On Sunday I pointed out this is one of tens of thousands of acres of industrial properties currently under development within 1 hour of Greensboro including the recently announced 7000 acre Chatham Park in Pittsboro.
A few weeks ago the Randolph County Commissioners approved the building of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite. From the minutes of their meeting:
"Eric Ward, 510 High Point Street, Randleman,President of and representing the Asheboro- Randolph Home Builders Association, presented a letter of support for the mega site development on behalf of the Association. Mr. Ward explained their reason of support as follows:The proposed site when completed and filled with industry has been estimated to provide 1,750-3,000 directly affiliated new jobs and 4,500 - 11,000 supporting jobs. To take those numbers a step further the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in 2012 estimated that for every three new jobs introduced to an area there will be one new house built in that same vicinity. Therefore, if only 3,000 new jobs are created then it can be realistically estimated that 1,000 new homes would be built in order to sustain the growth. NAHB analysis also shows that building 1,000 average single-family homes generates 2,970 full-time jobs, $162 million in wages, $118 million in business income & $111 million in taxes and revenue for state, local & federal governments. Mr. Ward asked for sincere consideration in this matter and to remember that “if nothing ever changes, then nothing will ever change.”
So suppose those numbers are real and everything Eric Ward says is true: How could the Greensboro City Council justify subsidizing that kind of development 20 miles outside of Greensboro, across the county line in Randolph County when Greensboro will never have the right to annex the property? If those numbers are true then wouldn't Greensboro be better off if Greensboro's tax dollars were spent in Greensboro?
And to think, these people want to be reelected come November...
