|
Community
Profile
 Right:
The new North Carolina Children's Hospital opened last fall in Chapel Hill
with the Women's Hospital at a combined cost of $160 million
Rebirth
Orange County celebrates its rich heritage
while hurriedly building an enlightened future
By Lawrence Bivens
Exactly two
and a half centuries ago, newly arriving settlers in the Piedmont gathered at a
site along the Eno River to launch the First Colonial Court of Common Pleas and
Quarter Sessions. It was an event that marked the creation of Orange County,
then a land that stretched from Durham to Greensboro as far north as the
Virginia border. History making soon became second nature to the county that
would later be home to Regulators, patriots and pioneers of one brand or other.
Today, in many respects, the story of Orange County is just beginning. It long
ago gave up most of its lands, carving its original 3,500 square-mile expanse
into the 400 that we now know. But pioneering traditions endure — now taking
the form of world-class healthcare research and practice, high-tech start-ups,
enviable educational institutions at all levels, thriving literary and artistic
organizations and “stacked” multi-purpose communities of tomorrow.
There is also the county’s bucolic side. Along its meandering, foliage-covered
hills are farmhouses, barns and church spires that have largely been untouched
by time. Nearly one in five acres is used for livestock grazing, dairy farming,
horticulture, and the production of row crops and forest products. The marriage
of ancient rural values and forward-thinking politics have yielded local
policies that protect trees and greenspace, encourage the building of
neighborhoods that are walkable and bicycle-friendly, foster the start-up of
innovative companies and preserve one of the county’s most visible assets: an
unbeatable quality of life.
“A lot of what makes us special is the unique mixture of people here,”
explains Joe Phelps, mayor of Hillsborough and a lifelong county resident.
“There are southern people who’ve been here forever and there are newcomers
who’ve also found a home here.” He adds that fate has blessed Orange County
with an ideal location. Hillsborough, its county seat, is nestled at the
confluence of two interstate highways, and most residents are within easy access
to the jobs and big-city amenities of both the Piedmont Triad and the Research
Triangle.
County leaders aren’t banking on location and legacy alone. There is, in
economic development terms, good product here. Lands in the county’s
mid-section have been divvied up into three separate, and equally attractive,
economic development districts. There’s Buckhorn, located at Buckhorn Road at
I-40/85 in Efland; Hillsborough, a business-oriented expanse at the intersection
of Old Highway 86 and I-40; and Eno, well situated where U.S. Highway 70 and
I-85 meet. Together, the privately owned districts comprise more than 2,500
acres. There is also the Meadowlands, one of several industrial parks, which is
home to a wide array of businesses and industries, as well as medical and law
offices, a nursing home and a large recreational center.
Rapid residential growth around Hillsborough and Efland have spurred plans for
new commercial development near the intersection of I-85 and N.C. Highway 86.
There, a large shopping center known as Hampton Point will become home to at
least two major national retail names, complementing the array of small antiques
dealers that draws locals as well as throngs of passing motorists. The project,
a tangible product of a campaign to “Shop Orange First,” has been years in
the making due to the county’s exacting standards on development.
“Orange County has a unique values structure when it comes to development,”
explains Jack Smyre, owner of The Design Response, a planning and engineering
firm that has worked on numerous projects in the county. “Local officials are
thoughtful and deliberative in all their actions, and I think that’s a very
positive thing.” His Cary-based company is now working closely with local
leaders in Orange County on gaining approval for a 330-acre mixed-use
development called Waterstone, not far from Hampton Point. The project will have
retail units, a range of residential options, high-quality office space and
other components such as a day care center, all neatly tied together in a dense,
walkable design often referred to as the “New Urbanism.”
The Waterstone project grew out of efforts to level the county’s lopsided tax
base. Currently, only about 14 percent of Orange County’s revenues are
received from non-residential sources. In adjacent Durham County, for example,
non-residential taxpayers comprise 40 percent of the tax base. “It was one
thing to talk about shopping Orange first,” Smyre says. “But much of the
problem was there really wasn’t a place to shop.” Hampton Point and
Waterstone are thus the first steps toward keeping consumer dollars in the
county and cultivating commercial product — from retail to Class A office
space — that can grow the local job base.
