Property Speculation By State and County February 24, 2013
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The True Cost Of A Megasite March 4, 2013
For the first time, we now have some hard 2013 numbers for the true public costs of a megasite for which an auto manufacturing company is located. Following is a link to a cost/benefit analysis prepared for the boosters of the Jefferson County, Tennessee megasite. As you will see at the top of page 2 of the report, the price tag is $306,000,000, ("projected public cost to develop infrastructure", page 5) and that's from Jefferson County's own study, and from the perspective that all goes according to plan. $60,000,000 is the cost to the county and $246,000,000 the cost to the state of Tennessee and the federal TVA, according to the study.
Further down in the report, on page 4, is most interesting part. There is the "tax abatement" figure of "$340,600,000" in property taxes the county would agree not to charge over a thirty year period. Instead of paying property taxes the way every native business pays, the state of Tennessee must be prepared to allow the shareholders of one of the world's wealthiest corporations to get away with no more than a contribution to the local school fund. (This is what Volkswagen did and is doing in Chattanooga.) This all means a total 30 year cost to the taxpayers of $646,000,000!
If a neighboring jurisdiction is prepared to spend this kind of money, does anyone over here in North Carolina have any notions at all that the Liberty site would be chosen if we were not also prepared to spend similar sums?
Alan Ferguson
The True Cost Of A Megasite March 4, 2013
For the first time, we now have some hard 2013 numbers for the true public costs of a megasite for which an auto manufacturing company is located. Following is a link to a cost/benefit analysis prepared for the boosters of the Jefferson County, Tennessee megasite. As you will see at the top of page 2 of the report, the price tag is $306,000,000, ("projected public cost to develop infrastructure", page 5) and that's from Jefferson County's own study, and from the perspective that all goes according to plan. $60,000,000 is the cost to the county and $246,000,000 the cost to the state of Tennessee and the federal TVA, according to the study.
Further down in the report, on page 4, is most interesting part. There is the "tax abatement" figure of "$340,600,000" in property taxes the county would agree not to charge over a thirty year period. Instead of paying property taxes the way every native business pays, the state of Tennessee must be prepared to allow the shareholders of one of the world's wealthiest corporations to get away with no more than a contribution to the local school fund. (This is what Volkswagen did and is doing in Chattanooga.) This all means a total 30 year cost to the taxpayers of $646,000,000!
If a neighboring jurisdiction is prepared to spend this kind of money, does anyone over here in North Carolina have any notions at all that the Liberty site would be chosen if we were not also prepared to spend similar sums?
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Area Is Coming Back, Without Government Land Purchases March 5, 2013
Here is a story from this morning's Greensboro paper that contradicts the sense of economic urgency the PTP folks and our government have used to push their megasite plan. According to the article, in 2012 the Greensboro/High Point metro area ranked sixth in the United States in its class for the "number of corporate real estate projects of $1 million or greater announced in the metro area in 2012". This is for areas with a population of between 200,000 and 1,000,000. Our area is Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham Counties.
This is according to "Site Selection" magazine, the same publication we cited at our last meeting for its listing of the 180 available 1000+ acre industrial sites which are vacant nationwide.
Here is the link.
http://www.news-record.com/home/848430-63/greensborohigh-point-ranked-no-6
Our Area Is Coming Back, Without Government Land Purchases March 5, 2013
Here is a story from this morning's Greensboro paper that contradicts the sense of economic urgency the PTP folks and our government have used to push their megasite plan. According to the article, in 2012 the Greensboro/High Point metro area ranked sixth in the United States in its class for the "number of corporate real estate projects of $1 million or greater announced in the metro area in 2012". This is for areas with a population of between 200,000 and 1,000,000. Our area is Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham Counties.
This is according to "Site Selection" magazine, the same publication we cited at our last meeting for its listing of the 180 available 1000+ acre industrial sites which are vacant nationwide.
Here is the link.
http://www.news-record.com/home/848430-63/greensborohigh-point-ranked-no-6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rural America Is Under Attack by the NC "Job Development Investment Grant Program" March 9, 2012
There is so much in the news about our area that it's becoming hard to follow.
Last night, we appeared on Channel 8 TV news. Of particular interest to me were reference to us being "cleared" from the property, and the lands we live on "flattened". What year is this, 1750!! I certainly have no intention of either being cleared or flattened. Who do these people at the County and the State think we are? Some peasantry to be removed on a whim because our betters in our Government have determined that they know what is best for us, and that what is best for us is that we leave our homes? I suppose this is just more of the new norm of Government forgetting that it works for us, and not us for them. This is nothing short of outrageous, and the time has come for us to stand up strong.
Here are some new things we believe to be facts. I must say "believe" rather than "know" because no one will tell us anything more than we already know. The money to fund this project will be primarily from the State Treasury--our money, in other words. This is a little technical but it's important that we all understand this. Here is the process.
There is a State program called the Job Development Investment Grant Program ("JDIGP"). It's sole purpose is to give away State money to businesses which relocate to North Carolina. The JDIGP is run by a committee of five individuals, called the "Economic Investment Committee" ("EIC"). Three of them are appointed by the Governor, one by the Speaker of the House, Thomas Tillis, and one by the leader of the Senate, Phil Berger. All meetings of the EIC, where they discuss business's applications for public money, are closed to the public. After these five people decide what they want to do with a grant, they will allow public comment on the decision they have already made. They then send their report to the Attorney General. Here's the good part: once the report is signed by the Attorney General, the decision made by the EIC in their closed meetings is a binding obligation on the State of North Carolina. By law, the State Treasurer is directed to fund the grant immediately. It's then a done deal. That's right, your elected representatives in the legislature have no say in the matter, whatever! This is what goes for representative democracy these days. Is it any wonder that our country is in the shape finds itself.
If anyone at County or State government believes I am wrong about this procedure, please correct me.
I believe current State government will be as eager to fund these giveaways to big business as have been previous administrations. As evidence, two days ago, the Governor announced a $94,000,000 grant to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to induce them to bring 2,600 jobs to Charlotte and Cary. I believe that's the third biggest state grant made to date. Mecklenburg and Wake Counties are kicking in about $6,000,000 more. (Never mind that the Charlotte site chosen for their jobs is about one mile from the South Carolina line, and that our money will benefit our neighbors in South Carolina about as much as our fellow citizens in Mecklenburg County--but that's another matter.)
There is no reason to believe that the JDIG program administrators will show any reluctance to fund a megasite project or two or three in North Carolina, despite the fact that these projects will cost in the range of $200,000,000 to $250,000,000 in initial public contributions.
