Agenda - 10-07-2008- 7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 1 of 2 184 Tom Altieri From: Adam Klein [aklein@carolinachamber.org] Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:26 AM To: CompPlanUpdate Cc: Aaron Nelson; Anita Badrock; bbunch@williamhbunchcpa.com; kschwart@email.unc.edu Subject: Remarks on Comprehensive Plan Members of the Planning Board and County Staff, want to begin by thanking you for all of your hard work on the County Comprehensive Plan. As a member of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition, I am aware of what a massive undertaking a Comprehensive Plan update is. I want fo reiterate a few of my comments made during the May 19 public hearing regarding the Economic Development section of the plan. In my professional opinion and the opinion of our Coalition members, the economic development section is missing a major strategy-namely working with UNC-Chapel Hill to retain many of the businesses created at the University. UNC in many ways is our.business incubator. In the words of Chancellor-elect Holden Thorp, UNC's challenges in the coming years will be to "Cure diseases...find antl invent clean energy... feed seven billion people" to name a few. As UNC strives to tackle these issues, researchers are :generating incredible ideas and devices that are spinning off into new businesses. These are businesses that revolve around innovation, pay good wages and have little environmental impact-in a nutshell businesses we want in Orange County. Yet, with over 29 UNC businesses spawned since the year 2000, only 3 are located here. The majority go to RTP because they can find readily available office and lab space and a welcoming business environment. We can do much better than this and it can start with our Comprehensive Plan. I ask that you consider including a new objective of "working closely with UNC's Office of Technology Development to identify commercial space needs of businesses created by UNC research, promote development of such space within the County, and actively encourage UNC businesses to stay in Orange County after leaving the University." This should be one of our primary strategies for economic development. The second remark 1 want to reiterate is the importance of extending water and sewer to all of the Economic Development Districts. Currently, this is listed under Objective ED 2.10 and is a long term goal. The Coalition and Chamber believe strongly that this should be a short term goal. Orange County has the second highest property tax rate in the state along with declining sales tax revenues. We must do a better job of expanding our commercial tax base and that will occur most efficiently when water and sewer services are extended to these districts. My final remark is on behalf of the Chamber and not the Coalition. I would ask that you add another ED Objective within Goal 2 that reads : "Develop an incentive policy to use in targeting companies and enterprises that will build upon and expand core assets and diversify the County's economic base. Incentives should be tied to number and type of jobs created." Incentives often receive a bad name and sometimes rightfully so, especially when they are cash handouts that are haphazard and poorly conceived. However, in Orange County, our incentive policy can be strategic and well thought out, helping to overcome barriers to business location in our community. Such incentive packages could be aimed at reducing the cost of lab and office space, which as 1 mentioned above, is a major competitive disadvantage for Orange County. If we want to be serious about growing our commercial tax base the above objectives will be important pieces. I ask that you include them in your revisions to the plan. Thank you for your time and consideration. 7/11/2008