“This is a community that wants to attract responsible, high-wage, low-impact
businesses,” says Aaron Nelson, executive director of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Chamber of Commerce, one of two chambers serving the county. As recently as two
years ago, there was little the county could offer in terms of Class A office
space. But the completion of several office complexes has opened up new
opportunities for businesses that want to make Orange County their home.
“There’s plenty of good product available now,” says Nelson, whose
membership rolls have been growing at an impressive clip since arriving at the
chamber in early 2001.
The abundance of adequate commercial space already has led one major company to
move its corporate headquarters to the county. In March, American Fibers and
Yarns announced it would be relocating to The Campus on VilCom Circle, a
convenient business park in northern Chapel Hill, from its previous home in
suburban Atlanta. The company, which maintains a manufacturing site in Rocky
Mount, makes specialty apparel products for surfers, divers and cyclists. The
U.S. military also purchases the company’s lightweight weather-resistant
fabrics. American Fibers’ headquarters will employ a staff of 20 or so,
including human resources, finance, sales and marketing personnel. “It’s
very exciting,” beams Diane Reid, the county’s economic development
director. “The company just showed up here ready to make Chapel Hill its home
base.”
Offering New Ways of Living
Now that accommodations are available, there will likely be more arriving firms.
Some are certain to be attracted by the appeal of Meadowmont, a new mixed-use
community on the eastern edge of Chapel Hill. Consisting of office space,
restaurants, stores, apartments, condominiums and single family homes, the
community actually takes its cue from the high-density, centuries-old “town
center” concept in existence before automobiles became ubiquitous. “This is
truly the first modern live, work and play community in Orange County,” says
Craig Davis, the Raleigh-based developer who was key to making the project a
reality.
The response to Meadowmont has been encouraging. People of all ages and stages
of life are eager to try a way of life that liberates them from their cars.
“Our sales are thus far right on target,” Davis says. “It’s an
education, though. People in New York and D.C. might be familiar with this type
of living, but many people around here may never have experienced something like
this.”
In addition to homes, stores, eateries and offices, Meadowmont will soon boast a
cavernous wellness center, a hotel and a number of affordable housing units
being developed by the county. Later this summer, construction will begin on The
Cedars at Meadowmont, a 47-acre continuing care retirement community that will
offer villas, veranda homes, individual cottages and a clubhouse. Also on-site
will be an extensive health center offering assisted living and skilled nursing
care. “We wanted to build a community that wasn’t isolated,” explains Tina
McLeod, marketing director at The Cedars. “I think buyers also find the
multi-generational aspect of it an asset to them.”
By law, such retirement “campuses” must pre-sell 70 percent of their
capacity prior to initiating construction. For The Cedars, which began
pre-selling in late 2000, that goal didn’t take long to accomplish. “About
85 percent of our buyers are from Chapel Hill or Durham,” McLeod continues,
“and half of them have already retired here.” The remainder, she says, come
from elsewhere in North Carolina, as well as California, Texas and Florida.
It is natural to think of Orange County and its hip hangouts as a haven for
youth. But, in fact, since the 1980s, the county had quietly become something of
a Mecca for “first wave” retirees — those fifty- and sixty-somethings
looking for a more energetic environment than the typical gated Sunbelt
retreats. “We’ve been ranked as one of the best retirement towns by several
publications, and that’s a trend I see continuing,” economic development
director Reid says. “Retirees are attracted by many of the same
quality-of-life assets as everyone else: stimulating cultural and recreational
options, educational opportunities and comfortable climate. But they can also
count on having access to outstanding healthcare.”
“It’s one of the reasons the hospital is thriving,” according to Eric
Munson, president and CEO of the UNC Hospitals, which in recent years has
established contracts with a number of local retirement communities. “The care
of seniors is a growth industry.” Alongside many other superlatives the
hospital has received lately is a No. 18 ranking by AARP’s Modern Maturity in
its listing of the nation’s top 50 hospitals.