In another bit of interesting news, again from Tennessee, a certified megasite in Clarksville, Tennessee recently lost its brand new tenant, a company called "Hemlock Industries" who make solar panels, but not there anymore. The local county (Montgomery) spent $61,000,000 to acquire and upfit the property, and the state another $140,000,000 or so, and then gave the land to this company. The company fired everyone there this week and announced it was closing the plant. Montgomery County, Tennessee now has an empty factory building sitting on 1200 or so weed fields and empty parking lots, and absolutely no return on their investment. In a very real sense, they went to economic Vegas and lost $200,000,000 public dollars as of this week.
What can we do now if we are serious about keeping this menace out of our area? We need to really step it up, or we are going to get run over. This is the most important project in my life right now, and I'm willing to take the point wherever we need to go. I don't mind being out there, and I don't care at all who in government becomes angry with me. The way I see it, these people are our servants and they've got no right whatever to see themselves as anything otherwise. We need the following:
1. A sign on every property in and around this area to the effect that "Our Property Is Not For Sale". I can have as many of these as we need in a couple of days. The cost is miniscule.
2. We need a flyer campaign and volunteers to stuff flyers about us and our struggle and the transformation County wants to bring to this area in every mailbox for miles around here. The cost is miniscule.
3. We need a list of businesses, churches or clubs who would allow us to place our information on their premises.
4. Every one of us needs to send a note to Allen McNeill, our state representative at Allen.McNeill@ncleg.net, and Rick Gunn, our state senator at Rick.Gunn@ncleg.net. Here are the addresses if you would like to mail them a letter at:
Representative Allen McNeill,
NC House of Representatives
300 N. Salisbury Street,
Room 418C Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Senator Rick Gunn
NC Senate
300 N. Salisbury Street, Room 312
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
5. Any other thoughts you have for action we can take to beat this back to where it came from.
We need volunteers for these jobs, particularly for our flier campaign. Please let me know by e-mail who is willing to help.
Everything I have is on the line here; my life, my home and my property. It is important to remember that no one of you is alone and I am with each of you every step along the way until we see this project off the board. I am not going to consider that we could lose this fight, because there is much in our favor, and I believe we have much more public sympathy than we all might expect. But I also know that if Government destroys our area and our way of life that I and you all will have done everything we can do. I know also that our grandfathers who sacrificed so much to give us what we have will not be ashamed of what we did to defend our heritage of living as free people when we join them. We can prevail in this if we all pull together and stand strong.
Let's stand together for rural America and keep it free and beautiful!
Alan Ferguson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rural America Is Under Attack by the NC "Job Development Investment Grant Program" March 9, 2012
There is so much in the news about our area that it's becoming hard to follow.
Last night, we appeared on Channel 8 TV news. Of particular interest to me were reference to us being "cleared" from the property, and the lands we live on "flattened". What year is this, 1750!! I certainly have no intention of either being cleared or flattened. Who do these people at the County and the State think we are? Some peasantry to be removed on a whim because our betters in our Government have determined that they know what is best for us, and that what is best for us is that we leave our homes? I suppose this is just more of the new norm of Government forgetting that it works for us, and not us for them. This is nothing short of outrageous, and the time has come for us to stand up strong.
Here are some new things we believe to be facts. I must say "believe" rather than "know" because no one will tell us anything more than we already know. The money to fund this project will be primarily from the State Treasury--our money, in other words. This is a little technical but it's important that we all understand this. Here is the process.
There is a State program called the Job Development Investment Grant Program ("JDIGP"). It's sole purpose is to give away State money to businesses which relocate to North Carolina. The JDIGP is run by a committee of five individuals, called the "Economic Investment Committee" ("EIC"). Three of them are appointed by the Governor, one by the Speaker of the House, Thomas Tillis, and one by the leader of the Senate, Phil Berger. All meetings of the EIC, where they discuss business's applications for public money, are closed to the public. After these five people decide what they want to do with a grant, they will allow public comment on the decision they have already made. They then send their report to the Attorney General. Here's the good part: once the report is signed by the Attorney General, the decision made by the EIC in their closed meetings is a binding obligation on the State of North Carolina. By law, the State Treasurer is directed to fund the grant immediately. It's then a done deal. That's right, your elected representatives in the legislature have no say in the matter, whatever! This is what goes for representative democracy these days. Is it any wonder that our country is in the shape finds itself.
If anyone at County or State government believes I am wrong about this procedure, please correct me.
I believe current State government will be as eager to fund these giveaways to big business as have been previous administrations. As evidence, two days ago, the Governor announced a $94,000,000 grant to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to induce them to bring 2,600 jobs to Charlotte and Cary. I believe that's the third biggest state grant made to date. Mecklenburg and Wake Counties are kicking in about $6,000,000 more. (Never mind that the Charlotte site chosen for their jobs is about one mile from the South Carolina line, and that our money will benefit our neighbors in South Carolina about as much as our fellow citizens in Mecklenburg County--but that's another matter.)
There is no reason to believe that the JDIG program administrators will show any reluctance to fund a megasite project or two or three in North Carolina, despite the fact that these projects will cost in the range of $200,000,000 to $250,000,000 in initial public contributions.
In another bit of interesting news, again from Tennessee, a certified megasite in Clarksville, Tennessee recently lost its brand new tenant, a company called "Hemlock Industries" who make solar panels, but not there anymore. The local county (Montgomery) spent $61,000,000 to acquire and upfit the property, and the state another $140,000,000 or so, and then gave the land to this company. The company fired everyone there this week and announced it was closing the plant. Montgomery County, Tennessee now has an empty factory building sitting on 1200 or so weed fields and empty parking lots, and absolutely no return on their investment. In a very real sense, they went to economic Vegas and lost $200,000,000 public dollars as of this week.
What can we do now if we are serious about keeping this menace out of our area? We need to really step it up, or we are going to get run over. This is the most important project in my life right now, and I'm willing to take the point wherever we need to go. I don't mind being out there, and I don't care at all who in government becomes angry with me. The way I see it, these people are our servants and they've got no right whatever to see themselves as anything otherwise. We need the following:
1. A sign on every property in and around this area to the effect that "Our Property Is Not For Sale". I can have as many of these as we need in a couple of days. The cost is miniscule.
2. We need a flyer campaign and volunteers to stuff flyers about us and our struggle and the transformation County wants to bring to this area in every mailbox for miles around here. The cost is miniscule.
3. We need a list of businesses, churches or clubs who would allow us to place our information on their premises.
4. Every one of us needs to send a note to Allen McNeill, our state representative at Allen.McNeill@ncleg.net, and Rick Gunn, our state senator at Rick.Gunn@ncleg.net. Here are the addresses if you would like to mail them a letter at:
Representative Allen McNeill,
NC House of Representatives
300 N. Salisbury Street,
Room 418C Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Senator Rick Gunn
NC Senate
300 N. Salisbury Street, Room 312
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
5. Any other thoughts you have for action we can take to beat this back to where it came from.
We need volunteers for these jobs, particularly for our flier campaign. Please let me know by e-mail who is willing to help.
