Orange County’s RTLP hearing drew hours of public speakers. It continues next week
So many people asked to speak Tuesday about a 2.3 million-square-foot development project near Hillsborough that the Orange County commissioners moved half of them to next week.
The 161-acre Research Triangle Logistics Park planned for the southeastern corner of Old N.C. 86 and Interstate 40 would have twice the square footage of The Streets at Southpoint mall and shopping center, which sits on 140 acres.
Developer Terra Equity Inc. has said the $150 million project could include warehouse, industrial and research space and generate up to 1,500 jobs. Project officials had initially forecast up to 4,500 jobs.
Dozens of residents spoke against the project at two Planning Board meetings in August and again during a five-hour meeting Tuesday. Another 45 people are expected to speak at the next meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. Sept. 22.
Written comments also will be accepted for 24 hours after the public hearing ends.
The commissioners could vote on the RTLP master plan and conditional zoning request as early as Oct. 6. If the project is approved, individual building projects would be submitted later for county staff review. There would be no public input in those plans.
Economic development vs. concerns
Terra Equity, a division of Louisville, Kentucky-based Barrister Commercial Group, is planning at least four six-story buildings with a main entrance on Old N.C. 86, roughly 500 feet from the I-40 East off-ramp. A second entrance would be on nearby Davis Road.
Most of the land lies within the county’s 637-acre Hillsborough Economic Development District, which has had little success attracting commercial projects since being established in 1981. The UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus and the Waterstone neighborhood are about a mile north.
Davis Road — and a 12-acre lot there — is key to the RTLP development. The commissioners are being asked to add it, along with 77 additional acres, to the Hillsborough EDD, expanding the district to the edge of the county’s rural buffer. The buffer is roughly 37,000 acres around Chapel Hill and Carrboro where dense development and public utilities are banned.
Neighbors were joined by others from across the county Tuesday in continuing to express alarm about RTLP. They have held rallies, signed petitions and created a GoFundMe account and website, SaveHillsborough.com, to fight its approval.
Raleigh attorney Luke Farley said he has been retained by residents who will challenge the Davis Road lot rezoning in court. Rezoning that lot is inconsistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, has never been part of the county’s development plan and could be seen as illegal spot zoning, he said.
Others, including James Watts, a member of the county’s Economic Development Advisory Board, said they support the RTLP proposal for its economic and employment benefits.
“Having employment centers like RTLP in close proximity to the town of Hillsborough would be a great benefit to those residents, saving miles and hours of commuting each week,” Watts said. “Similarly, we need space for existing businesses to grow inside the county, so that businesses that grow here and prosper here in Orange County can stay in the county instead of continuing to leave for adjacent counties where warehousing and growth opportunities exist.”
Tenants, environmental issues
RTLP would bring “quality facilities to this market to attract quality jobs to your town,” said John Linderman Jr., a regional managing director with Avison Young commercial real estate who spoke as part of the developer’s team.
The needs of the commercial development market change rapidly, he said, and the Triangle is not able to compete with Greensboro, Charlotte and other areas for industrial tenants.
“We’re missing a lot of opportunities to (bring) quality jobs to this region,” Linderman said. “We’re seeing a boom in the Charlotte market … because (space is) available there, but we’re lagging behind in this market, because we do not have the buildings on the ground.”
RTLP has not identified any tenants yet, said Michael Birch, an attorney representing the developer. Barrister Commercial Group specializes in “speculative and multi-tenant real estate projects,” according to its website.
Orange County residents said they are worried about the type of tenants that could occupy RTLP, especially massive warehouses served around the clock by tractor-trailer trucks. The project team’s billing of RTLP as a “logistics park” and a traffic analysis based only on warehousing uses appears to support that concern.
Residents also worry about the project’s size, and whether it could increase stormwater runoff and light, noise and air pollution.
The Eno River Association joined critics in calling for larger buffers and more attention to how the project might affect wildlife, water quality and critical natural areas, including an Eno River headwaters tributary and part of a state Natural Heritage Area. County staff said the trees on the Heritage Area land were harvested in 2002.
The Orange-Chatham Group of the Sierra Club emailed a similar list of concerns to the commissioners Monday.
“We hope that the Board will use the development process to have the applicant bring forth a proposal with less impact on the site and on the downstream and adjacent uses of water and land,” the email stated. “Reducing the impervious surface coverage on the two tracts … would be a very important first step.”
Davis Road traffic is key
Residents know something will be built beside the interstate, but they want to work with the county to find something better that works for everyone, Save Hillsborough organizer Matt Mitchell said.
“We want development that elevates Hillsborough and Orange County, as we’ve seen with the UNC Hospital. We want development that complements and improves the lives of residents while also attracting new residents,” Mitchell said. “RTLP, on the other hand, represents the quick fix to a tax base problem, but it’s a 2 million square foot Band-Aid which can never be removed.”
Traffic, by far, is the biggest issue for nearby residents. The commissioners also asked several questions Tuesday about the traffic and whether the developer might consider other options.
A study found most of the roughly 1,700 cars, trucks and tractor-trailers accessing the site each day would enter through a driveway on Old N.C. 86. However, about 90% of those daily trips would exit onto Davis Road using a driveway passing within 50 feet of one home and a few hundred feet of others. The developer is planning a traffic light at Davis Road and Old N.C. 86 to help with left turns.
The nearly 59% increase in daily traffic could be spread across 24 hours, with the maximum number of vehicles — over 300 in one hour — passing by during the morning and evening commutes.
The N.C. Department of Transportation has not ruled out left turns from the Service Road onto Old N.C. 86 north, but it would require widening the highway onto adjacent residential land, RTLP traffic engineer Christa Greene said in response to board questions.
That traffic could forever change the Davis Road neighborhood, the Rev. Jay Kennett said. Kennett’s church, Hillsborough United Church of Christ, would face the new driveway and a 300,000-square-foot building planned for Davis Road if the project is approved.
The church is home to a place of worship and celebration, a historical African-American family cemetery, three 12-step groups, and the Sounds and Colors Daycare that serves nearly 80 children, Kennett said.
“It is a thousand feet that if this plan moves forward will now be shaken by a plethora of traffic, including diesel trucks with their noises and fumes, providing a backdrop to all those experiences you heard about,” he said.
