Date:
Thursday, June 2, 2011 - 7:00pm
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE
FOR
June 2, 2011
The Orange County Board of Commissioners will meet for a Special Meeting (closed session) on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Link Government Services Center, 200 South Cameron Street, Hillsborough, N.C. for the purpose of ““discussing matters related to the location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body, including agreement on a tentative list of economic development incentives that may be offered by the public body in negotiations,” NCGS § 143-318.11(a)(4).
Comments
Any guesses?
This has certainly piqued my interest. My best guess is they are recruiting a big box store in one of the County's so-called "Economic Development Districts" - none of which are in walking dinstance of homes, transit, or much of anything but highways. If so, double bummer for a big, corporate-owned chain store and for perpetuating sprawl in Orange County. If not, I look forward to hearing about it...
The way we're developing now
The way we're developing now perpetuates sprawl. Stores within walking distance aren't much good if people won't shop there. The stores we don't build and then neighboring counties do build on their side of the border are crowded and lots of the cars are coming from our direction. And also the bus stop is always full at New Hope Commons. That is reality. We need to deal with what is true instead of people wish was true. I don't know what the annoucement is but if it involves a store people in OC will actually shop at instead of going outside the county then it is an unmitigated good.
What do we know about the County's plans?
Does anyone know what the County's economic development approach is? Who has been developing it? Has the public been fairly involved? Have there been clear, substantive & specific discussions about economic devlopment polict for the County?
Re: What do we know about the County's plans?
Has the county's Economic Development Commission even held any of its monthly meetings this year? Or is this another county function disappearing into the darkest corners of the county manager's office until some disturbing surprise announcement is ready to emerge?
The EDC is gone, I think
Under the general concept of reducing the number of citizen committees (probably not a bad idea in general), the EDC was slated for disbanding. I think it happened. It's not listed on the County web-site.
I believe the EDC can no
I believe the EDC can no longer convene a quorum b/c many of us have terms that expired aand there have been no new appointments.
Re: I believe the EDC can no
Are members with expired terms not allowed to serve until they have been replaced? That's how at least some of the town advisory boards work.
EDC Quorum
Its true the OC EDC hasn't had quorum because appointments where frozen. But that didn't stop us from meeting for many months. While we couldn't give the former Econ Dev director help as citizens from a voting perspective we did do a lot of work. Especially in regards to working with UNC grad students doing Economic Development consulting for the County for FREE. Fact is we haven't met in months. Nor have I met the new Econ Dev director or received a phone call from him. To my knowledge none of the OC Econ Dev Commission members have received ANY explanation about the status of our board. If it has been disbanded I haven't been told so officially. My guess is that they are just waiting for all our appointments to expire rather than do the politically unpopular task of axing our board publicly. Sad.
I'm very happy to be on the Carrboro Economic Sustainability Commission where my time and thoughts are appreciated.
Appointment & Website
My appointment to the Orange County Economic Development Commission ends 6/30/2011. Guess they're just going to let it sunset without a word.
Also I can't find any info about the OC EDC on the Orange County website...
Re: Appointment & Website
The only information I've found is here: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/boards/indivbd.asp?BoardID=8That page includes a link to this: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/ecodev/index.asp
Thanks Damon
Good to see
A Comissions legal status
Can someone who understands State law tell me what the legal status, and or responsibilities are, of a commission? I thought it was different than a board? Doesn't it have a different kind of charter?
Either way you look at it not having citizen representation during big economic development changes in our County is wrong.
Safe to say
that letting the EDC wither away was done on purpose. That shows a total lack of respect for the people who served on the EDC as well as the citizens of Orange County.
With the exception of a
With the exception of a Planning Board/Commission and a Board of Adjustment -- which counties are required to have by state law (not sure about threshold for municipalities to have them), all boards and commissions are controlled by the governing board(s) unless there is some piece of state legislation stating otherwise. The OC EDC has some status and responsibilities enacted by a past Board of Commissioners. I would hope that members would have been instructed in those. But many jurisdictions fail to do so. Ed Harrison
So what do we know?
How is economic development policy being formulated? Is it Manager driven? CoC driven? It seems likely that the BOCC involvement is not primary. It also seems that citizen input is not even tertiary. As Frank Zappa said. "You're not Number 1, you ain't even number 2."Former/current EDC members have chimed in - what is your perspective? A lot is at stake.
Orange County EDC in Limbo
I created a new post called Orange County EDC in Limbo.