Everything I have is on the line here; my life, my home and my property. It is important to remember that no one of you is alone and I am with each of you every step along the way until we see this project off the board. I am not going to consider that we could lose this fight, because there is much in our favor, and I believe we have much more public sympathy than we all might expect. But I also know that if Government destroys our area and our way of life that I and you all will have done everything we can do. I know also that our grandfathers who sacrificed so much to give us what we have will not be ashamed of what we did to defend our heritage of living as free people when we join them. We can prevail in this if we all pull together and stand strong.
Let's stand together for rural America and keep it free and beautiful!
Alan Ferguson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incentives To Corporations Are Really Subsidies March 17, 2013
We now know that the State and County are planning a total expenditure for their megasite in the range of $453,000,000 in tax money. $400,000,000 is imagined as an "incentive" for a corporation to come to the new State/County property and build a manufacturing facility there. How would this work. In other states, this incentive seems to have most often taken the form of tax abatements--agreement by the County and State to NOT collect the taxes on the property that would have been due if a native person or company had built a similar facility.
An incentive is a tax break, a gift, a bailout. Tax breaks are the same as spending. Let's say this incentive is spread across twenty years after a factory is built. That means the Government is effectively writing the megasite manufacturer a check for $20,000,000 each year for twenty years. The Government is subsidizing the operations of the receiving company by foregoing the receipt of the $20,000,000 it would have collected in taxes. Our Government is then effectively in business with the company it courted to take possession of and occupy its megasite.
In some countries this is called "socialism". In our country these joint ventures are referenced by many names including the "Job Development Investment Grant Program" in North Carolina, put through the legislature in 2002 during Governor Easley's administration. In this way, Government can spend on favored projects and pet companies without seeming to spend--if it doesn't collect the money in taxes, how can it be accused of spending the money, right? It's elegantly and conveniently off the books. But as a lucky recipient of Government favor, I don't care whether you write me a check for $20,000,000 or whether you forgive my paying $20,000,000, the effect is to put the same money in my pocket.
Regardless of this shell game, the money that should have been in the State and County treasuries is not there. The favored and fortunate company on the receiving end of the subsidy is receiving an "entitlement" for the duration of the incentive program. State and County policies will inevitably be adjusted and fine-tuned to take into account the heavy public investment in their joint venture with their recruited foreign manufacturer. The invisible hand of capitalism will be pressed away from its natural movement toward wise and useful endeavors and enterprises and away from those which are not so, as it is forced by the subsidy to favor the State favorite.
Of course, the fact that these tax programs are run in the dark by unelected panels and "economic planners" raises the little problem of taxation without representation, but that's a topic for another day soon.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An incentive is a tax break, a gift, a bailout. Tax breaks are the same as spending. Let's say this incentive is spread across twenty years after a factory is built. That means the Government is effectively writing the megasite manufacturer a check for $20,000,000 each year for twenty years. The Government is subsidizing the operations of the receiving company by foregoing the receipt of the $20,000,000 it would have collected in taxes. Our Government is then effectively in business with the company it courted to take possession of and occupy its megasite.
In some countries this is called "socialism". In our country these joint ventures are referenced by many names including the "Job Development Investment Grant Program" in North Carolina, put through the legislature in 2002 during Governor Easley's administration. In this way, Government can spend on favored projects and pet companies without seeming to spend--if it doesn't collect the money in taxes, how can it be accused of spending the money, right? It's elegantly and conveniently off the books. But as a lucky recipient of Government favor, I don't care whether you write me a check for $20,000,000 or whether you forgive my paying $20,000,000, the effect is to put the same money in my pocket.
Regardless of this shell game, the money that should have been in the State and County treasuries is not there. The favored and fortunate company on the receiving end of the subsidy is receiving an "entitlement" for the duration of the incentive program. State and County policies will inevitably be adjusted and fine-tuned to take into account the heavy public investment in their joint venture with their recruited foreign manufacturer. The invisible hand of capitalism will be pressed away from its natural movement toward wise and useful endeavors and enterprises and away from those which are not so, as it is forced by the subsidy to favor the State favorite.
Of course, the fact that these tax programs are run in the dark by unelected panels and "economic planners" raises the little problem of taxation without representation, but that's a topic for another day soon.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senator Rick Gunn Is No Friend to Rural North Carolina March 29,2013
A controversy like our own is the opportunity to learn who your friends are. Commercial real estate agent and Senator Rick Gunn is not among them.
Twelve members of NERPO attended a "Town Hall Meeting" last night at Randolph Community College. State Senators Tillman and Gunn and State Representatives McNeill and Hurley were there to take questions from 100 or so citizens.
Among the issues discussed was our own megasite project. Alan Ferguson asked the panel whether they favored using tax dollars to buy land and then give it away to private corporations. Here is the report in today's Courier Tribune by J.D. Walker:
Sen. Rick Gunn drew the ire of some from Liberty when he said he was in favor of the state helping to create a mega-site for industrial development in the Liberty area. Randolph County has taken the lead in acquiring land for a site of up to 2,000 acres in the Liberty area with the help of a $1.67 million grant from the state
Allen [sic] Ferguson, a Liberty property owner, called the project “land speculation” and asked why the state should be involved in the activity. He asked how Gunn could justify using taxpayer money to buy up private land and then simply give the land to a private company.
Gunn said the state doesn’t cut checks to give to private businesses. He said when the state gives economic incentives, it requires companies to meet certain requirements on job creation and investment. Doing so helps the state economy to grow, he said.
“If you think we can draw business without incentives, then we will all look like ghost towns,” he said.
Guy Troy of Liberty challenged Gunn: “You don’t give a damn about the people who live in this area.”
Rep. Pat Hurley stepped in to say economic developers across the state have told legislators they can’t attract significant business investment unless they have land that is ready to build on. She assured Ferguson and his neighbors that she did not believe the state would try to seize their land through the process of eminent domain. Property owners still have a recourse, she said.
“You don’t have to sell,” she said.
Senator Gunn went on further adding that "the State has pots of money to use for projects like this". Well, it's good to know that Senator Gunn believes the State's budget problems are in our rear view mirror now, and that happy days are here again. Of course, most of what is said would give nonsense a bad name. First, with regard to his belief that "we will all look like ghost towns without incentives" is an insult to every family in this state. When I heard that, I wondered about my own six-times great grandfather Ferguson who came to North Carolina in 1763. Did he have a State incentive? Did he determine that because the State was not helping him that he should just pack it in and starve? No, and emphatically no! He and all of the Fergusons worked, sacrificed and fought for every scrap that they ever pulled out of the ground. They had only their brains, their strong right arms and the help of good neighbors and Almighty God. The histories of every one of us here today are similar.
