Threats—development, traffic/roads, fed funding, cost of living, EDD restrictions, Schools (old, not full
<br /> capacity) % of income on housing.
<br /> Crystal spoke about some trends she is seeing in other communities like water, schools, migration from
<br /> other states, working from home, retention of small businesses, online shipping, the value of 4 year
<br /> education, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). She also had the board discuss public investment such as
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