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April 4, 2006

Heart of the Triad: First day impressions

The Heart of the Triad planning sessions kicked off yesterday.

The limits of space in the paper make it difficult to fully explain what's going on out there.

Yesterday was interesting. The early sessions were mostly listening to what the various groups that have some stake in the thing had to say: the local politicans, school leaders, government managers and economic development people. But in the evening it was less listening and more talking: That's when they made a presentation to about 120 residents about the process.

The later session was less rosy from the perspective of several participants to which I talked. Nancy Potts, who I used in the story, was unhappy that farmland isn't listed in any of the uses. Jeanie Harrison, 49, a former college professor and environmental scientist, didn't particularly like the method of presentation. She felt it was too full of planning jargon and not explained in simple enough terms. I ran into a few other folks who had similar gripes.

High Point was well represented at most of the sessions (I wasn't there for all of them). At the meeting of politicians, councilmen Latimer Alexander and John Faircloth and Councilwoman Lisa Stahlmann were there.

If you're looking for some additional perspective, over at Blog-IT-O ergo sum, Jim Capo calls the process a charade. And Greensboro Councilwoman Sandy Carmany has written quite a bit about Heart of the Triad at her blog. The News & Record's editorial page editor, Allen Johnson, also has some thoughts on it over here.

Throughout the session there were hints at what might come out of this. Steve McDonald, an economist, laid out the three most likely scenarios: Do nothing. Build a logistics and warehousing center. Build a research and development center.

If nothing is done, according to the planners, then the area will develop with light-industrial and low-density residential. And that in turn, they argue, leads to sprawl.

The logistics center option is interesting. McDonald said those types of places tend to use greater square footage and build out faster than a research and development park. It seems to fit logically with Dell & FedEx.

The research and development center option would compete with RTP and probably with the new research campus under construction in Kannapolis.

So maybe Capo's right. There is a foregone conclusion and option B it is. I'm not so sure though. I'll be curious to see what comes out of all this on Friday.

Posted by Jonathan Jones at April 4, 2006 5:46 PM