Big State, I'm-From-The-Government-And-I'm-Here-To-Help-You types like Senator Gunn have little understanding of no respect for our past. They believe that North Carolinians cannot make it on their own any longer without the help of the State. They believe that we just don't have it any more. He doesn't even believe in what the Republican Party stands for, which, again is as follows:
“We oppose bailouts and corporate welfare. It is contrary to the free enterprise system to recruit or retain businesses with targeted tax incentives when other businesses bear the full burden of taxation. Higher tax rates on the many to provide preferential treatment for the few is unfair.” –2012 Republican Party Platform, Article II, Paragraph 5 (Repeated verbatim from the previous 2011 platform.)
I have trouble respecting a guy who won't say what he believes and then do what he says. I don't really know Mr. Gunn, but his words last night indicate that he is one of those people who are against taxes and handouts and Government spending, except when he is in favor of them. I can't comment on the meaning of principles like those any more eloquently than Colonel Troy.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twelve members of NERPO attended a "Town Hall Meeting" last night at Randolph Community College. State Senators Tillman and Gunn and State Representatives McNeill and Hurley were there to take questions from 100 or so citizens.
Among the issues discussed was our own megasite project. Alan Ferguson asked the panel whether they favored using tax dollars to buy land and then give it away to private corporations. Here is the report in today's Courier Tribune by J.D. Walker:
Sen. Rick Gunn drew the ire of some from Liberty when he said he was in favor of the state helping to create a mega-site for industrial development in the Liberty area. Randolph County has taken the lead in acquiring land for a site of up to 2,000 acres in the Liberty area with the help of a $1.67 million grant from the state
Allen [sic] Ferguson, a Liberty property owner, called the project “land speculation” and asked why the state should be involved in the activity. He asked how Gunn could justify using taxpayer money to buy up private land and then simply give the land to a private company.
Gunn said the state doesn’t cut checks to give to private businesses. He said when the state gives economic incentives, it requires companies to meet certain requirements on job creation and investment. Doing so helps the state economy to grow, he said.
“If you think we can draw business without incentives, then we will all look like ghost towns,” he said.
Guy Troy of Liberty challenged Gunn: “You don’t give a damn about the people who live in this area.”
Rep. Pat Hurley stepped in to say economic developers across the state have told legislators they can’t attract significant business investment unless they have land that is ready to build on. She assured Ferguson and his neighbors that she did not believe the state would try to seize their land through the process of eminent domain. Property owners still have a recourse, she said.
“You don’t have to sell,” she said.
Senator Gunn went on further adding that "the State has pots of money to use for projects like this". Well, it's good to know that Senator Gunn believes the State's budget problems are in our rear view mirror now, and that happy days are here again. Of course, most of what is said would give nonsense a bad name. First, with regard to his belief that "we will all look like ghost towns without incentives" is an insult to every family in this state. When I heard that, I wondered about my own six-times great grandfather Ferguson who came to North Carolina in 1763. Did he have a State incentive? Did he determine that because the State was not helping him that he should just pack it in and starve? No, and emphatically no! He and all of the Fergusons worked, sacrificed and fought for every scrap that they ever pulled out of the ground. They had only their brains, their strong right arms and the help of good neighbors and Almighty God. The histories of every one of us here today are similar.
Big State, I'm-From-The-Government-And-I'm-Here-To-Help-You types like Senator Gunn have little understanding of no respect for our past. They believe that North Carolinians cannot make it on their own any longer without the help of the State. They believe that we just don't have it any more. He doesn't even believe in what the Republican Party stands for, which, again is as follows:
“We oppose bailouts and corporate welfare. It is contrary to the free enterprise system to recruit or retain businesses with targeted tax incentives when other businesses bear the full burden of taxation. Higher tax rates on the many to provide preferential treatment for the few is unfair.” –2012 Republican Party Platform, Article II, Paragraph 5 (Repeated verbatim from the previous 2011 platform.)
I have trouble respecting a guy who won't say what he believes and then do what he says. I don't really know Mr. Gunn, but his words last night indicate that he is one of those people who are against taxes and handouts and Government spending, except when he is in favor of them. I can't comment on the meaning of principles like those any more eloquently than Colonel Troy.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victory For Our Friends in Jefferson County, Tennessee! April 4, 2013
We just got some very encouraging news from our friends over in East Tennessee, in Jefferson County. We have discussed many times the facts of their battle with their own benighted county government to industrialize their homes and farms. It now appears that their version of "economic developers" have backed off, and have announced that they will not longer be pushing for a megasite in their county! Here is a bit from the story:
"Knoxville attorney Scott Hurley, who represented landowners opposed to the project, said his clients were “extremely pleased and relieved that it appears that this process has come to an end.”
Hurley said his clients owned approximately 1,400 of the 1,865 acres targeted by the initiative, and all of those clients were opposed to the project. The attorney said the targeted area included three century farms that had been passed down through families."
Here is the link to the full story:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/apr/04/jefferson-co-pulls-plug-megasite/
I certainly hope that this is true for our friends! I believe that this will soon be true for us. I hope all of our members here in central NC take a good look at the photograph in this story. These Tennesseeans are just like us. Heck, they even look like we do. They love where they live, and they try to take care of each other. They saw something wrong and they stood up against it, and they fought, fought and fought until they beat it back. It can be done, and we are going to do it here too!
We need a really big turnout at that County Commissioners' meeting Monday night, April 8 at 6 PM. If our five Commissioners see that we have taken the trouble to drive all the way into Asheboro, just to make a few comments, they will have to take notice. And now may be our best chance to make a real impact.
Again, at the meeting we will formally demand that the County stop its efforts to push this project upon us. Every one of us will have a right to be heard about the plans of others for our lives before the commissioners adjourn to closed sessions closed to the public.
I hope to see you all Monday night at 6 PM in Asheboro.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NERPO Enters the Fight At Commissioners' Meeting April 9, 2013
The meeting last night was one can can all feel very good about! The support and commitment each one of you is showing in this fight is outstanding and a real demonstration of the strength of this community that our County leadership has chosen to tear apart.
Having the Commissioners comment back to us at length after a comments period is rare. The remarks we got, while not the ones we would prefer to hear withdrawing support for this project, are a measure that we are being heard and are being noticed. At the very least, what this means is that every one of us will be treated with greater respect throughout this process.
We would make a special note of a couple of things that came out at the meeting.
We are gathering wider support. We anticipate much more of this coming.
Commissioner Frye noted that the County really knows very little about this project and did not hire the consultants or kick off the endeavor to buy our properties. That is fine as far as it goes, but the county commissioners are our elected representatives, not some urban planners in Greensboro over whom we have no control whatever or hired bureaucrats in the Asheboro Randolph Economic Development Corporation. Our county commissioners are elected to look after our interests, not those of the Piedmont Triad Partnership. It is right and proper that we continue to petition our government to stop this project now. I anticipate being back at the next meeting.
