Demand for transportation infrastructure is linked to population volume and density in the real world. However, the Pulp is concerned with how infrastructure demand is viewed within the microcosm of southern Orange County. Apparently, such factors don’t matter to The Village Project, southern Orange’s pro-growth, tax exempt, eco land development lobbying group.

After working local politicians diligently in order to get a piece of the Buckhorn Village project from the Developer Dream Team, the Village people have turned their sights onto demanding that a light rail system be built from Chapel Hill, a community with a stated population buildout of less than 150,000 people to Durham and on to Raleigh. In the words of Village people guru and Carrboro planning board chair James Carnahan, ”We generally think that rail transportation is really important for our region, both for dealing with existing highway congestions and significant dependence on the automobile as well as the emissions that result.”

Money is no object for the Village people, as witnessed by their letter campaign. Recruiting a massive 530 signatures from fellow Weaver Street Market Birkenstock capitalists, the Village people asked if their pals want a light rail system. No mention was made as to cost. No mention was made as to who would pay the cost.

Sketchy local plans call for the rail starting at UNC Hospitals, moving roughly down Manning Drive toward NC 54, into Durham County, and looping back into Chapel Hill at the intersection of Interstate 40 and U.S. 15-501.

Assuming a system that stretched from Chapel Hill to Durham downtown and on to Raleigh, a minimal, nodal only system of 40 miles would cost (at a nominal cost of $40,000,000 per mile) only $1,600,000,000 to build. That price tag doesn't include the annual operating loss to be made up by local taxes. Southern Orange sales tax revenues are inadequate to fund such a project thanks to a two decade policy of driving commercial and retail development to surrounding counties.

Economic concerns are brushed aside by Mr. Carnahan ”It is an economic concern, and yes, it may be expensive. But that's in the short term. In the long-term, I don't see that we really have an option if we're going to continue with the quality of life we enjoy.” Apparently Mr. Carnahan hasn’t considered limiting population growth to curb the need for increased transportation infrastructure. Having escaped the truly urbanized northeastern USA corridor, Mr. Carnahan wants to duplicate that urbanization here in southern Orange, participating in the profits from eco land development.

No word on whose mommy and daddy will pay for the “light rail doggie” in the window.

Normally, the Village People Project of Chapelboro (see Village Project website) is the biggest fan of any mixed use project, no matter how threadbare the mixed use fig leaf.

But Director James “Carny Hand” Carnahan is dead set against the County sponsored, Developer Dream team built Buckhorn Village mixed use project. (See Pulp Squeezed Out Village People Story and Pulp Buckhorn Village County Action Story.)

Mr. Carnahan has the following ostensible objections to Buckhorn Village:
1) It can’t be successful without interstate automobile traffic.
2) Economic development should reduce carbon footprint, not increase it.
3) Big box retail involves importing goods from other countries.
4) It will create at least 1,500 new jobs, “almost entirely very low-wage, high-turnover jobs that will dispense significant social burdens and demands on the public purse”.
5) It will require multi-million dollar investment by NCDOT to upgrade the Interstate 85/40 interchange. It probably can't happen without considerable cash subsidy or tax abatement from the county.

Yet, projects supported by Mr. Carnahan as chair of the Carrboro planning board have relied on the following:
1) Interstate traffic to Carrboro as a destination spot;
2) Increasing the carbon footprint in Carrboro;
3) Approving Carrboro businesses that import goods; and
4) Creating mostly low-wage, high turnover Carrboro jobs.
The only difference is that Mr. Carnahan’s approvals have been based on three interstate I-40 exchanges that have already been built by NCDOT.

As the Pulp reported earlier this year, the real difference this time is that the Village Project isn’t eating from the developer profit pie on the largest mixed use village that will be built in Orange County.

No word on how quicky the Village People concern will evaporate once a ten acre lot bone (a' la the Pacifica development in Carrboro) is thrown their way.