Of course, the excellent healthcare available at UNC Hospitals extends to people
of all ages. Over the past decade, Munson has led efforts to make the sprawling
complex more user-friendly. “We see approximately 3,000 outpatients per
day,” he says, “and we needed to have an environment that was more
accessible.” Whereas in the past, users showing up for treatment found
inadequate parking and a bewildering maze of unmarked passageways, they now
arrive to new parking decks, golf cart shuttles and even valet parking. Patients
and their families enter a central atrium area through one of five
interconnected “gateways,” and there is now signage and mapping found
throughout the complex.
Last fall, two new structures were unveiled that now house the North Carolina
Women’s Hospital and the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. Constructed at
a cost of $160 million, the two buildings offer an attractive, non-intimidating
design. But more than that is the convenience they have brought. “We’ve been
able to consolidate services that had been widely dispersed throughout the
campus,” Munson says. “There is now one-stop-shopping for women and children
across the entire spectrum of their healthcare needs.” Women’s health and
pediatrics are both areas of increasing specialization for UNC Hospitals, which
for years have been well-known for their excellence in the treatment of burns
and blood disorders and in organ transplants. The hospitals are also moving into
prominence in the fields of orthopedics, cancer services and cardiology.
“We’re investing money and facilities in all these areas,” Munson says.
In addition to top-notch clinical resources, the hospitals also support the
biotechnology ventures that are now routinely spinning out of the neighboring
UNC School of Medicine. “The strength of all our health sciences — medicine,
nursing, public health, dentistry and pharmacy — all play a key role in
stimulating growth in the state’s biotech sector,” says James Moeser,
chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the dominant
economic and social force in Orange County.
UNC Grapples with Growth
Beyond healthcare, the university is playing a central role in transforming
North Carolina’s economy from its reliance on traditional manufacturing into
one poised for prosperity in the Knowledge Age. As the state’s financial
services industry has blossomed, for example, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of
Business has established executive education programs in response to the
emerging needs of North Carolina’s banks, brokerages and insurers. “Having a
first-rate business school is absolutely critical to business and industry
across the state,” Moeser adds. An example of that, he says, can be found in
the school’s new “OneMBA” program, a 21-month MBA curriculum for
executives that offers a global orientation. Designed in collaboration with four
other top-ranked business schools around the world, the program is tailored for
multinational business leaders, its coursework spanning the business cultures of
Asia, Europe, and North and South America.
Now well into its third century and the nation’s oldest public university, UNC
grapples with inevitable growing pains. There are pressures to preserve historic
buildings, protect greenspace, avoid excessive encroachment into adjacent
neighborhoods and reduce traffic — all while serving a growing student body
that numbers 26,000. University officials have responded with a master plan that
includes $1 billion in construction on the main campus in the coming decade.
“We’re excited about it from both a functional as well as aesthetic
standpoint,” Moeser says. It includes plans for new research and instructional
facilities, underground parking and an “arts common” stretching from the
Ackland Art Museum through Memorial Hall. That part of the plan, now in the
early design phase, calls for a new pedestrian mall between Franklin Street and
Cameron Avenue, along with the faithful restoration of several venerable
theatres.
Even more exciting are plans for Carolina North, a new campus on the model of
North Carolina State’s Centennial Campus that would be placed on the
thousand-acre patch of turf that was until recently the Horace Williams Airport.
“The vision there is one of partnership,” the chancellor says. Along with
residential, research and classroom space, the new campus will house incubator
facilities capable of supporting start-up enterprises. “The university offers
tremendous resources to business,” Moeser says. “All we really lack is the
space.” A task force comprised of university, county and municipal
representatives, has been assembled to move the plan, now only in its infancy,
forward. “This is a long-term plan,” he explains, “one that will take us
into our next 100 or 200 years.”
Moeser, who has been chancellor since 2000, sees the university’s real
strength in the fact that it offers both preeminent research programs and an
environment that is conducive to the intellectual and personal growth of
undergraduate students. “There is a stimulating, robust undergraduate culture
here,” the chancellor says. It manifests itself tangibly in places such as the
recently opened House Undergraduate Library, a cathedral-like building that was
completed with the help of the state’s $3.1 billion higher education bond
package. “It’s a state-of-the-art facility that combines digital and print
media,” Moeser explains. Each space in the library is wired to the campus
network, which is appropriate given the fact that since 2000 all arriving
freshmen are required to own a laptop computer. But there is also an intangible
dimension to the campus’ rich atmosphere. “In a very personal way, our
students undergo a positive transforming experience here,” Moeser says, which
he owes to “the spirit of this place.”