Any letters or comments that any of you have could be profitably directed to each one of our commissioners. Each one of them should hear from every one of us. Regularly and often would not hurt. It doesn't have to be fancy, it has only to be from the heart.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having the Commissioners comment back to us at length after a comments period is rare. The remarks we got, while not the ones we would prefer to hear withdrawing support for this project, are a measure that we are being heard and are being noticed. At the very least, what this means is that every one of us will be treated with greater respect throughout this process.
We would make a special note of a couple of things that came out at the meeting.
We are gathering wider support. We anticipate much more of this coming.
Commissioner Frye noted that the County really knows very little about this project and did not hire the consultants or kick off the endeavor to buy our properties. That is fine as far as it goes, but the county commissioners are our elected representatives, not some urban planners in Greensboro over whom we have no control whatever or hired bureaucrats in the Asheboro Randolph Economic Development Corporation. Our county commissioners are elected to look after our interests, not those of the Piedmont Triad Partnership. It is right and proper that we continue to petition our government to stop this project now. I anticipate being back at the next meeting.
Any letters or comments that any of you have could be profitably directed to each one of our commissioners. Each one of them should hear from every one of us. Regularly and often would not hurt. It doesn't have to be fancy, it has only to be from the heart.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June Board of County Commissioners Meeting Is Here May 31, 2013
We have a Randolph County Board of County Commissioners meeting coming up on Monday night, June 3, 2013, at 6:00 P.M. Here is what we know about the meeting. Our project is NOT on the agenda for formal discussion. However, there is a "Closed Session--Purchase of Real Property" item on the agenda. Whatever is decided in that session will receive a lot of news media attention. Reporters will be there Monday night to report upon how much we care about stopping this project.
This may be the most important meeting we have yet attended. I very much believe that the Greensboro-Liberty project will be discussed in that closed session. We should make a maximum effort to get all of our group to the meeting on Monday night to show our support for any commissioners who believe it is now time to turn away from this project. If you ordered your "No Megasite Here" shirts, and now have them, please wear them. If you don't have the shirt, I would like for you to wear a red shirt or jacket if you have it, as a showing of solidarity with our group. And remember, we chose the red as a "stop" sign for the megasite project.
If anyone would like to speak, please arrive by 5:15 or 5:30 to be certain that you get on the list ahead of those who habitually speak at the meetings. If there is a particular point you would like to speak to, it would be best if we organized so that we could divide up the subjects we want covered. E-mail me if you have any thoughts on this. Also, please let me know if anyone would like a ride to Asheboro. I am certain we can make arrangements.
I know everyone is tired of this. So am I. But I believe more than ever that our continued resolve in opposition to this project is vital to preserving our beautiful home grounds. I hope to see everyone Monday night.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This may be the most important meeting we have yet attended. I very much believe that the Greensboro-Liberty project will be discussed in that closed session. We should make a maximum effort to get all of our group to the meeting on Monday night to show our support for any commissioners who believe it is now time to turn away from this project. If you ordered your "No Megasite Here" shirts, and now have them, please wear them. If you don't have the shirt, I would like for you to wear a red shirt or jacket if you have it, as a showing of solidarity with our group. And remember, we chose the red as a "stop" sign for the megasite project.
If anyone would like to speak, please arrive by 5:15 or 5:30 to be certain that you get on the list ahead of those who habitually speak at the meetings. If there is a particular point you would like to speak to, it would be best if we organized so that we could divide up the subjects we want covered. E-mail me if you have any thoughts on this. Also, please let me know if anyone would like a ride to Asheboro. I am certain we can make arrangements.
I know everyone is tired of this. So am I. But I believe more than ever that our continued resolve in opposition to this project is vital to preserving our beautiful home grounds. I hope to see everyone Monday night.
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where Old Megasites Go to Die July 26, 2013
There is a story in today's Greensboro News & Record about the 600 acres the State of North Carolina purchased back on April 6, 2006. This story is relevant to us because it provides an example of what can happen when millions of dollars of public money are spent before their is a real plan to build out a project, and real money to pay for the whole thing.
A copy of the first page of this deed (to the North Carolina State Ports Authority) is on the main page of this web-site. As you may recall, the State paid Pfizer Inc. $50,000 per acre for 600 vacant acres adjacent to the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County. (That's $30 million.) The thinking was that this site would be an ideal location for a "mega container port" to serve maritime shipping.
For whatever reason, according to the N & R, the State balked at paying $10 million for a "feasibility study" regarding the wisdom of building a port facility on the site. The estimated cost of the completed project was $3 billion. The project was also opposed on environmental grounds.
Now a group called "Save the Cape" is proposing that a state park be created on the 600 acres that the State has owned for over seven years now. As one of the board members of the State Ports Authority remarked to the paper, the idea has some merit because "who [else] is going to buy it for $30 million?" The irony of that question cannot escape anyone familiar with the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite proposal. Indeed, who else is going to pay anything for a large parcel of property for which there is no immediate commercial interest? This is precisely one of the worries we in NERPO have expressed from the beginning of our struggle. That is, what happens if there is no user for our 2,000 acres after all of the residents have been removed and tens of millions of tax dollars spent toward an imagined use of the property superior in value to its occupancy by us as our homes?
Could this be the fate of a vacant and wanting Greensboro-Liberty Megasite in the year 2022 or 2023 or 2024, after years of unsuccessfully courting big manufacturing? If this is a real possibility, why not come out and offer each of us the same $50,000 per acre as Phizer received and go ahead with a new "Greensboro-Liberty State Park" right now? The lakes on the parcel would provide a nice centerpiece around which to form the project.
Of course government is not going to do this. But its latest example of the squandering of public money proves our point that half-baked government projects should be left in the kitchen until they are ready for the dinner table. The Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project is just such a speculative aspiration, and is no more ready for public consumption than a listing of the ingredients for a pound cake is ready to be eaten for Sunday dinner's desert.
We have argued from the beginning that this is particularly true when government is asking people to abandon their homes and community, as we are being called upon to do in our corner of Randolph County. Call us when there is a use for our property that serves the community better than are we by peacefully and productively using our own land as our own homes. At that point, government can openly bargain with each of us for a fair price and make whatever deals the free market dictates. Until then, we continue to believe that the interests of the public are better served by our County and State staying off our backs, and leaving us room to live, as government is elected to do.
Here's the link to the whole story.
http://www.news-record.com/news/north_carolina_ap/article_60b5e382-7695-5965-a41b-a46be46bffac.html
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A copy of the first page of this deed (to the North Carolina State Ports Authority) is on the main page of this web-site. As you may recall, the State paid Pfizer Inc. $50,000 per acre for 600 vacant acres adjacent to the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County. (That's $30 million.) The thinking was that this site would be an ideal location for a "mega container port" to serve maritime shipping.
