The other problem with that site, or getting any site approved under Chapel Hill's development process, say critics, is that it takes too long.
Most projects need at least two years to make it through the review process, plus another six months after Town Council approval to get a zoning compliance permit.
Add 12 to 18 months to construct a building, and you're looking at close to four years before a Costco could open its doors, Bassett said.
Is that the norm? How long would it take in Wake, Durham, Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, etc??
2 years of planning boards and meetings, seems excessive to me. Not only is that 2 years of time, but that's also 2 years of expenses, drawing up plans, meeting with the various
central planners boards, changing to meet their
needs whims, and usually when you make one change to please one board that impacts another board and another change has to be made. I realize a lot of people want "local" businesses but what they usually fail to realize is, all these requirements and boards and meetings and steps make it harder on the little guy and the large box stores are the only ones with the resources to go through this process.
Kinnaird said the time to talk has run out.
"You don't just hang back," she said. "This is why I get so frustrated. ... Where is the empathy for people who don't have jobs? I represent people who live in trailer parks who can't pay their heating bill."
"They need to start with Costco right now."
That's the problem with the central planning mentality. I understand the attempt to control the market and build a utopia, but it's not possible, not in the real world anyway. No matter how smart any one person or group of people are and no matter how hard that steering committee tries to design perfection it's not going to happen. Orange County is a prime example of that. Sure, I guess it's a nice place to live, if you can afford it. Ironically the same people that claim to be looking out for the little guy are generally working against the little guy. I doubt they are consioucsly trying to harm the little guy, but the unintended consquences of planning and manipulating the market eventually harm the little guy due to his/her reduced resources.
One of John Stossell's shows earlier this year was based on a series of articles by Reason magazine regarding how to save Cleveland. Drew Carey and Reason magazine had a great series about how the end result of over aggressive central planning turned Cleveland from a booming sucessful city to "the mistake on the lake". IMO, if we take UNC and the hospital out of Orange County we would see the same results in Orange County.
Chatham County is a wonderful county, i've lived here all my life and hope to stay here for the remainder of my life. No, I don't want a strip mall on every corner, no I don't want every tree knocked down for a development, but at the same time we can't follow the path Orange County has chosen and choke the life out of the business community. We can if we desire, but the result of that will be high cost of living, high property taxes, fewer local opportunities to work and shop. I'm here and to paraphrase a former poster "I can afford it" but can our kids afford it? Can those not as fortunate and lucky as a lot of us have been, afford it?
