Orange County's Board of Commissioners made a political decision 17 years ago to form three economic development districts (EDDs). The three districts, known as the Hillsborough Area EDD, Eno EDD and Buckhorn EDD, are still vacant to this day. The only glimmer of hope is that UNC Health Care is planning on building on 83 acres out of 280 acres available in the Hillsborough Area EDD for a new hospital.

Why have the EDDs lay vacant for so many years? Conventional wisdom is that Orange County has not invested enough resources in the EDDs. There is no water, sewer, electrical hook ups, or roadways in the EDDs. Investors are supposed to show up and plow money into the raw land in the form of infrastructure and professional fees even before the first brick is laid for a new building.

Other jurisdictions in North Carolina set up an EDD by subdividing the property into manageable lots, putting in water, sewer and electrical lines to each of the lots, building roads and then marketing the lots by stating how each lot is capable of providing X amps of power, Y gallons of water a hour and its location to highways and rail lines.

Unfortunately, Orange County still believes in the "if you designate it, they will come" attitude. This attitude needs some adjustment as it has not worked in the past 17 years and is unlikely to succeed in the future, especially in the current economic climate.

Orange County needs help with attracting existing or startup companies with jobs. Orange County Economic Development Commission's 2005 report titled "Investing in Innovation" calls for the creation of 5,000 private sector jobs and adding $125,000,000 in commercial property by June 2010. It doesn't look like we are going to get there. Currently there are 60,000 jobs in Orange County. Unfortunately, in the past year Orange County has lost 3,000 jobs. That's 5 percent folks.

The report detailed the many issues that affect Orange County's ability to attract businesses to our area. They include:

n A tax base primarily composed of residential property (86.4 percent of total assessed value).

n Location within the Environmental Protection Agency's non-attainment region due to ground level ozone.

n Heavy reliance upon the public sector for jobs (44.7 percent of all jobs are in government sector).

n Retail sales per capita well below the state average.

n High housing prices, average home sales price of $279,996 (June 2005 prices).

n Cost of living (at 111.8 percent of national average) well above neighboring counties.

n Perception among many business owners that the county is not business-friendly.

n About 40 percent of county jobs filled by residents of other counties.

Other states such as California and New York are taxing their way out of budget gaps. Be prepared to see many people and businesses fleeing those states in efforts to seek refuge from the high tax rates. If Orange County cannot attract employers with good paying jobs the tax burden will shift inexorably to the backs of residential property owners. Tax receipts for businesses are already down this year and getting lower.

Now is the time for action as RTP has only 300 buildable acres left. Other North Carolina counties are still adding jobs even in this economic climate. Wake County, for example, has no difficulty attracting new companies as the county added 6,000 tech jobs in August 2009 alone.

We must encourage our political leaders to take steps to break the logjam of failed policies. Orange County has an opportunity to provide the relocation refuge that businesses from other parts of the country are seeking. Leadership is needed and should be grasped by both hands to take us forward.

Jeremy Todd Browner is a solo practice attorney in Chapel Hill.