For whatever reason, according to the N & R, the State balked at paying $10 million for a "feasibility study" regarding the wisdom of building a port facility on the site. The estimated cost of the completed project was $3 billion. The project was also opposed on environmental grounds.
Now a group called "Save the Cape" is proposing that a state park be created on the 600 acres that the State has owned for over seven years now. As one of the board members of the State Ports Authority remarked to the paper, the idea has some merit because "who [else] is going to buy it for $30 million?" The irony of that question cannot escape anyone familiar with the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite proposal. Indeed, who else is going to pay anything for a large parcel of property for which there is no immediate commercial interest? This is precisely one of the worries we in NERPO have expressed from the beginning of our struggle. That is, what happens if there is no user for our 2,000 acres after all of the residents have been removed and tens of millions of tax dollars spent toward an imagined use of the property superior in value to its occupancy by us as our homes?
Could this be the fate of a vacant and wanting Greensboro-Liberty Megasite in the year 2022 or 2023 or 2024, after years of unsuccessfully courting big manufacturing? If this is a real possibility, why not come out and offer each of us the same $50,000 per acre as Phizer received and go ahead with a new "Greensboro-Liberty State Park" right now? The lakes on the parcel would provide a nice centerpiece around which to form the project.
Of course government is not going to do this. But its latest example of the squandering of public money proves our point that half-baked government projects should be left in the kitchen until they are ready for the dinner table. The Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project is just such a speculative aspiration, and is no more ready for public consumption than a listing of the ingredients for a pound cake is ready to be eaten for Sunday dinner's desert.
We have argued from the beginning that this is particularly true when government is asking people to abandon their homes and community, as we are being called upon to do in our corner of Randolph County. Call us when there is a use for our property that serves the community better than are we by peacefully and productively using our own land as our own homes. At that point, government can openly bargain with each of us for a fair price and make whatever deals the free market dictates. Until then, we continue to believe that the interests of the public are better served by our County and State staying off our backs, and leaving us room to live, as government is elected to do.
Here's the link to the whole story.
http://www.news-record.com/news/north_carolina_ap/article_60b5e382-7695-5965-a41b-a46be46bffac.html
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tax Giveaways to Companies Are Not Worth It December 17,2013
An article by Claire Zillman in the December 16, 2013 issue of "Fortune" magazine highlighted some of the arguments we have been making for many months now. As the subtitle stated, "Tax incentives in exchange for corporate commitments have now become the norm, and they are only growing more costly. But they rarely do what they promise."
The article provides a brief history of the phenomenon of local and state government becoming involved in direct payments to private businesses in order to provide those businesses with an "incentive" to locate in their area. As Ms. Zillman stated, the habit began in the 1970's when the state of Pennsylvania gave Volkswagen $100,000,000 to build a factory there. (That plant closed long ago.) Here is a summary of Ms. Zillman's report in Fortune.
--Those incentive payments now total more than $80 billion each year.
--The director of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management "found no connection between economic development incentives and any measure of positive economic performance, such as average wages and income and state unemployment."
--"What would contribute to growth are simpler tax codes that treat all businesses equally", she reported as stated by Lyman Stone, an economist at the Tax Foundation [a Washington, D.C. think tank in operation since 1937 that researches tax policies at the state and federal levels].
--Tax incentives to corporations may "have now become the norm, but research indicates that they rarely do what they promise."
--Research has shown that "incentives do not result in the creation of more jobs than would have been created without the programs".
If these payouts don't work, what did Ms. Zillman's research inform her that localities should do to help themselves?
"States and cities would be far better off spending the money on education or improving their parks, things that stay put in their jurisdictions."
That is the bottom line.
Here is a link to the full article. http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/16/corporate-tax-breaks/
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The article provides a brief history of the phenomenon of local and state government becoming involved in direct payments to private businesses in order to provide those businesses with an "incentive" to locate in their area. As Ms. Zillman stated, the habit began in the 1970's when the state of Pennsylvania gave Volkswagen $100,000,000 to build a factory there. (That plant closed long ago.) Here is a summary of Ms. Zillman's report in Fortune.
--Those incentive payments now total more than $80 billion each year.
--The director of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management "found no connection between economic development incentives and any measure of positive economic performance, such as average wages and income and state unemployment."
--"What would contribute to growth are simpler tax codes that treat all businesses equally", she reported as stated by Lyman Stone, an economist at the Tax Foundation [a Washington, D.C. think tank in operation since 1937 that researches tax policies at the state and federal levels].
--Tax incentives to corporations may "have now become the norm, but research indicates that they rarely do what they promise."
--Research has shown that "incentives do not result in the creation of more jobs than would have been created without the programs".
If these payouts don't work, what did Ms. Zillman's research inform her that localities should do to help themselves?
"States and cities would be far better off spending the money on education or improving their parks, things that stay put in their jurisdictions."
That is the bottom line.
Here is a link to the full article. http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/16/corporate-tax-breaks/
Alan Ferguson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evidence That Economic Incentives Do Not Work December 18,2013
We neighbors have been fighting the first of the mega-incentivised projects in our area, the proposed Greensboro-Liberty Megasite, for over a year now. In the process, we have learned a great deal about economic development professionals, industrial recruiting and, yes, incentives. Watching the pitch for Boeing unfold up in Greensboro, and the beginning of the big push for Project Haystack in Guilford County, is deja vu for us veteran battlers against the GLM.
The Rhino Times reported this week in a story about the Boeing pitch that Commissioner Bencini was upset regarding having been kept in the dark by the local economic development cadre. We in Randolph County have found that secrecy is one of the salient characteristics of these projects. The details of these projects are provided to anyone on a need to know basis and the economic development folks do not believe that I, you, or the chairman of the county commissioners are in that group. If you want to uncover the facts surrounding the projects for which the taxpayers will be asked to provide payment, you had better be prepared to be insistent in your questioning of the unelected insiders who really drive these shows, and be prepared to read between the few lines they will reveal to you.
We have been told over and over through the months by Randolph County officials that "we are waiting on the State to decide what to do". That is, the County is waiting to see whether North Carolina will provide all of the funding to buy, upfit and then pay a manufacturer to come here before they will agree with us who live there to abandon this project. But now we have good reason to believe that State government is reluctant to jump into the center ring of the incentives arena because those who are responsible to the taxpayers for spending this money know that there is no evidence that incentives have any appreciable positive effect on the state economy.