In a guest column in the 3 February 2008 edition of the local real estate advertiser (the Chapel Hill News), Carrboro Planning Board Chair, Village Project, Inc. guru, and climate change commentator, Mr. James Carnahan says that the proposed Buckhorn Village mega-retail project (brought to you courtesy of the Developer Dream Team and the Orange County Commissioners) is not within his vision of a “local living economy” and will harm Orange County as presently described.

Mr. Carnahan doesn’t object to future Buckhorn Village retail sales or the expected municipal sales tax revenues per se. Rather he objects to the lack of a planned dense (12 to 15 units per acre) residential community amidst Buckhorn Village. In pumping the attributes of his Village Project organization, noticeably absent from the Developer Dream Team, he invokes apocalyptic images of “global warming” catastrophe.

With the usual Orange Progressive knock against “franchise retailers”, Mr. Carnahan puts forth the economic alternative of a “local living economy”. According to Mr. Carnahan’s vision of Orange County’s future, the local “Community Supported Agriculture movement” can be expanded “to tap residents’ abilities, transform local materials and knowledge into the products and services we need. We can focus on creating a resilient economy integrating diverse locally owned businesses into adaptive entrepreneurial networks. They’ll be more likely to offer stable, high-paying jobs, treat employees fairly, pay living wages, provide health and retirement benefits and support environmental constraints.” Mr. Carnahan doesn’t explain which local businesses or institutions fall short of these hallmarks.

No word from Mr. Carnahan quantifying economic expansion in Carrboro during his planning board tenure beyond the introduction of sales tax-free loncheras.

No word on how Mr. Carnahan will view Buckhorn Village if the Village Project, Inc. (another local tax-exempt, non-profit organization) is embraced in the penumbra of development dollars flowing around the Developer Dream Team.

See Chapel Hill News Carnahan Editorial

Former Carrboro Collaborative Development member, NSAPIRC member, and Carrboro Planning Board chair with an ill-defined livelihood, James Carnahan lays out his dream for a denser Carrboro. Single family Northern Carrboro “breeders” apparently invited to head for town exits.

Without providing any evidence of how many Carrboro citizens called for what in Northern Carrboro , Mr. Carnahan proclaims in a published letter to the Carrboro Citizen that existing residents in Northern Carrboro want “commercial activities in the area that would enable them to reach shopping, services, jobs and recreation on foot, bicycle and public transportation, residents were also interested in addressing climate change and the rapid decline in global petroleum supplies. They were concerned about the lack of affordable housing in Carrboro and wanted greenways and sidewalks throughout the NSA that would interconnect neighborhoods and link everyone to commercial sites.” No specifics are given as to what employers and jobs (other than traditional “tax-exempt” employers with lower income jobs) would be attracted to his dense vision.

Mr. Carnahan demands three more mixed use villages sited in the undeveloped about 3000 acres remaining in Northern Carrboro. No mention is made as to how or why the Northern Carrboro mixed use village “Winmore” has failed to meet the promises of the BOA, the Carrboro town staff, the Carrboro planning board, or Mr. Carnahan himself who championed Winmore in public hearings in 2003. He makes a dramatic call for anarchistic “faith-based” municipal economics.

Mr. Carnahan’s wants “form-based” zoning for Northern Carrboro so as to “accommodate a more diverse population and maintain affordability, a difficult goal to achieve when most of the land left within our growth boundary is being developed into large-lot single-family subdivisions where home prices typically start around $300,000.” No explanation is given as to what population diversity he seeks, particularly in view of the town having one of the most diverse ethnic population mixes in North Carolina. No explanation is given as to why the existing old housing stock in Carrboro (about 70% of all housing stock) which is close to the historic business district can’t be transformed into affordable housing.

Curiously, although the Carrboro BOA and Planning Board are routinely hailed by the myopic local Sierra Club chapter as staunch environmentalists, Mr. Carnahan wants to “revisit and improve the town’s protections for streams, wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas”. No explanation is given as to what streams and wetlands are left after the BOA has encouraged developers to build in these areas by counting unbuildable stream beds as open space.

Finally, Mr. Carnahan provides no overall financial impact statement of his dense vision on town finances.

See Carnahan letter