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. However, the Orange County Board of Commissioners last Thursday took several steps in the right direction of directly investing in the Buckhorn site by approving a report to make improvements.

Orange County has decided to look at investing in the water and sewer utility infrastructure in the Buckhorn EDD. The Orange County Commissioners voted to approve the master infrastructure utility concept plan for the Buckhorn site, authorized Orange County staff to revisit the existing utility service agreement adopted in 2004 with the City of Mebane and the county, authorize up to $200,000 to fund engineering design work for the project and to seek proposals for such work. Commissioners directed the Orange County staff to bring back recommendations for final approval by the commissioners.

Meanwhile, Orange County intends to make the project "shovel ready" if Congress sends out another stimulus package in the near future. The goal, says county paperwork, is to make at least 400 acres of the Buckhorn EDD ready for eventual certification as a North Carolina commerce site.

Conventional wisdom is that Orange County has not invested enough resources in the EDDs. There is no water, sewer, electrical hookups, 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 an hour, and its location to highways and rail lines. The Orange County Commissioners should be applauded for making the correct choice to invest in at least one of the EDDs.

Orange County needs help with attracting existing or startup companies with jobs. The 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:

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

- Location within an EPA non-attainment region due to ground level ozone.

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

- Retail sales per capita are well below the state average.

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

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

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

- About 40 percent of county jobs are 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 only has 300 buildable acres left.

Other North Carolina counties have no difficulty attracting new companies. Wake County increased its employment rolls by 6,000 tech jobs just in August 2009 alone.

Orange County has an opportunity to provide the refuge that businesses are seeking to relocate from other parts of the country. Leadership is needed to take the county forward and the Orange County Commissioners have demonstrated that they know how to wield it.

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