Here is what we now know. The Joint select Committee on Economic Development Incentives of the North Carolina General Assembly commissioned a study in 2009 by the Kenan School of Business at the University of North Carolina. The result was an extensive report entitled, "An Evaluation of North Carolina's Economic Incentives Programs". The report is long, detailed, scholarly and packed with facts, figures, charts and statistics and A link to the full report is below. The study examined the numbers of jobs created, whether the jobs were created in targeted industries, and whether the businesses wer hiring North Carolinians. Among the conclusions of the study are the following:
--There are three primary goals of incentives programs: quality job creation, benefiting economically distressed areas, and making North Carolina more competitive.
--North Carolina's economy is very large. If it were an independent country, it would be the 23rd largest on the planet. A very large economy is difficult to affect with scattered, incentivised projects. (p. 23 of the report)
--Incentives are less important than a skilled, well-trained work force, good infrastructure, and competitive tax rates and regulatory climate. (p. 24)
--There has been little method to gathering sufficient hard evidence to demonstrate that taxpayer payments to private businesses actually are effective in creating jobs. (p.32)
--Private consultants have dramatically raised the cost of the incentives provided by the state. (page 158) A couple of these have already reared their heads from within the Haystack project workyard. They have been active for nearly three years on the GLM.
--Most importantly for anyone concerned about the effect of incentives on all North Carolinians, the Kenan report found that: "One could conclude that the incentives process in the United States, and particularly in North Carolina, is a process that transfers wealth from the people of North Carolina to corporate boardrooms and owners. This money could be used to build new schools, upgrade environmental resources like new sewer plants, and rebuild our transportation network. These funds are instead directed to corporations for their shareholders or owners." (p. 160)
Of course, the belief in the effectiveness of incentives is an article of faith within the economic development community, and is seen as a tool they cannot do without. Certainly faith is sometimes justified, but in the arena of economics I believe our actions should be firmly grounded upon facts and evidence. These have been noticeably absent from the discussion of the GLM from the beginning. And as we have said all along, aside from our families our homes are our most valued possessions. These shouldn't be taken, altered or devalued without facts on which to base a decision to do so. So far, such facts are nearly entirely absent.
Alan Ferguson
The Rhino Times reported this week in a story about the Boeing pitch that Commissioner Bencini was upset regarding having been kept in the dark by the local economic development cadre. We in Randolph County have found that secrecy is one of the salient characteristics of these projects. The details of these projects are provided to anyone on a need to know basis and the economic development folks do not believe that I, you, or the chairman of the county commissioners are in that group. If you want to uncover the facts surrounding the projects for which the taxpayers will be asked to provide payment, you had better be prepared to be insistent in your questioning of the unelected insiders who really drive these shows, and be prepared to read between the few lines they will reveal to you.
We have been told over and over through the months by Randolph County officials that "we are waiting on the State to decide what to do". That is, the County is waiting to see whether North Carolina will provide all of the funding to buy, upfit and then pay a manufacturer to come here before they will agree with us who live there to abandon this project. But now we have good reason to believe that State government is reluctant to jump into the center ring of the incentives arena because those who are responsible to the taxpayers for spending this money know that there is no evidence that incentives have any appreciable positive effect on the state economy.
Here is what we now know. The Joint select Committee on Economic Development Incentives of the North Carolina General Assembly commissioned a study in 2009 by the Kenan School of Business at the University of North Carolina. The result was an extensive report entitled, "An Evaluation of North Carolina's Economic Incentives Programs". The report is long, detailed, scholarly and packed with facts, figures, charts and statistics and A link to the full report is below. The study examined the numbers of jobs created, whether the jobs were created in targeted industries, and whether the businesses wer hiring North Carolinians. Among the conclusions of the study are the following:
--There are three primary goals of incentives programs: quality job creation, benefiting economically distressed areas, and making North Carolina more competitive.
--North Carolina's economy is very large. If it were an independent country, it would be the 23rd largest on the planet. A very large economy is difficult to affect with scattered, incentivised projects. (p. 23 of the report)
--Incentives are less important than a skilled, well-trained work force, good infrastructure, and competitive tax rates and regulatory climate. (p. 24)
--There has been little method to gathering sufficient hard evidence to demonstrate that taxpayer payments to private businesses actually are effective in creating jobs. (p.32)
--Private consultants have dramatically raised the cost of the incentives provided by the state. (page 158) A couple of these have already reared their heads from within the Haystack project workyard. They have been active for nearly three years on the GLM.
--Most importantly for anyone concerned about the effect of incentives on all North Carolinians, the Kenan report found that: "One could conclude that the incentives process in the United States, and particularly in North Carolina, is a process that transfers wealth from the people of North Carolina to corporate boardrooms and owners. This money could be used to build new schools, upgrade environmental resources like new sewer plants, and rebuild our transportation network. These funds are instead directed to corporations for their shareholders or owners." (p. 160)
Of course, the belief in the effectiveness of incentives is an article of faith within the economic development community, and is seen as a tool they cannot do without. Certainly faith is sometimes justified, but in the arena of economics I believe our actions should be firmly grounded upon facts and evidence. These have been noticeably absent from the discussion of the GLM from the beginning. And as we have said all along, aside from our families our homes are our most valued possessions. These shouldn't be taken, altered or devalued without facts on which to base a decision to do so. So far, such facts are nearly entirely absent.
Alan Ferguson
| economic_incentives_effectiveness_study.pdf |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evaluating Effectiveness of State Tax Incentives to Private Business December 18, 2013
If a visitor to our site disagreed with many of our questioning about taxpayer-funded payments to private businesses, here is more evidence that our inquiries have largely been on the mark all along. The Pew Center On The States published a study in April, 2012 entitled, "Evidence Counts: Evaluating State Tax Incentives for Jobs and Growth". The full report is available below.
The study was done of the incentives programs in each of the fifty states. It examined whether states, which were so heavily relying on tax incentives to encourage companies to come there, were making their spending decisions on any evidence that their incentive payments were producing a good return on the tax dollars spent. A few of the more interesting conclusions of the study are:
--"No state regularly and rigorously tests whether those investments are working and ensures lawmakers consider this information when deciding whether to use them, how much to spend and who should get them." (p. 1)
Sixteen of the states published nothing at all between 2007 and 2011 evaluating the effectiveness of their incentive programs. (p. 7) Among these were the incentive-leading states of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
--"No state has a complete picture of what its tax incentives are achieving." (p. 10)
--"[i]t if not possible to ensure that all benefits from an economic development tax incentive will remain within a state." (p. 22)
--North Carolina is actually among the thirteen best of the states in systematically evaluating the effectiveness of its incentives programs.
Given these findings, I have a better understanding why North Carolina's Department of Commerce has been so reluctant to jump into these projects with hundreds of millions or even billions of state tax dollars. That reluctance is beginning to look like a different kind of evidence--of good old-fashioned North Carolina common sense.