Jeffrey Hoffman wouldn’t disagree. As a Russian major at UNC in the early
1990s and later a law student, Hoffman recalls that transformation. “I learned
a lot about myself,” he says. “It’s a great place to do that stage of
growing up.” In fact, Hoffman became so attached to Chapel Hill that in 1995
he founded a company there. “No matter what I do, I don’t seem to be able to
leave here,” says Hoffman, who is president of webslingerZ Inc., which designs
web sites and online applications for a client list that includes UNC, Duke
University, Nortel and the North Carolina Zoo. “It’s been a good place to
start a technology company,” he continues. “You don’t have all the
happenings of a New York, Chicago or L.A., but you don’t have the problems
they’ve got either.”
Exceptional Public Schools
In terms of educational resources, there is more than just a deeply respected
university here. The county is also well known nationally for its exceptional
public schools. For students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System, SAT
scores are usually the state’s highest and dropout rates the lowest. In the
latter case, initiatives like the Program to Reach Excellent Performance (PREP),
the Continuing Education Evening Division (CEED) and the Phoenix Academy —
each of which targets “at risk” students — are credited with the
impressive results. PREP helps students succeed on end-of-course exams, while
CEED enables kids who work during the school day or have other family
commitments to attend evening classes. The Phoenix Academy is an alternative
school for students with difficulties learning in traditional classroom settings
and those given long-term suspensions from other area schools. “It was more [a
case of] how can we meet the learning needs of students that aren’t
succeeding,” explains Kim Hoke, a spokesperson for the school district. “I
think it’s resulted in fewer kids feeling like they have no other alternative
than to drop out.”
There are also strong community college offerings in Orange County courtesy of
Durham Technical Community College. “Roughly 21 percent of our students are
from Orange County,” says Phail Wynn, president of Durham Tech. And those
numbers have grown sharply in recent years thanks to the college’s affordable
tuition rates and the rapid residential growth that has occurred in Orange
County. “Students also like our smaller class sizes and the flexibility they
get in scheduling their courses,” adds Wynn, whose college offers day, evening
and weekend classes.
But currently, Durham Tech’s Orange County presence is dispersed across 40
different sites, mostly middle and high schools in the county. On average days,
the college’s Skills Development Center on Franklin Street hums like a
beehive. “We’d like to consolidate our offerings in a single location that
would complement the Skills Development Center,” Wynn says. And he is willing
to put a sizable chunk of his college’s state bond funds into doing it. Durham
Tech has committed $4 million of its bond proceeds into erecting an Orange
County satellite campus, a figure that represents more than a quarter of the
total funds Durham Tech is being allocated.
Wynn is working closely with the Orange County Board of Commissioners, which is
expected to match the $4 million either in cash or through the donation of land.
One site under consideration is the Waterstone development near Hillsborough, a
move that would add yet another dimension to that project’s multi-purpose
vision. Wynn is also talking to other officials in Orange County — public
school leaders, social service personnel, economic developers and the like —
about the types of programs the new campus should offer. “It’s going to
happen,” Wynn says confidently. “It’s just a question of how quickly we
can get there.”
Wynn and others hope to have a site selected by fall. Perhaps the announcement
can even be made in conjunction with the September kickoff of the county’s
semiquincentennial. “We’ve assembled an ‘Orange County 250’ committee
that is taking the lead in organizing the yearlong event,” says Diane Reid,
the county developer. Already planned is a walk re-enacting the journey from
Moorefields to the courthouse in Hillsborough, complete with period customs and
artifacts. Reid anticipates the festivities attracting heritage-seeking tourists
from around the state. But it will also be valuable from an internal standpoint.
“We want to encourage local residents to explore the county’s history:”
she says, “how we got here and where we’re heading.”
Return to magazine
index
|