Alan Ferguson
The study was done of the incentives programs in each of the fifty states. It examined whether states, which were so heavily relying on tax incentives to encourage companies to come there, were making their spending decisions on any evidence that their incentive payments were producing a good return on the tax dollars spent. A few of the more interesting conclusions of the study are:
--"No state regularly and rigorously tests whether those investments are working and ensures lawmakers consider this information when deciding whether to use them, how much to spend and who should get them." (p. 1)
Sixteen of the states published nothing at all between 2007 and 2011 evaluating the effectiveness of their incentive programs. (p. 7) Among these were the incentive-leading states of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
--"No state has a complete picture of what its tax incentives are achieving." (p. 10)
--"[i]t if not possible to ensure that all benefits from an economic development tax incentive will remain within a state." (p. 22)
--North Carolina is actually among the thirteen best of the states in systematically evaluating the effectiveness of its incentives programs.
Given these findings, I have a better understanding why North Carolina's Department of Commerce has been so reluctant to jump into these projects with hundreds of millions or even billions of state tax dollars. That reluctance is beginning to look like a different kind of evidence--of good old-fashioned North Carolina common sense.
Alan Ferguson
| pew_center_on_the_states_incentives_report.pdf |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review of Events In 2013 December 31, 2013
It is helpful to remind ourselves of our efforts this year in struggling against the megasite. As you all know, it has been just about one year now since we began learning the truth about the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project. So far as I know, and so far as I know any of our members are aware, the project has progressed no farther than it had at the start of this year. Here is what we know, up to today.
We began our life as an organization with the purpose of learning about a project about which we knew very little. We set out to educate ourselves, and that journey has been very successful. As a result of what we learned, we have become an organization opposed to the megasite project. Here is a brief summary of what we now know.
We know that the Randolph County Board of Commissioners’ application for $5,000,000 in state money, dated December 19, 2012, recited that “for the past eighteen months Randolph County has been working in partnership with the City of Greensboro on the identification, qualification, planning, and governance of a proposed megasite”. That same application recited that “all information in the proposal is complete, true and correct”. So, we know our County government has been working away at this since at least as early as June, 2011. That gave them a big head start on us.
Those of you who attended our early meetings recall that Bonnie Renfro and two of our commissioners came out to meet with us, twice. On both occasions, they told us that they really did not know that much about the project. I went home from those meetings with the impression that this was all the product of the minds of the movers and shakers up in Greensboro. No details were revealed to us.
Last January, after the second of those meetings, and as the result of some determined digging by NERPO, we began uncovering the truth about the project.
-- We got the maps revealing the actual parcels involved.
-- We got the actual application for the state tax money, revealing the detailed information possessed about this project by Randolph County government.
-- We learned that the actual grant from the state was for $1.67 million and that that grant was to expire today, December 31, 2013.
-- We got the cost estimates put together by the organizers of the project, estimating that the total cost would be somewhere around $600 million.
-- We got the statement from one of the organizers reporting that the impact on the surrounding properties (not in the actual site footprint) would be negative.
-- The application recited that Randolph County proposes to spend $2 for every $1 of state tax dollars provided. This is to be composed of “cash, fee waivers, donations of land, buildings or other assets, the provision of infrastructure, or any combination of these methods”. As they say, do the math. This means that if the State of North Carolina did come forward with, let’s say, $100 million, Randolph County would be on the hook for a $200 million contribution.
We also learned the following from a letter dated December 20, 2012, from Bonnie Renfro to the North Carolina Department of Commerce (all of the following quotes are her own words):
--That our site was 2030 acres, and “is comprised of 97 parcels with 67 landowners [parcel number appears to be correct, the number of landowners is not, and is under-reported];
--“741 acres of the site are under control by contingency contract to purchase or lease”. (Actually, the “controls” are unrecorded options.);
-- That “positive ongoing conversations [were occurring] with the majority of owners”;
--That there was a “minimal residential” presence on our lands;
--Ms. Renfro reported that “Over the last year, we’ve explored the economic impact and opportunities for an industrial corridor along US 421, anchored by the Greensboro Liberty Mega site. That corridor stretches across four counties . . .”;
--“State dollars would be matched 2:1 by the two local governments, Randolph County and the City of Greensboro”;
-- Finally, Ms. Renfro stated that the state funding she was requesting was to use the money “to complete the site due diligence and planning for this project and to proceed with property control via options or contingency sales contracts. Randolph County anticipates the completion of Phase One of the project in 2013 at which time the property will have all requisite evaluations and planning completed and the core of the property will be largely under control.”
Again, all of this was contained in a proposal bearing the date “December 20, 2012”.
We learned from the project’s agents that they had secured options from two property owners within the foot print. So far as we know, there are no others.
We know there is no offer from the state to provide additional money for this project. We know this because it was discussed, on the record, at the October, 2013 County Commissioners meeting.
We know the state is offering no additional money because Bonnie Renfro has applied for a one year extension of time during which to continue working on acquiring our properties.
We know that the two owners of the approximate 2,000 acre parcel in Chatham and Randolph Counties are currently making a very serious effort at having their property certified as an industrial site.
We have made all that we know available to the local newspapers.
Members of NERPO have attended every one of the County Commissioners meetings this year. There has been no open discussion of the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project by the commissioners at any public session of the Commissioners’ meetings. We got a couple of questions after our brief October presentation (and a few comments from Bonnie Renfro) but that’s all of the public comment that there has been from Randolph County government, elected or unelected.
We have also written numerous letters to the Commissioners, our state representative in the legislature, our state senator, the County Attorney, to the newspapers, to the Secretary of Commerce, and even to Bonnie Renfro. Speaking only for myself, I have received only one response to any of my letters, and that from our state representative, Allen McNeill. (He said this was an issue that was too far down the road for him to have any real impact upon.) We have been interviewed by every local newspaper and two local television stations. And as you all know, our “NO MEGASITE HERE” signs are now everywhere.
Despite the lack of any official response to our efforts, I believe that we have been enormously successful. The project has stopped dead in the water, and has made no headway since we made our voices known. The word about the expense of this project and the disruption to our lives it would cause is now out in the public, and it is out there only because of your organization and your constant support. Finally, there is the beginning of some public debate about the project.
For anyone who doubts our progress, an article from yesterday’s “Triad Business Journal” may help. It reports (on page 11) about our project that “Now, a year later, Randolph County has had to ask for an extension on its piece of the grant, and getting landowner cooperation for its 2,000-acre megasite near Liberty seems increasingly difficult.” The reporter apparently interviewed David Powell (CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership). She reported that Mr. Powell told her that “beyond the 2,000-acre site in Randolph County near Liberty, there are two additional large-scale sites he’s scouting as possible targets for megasite development. Where exactly those might be, he wouldn’t say.” Read that again. For the very first time, we have an indication from the proponents of the GLM that they are looking in other directions for their projects.
Wow! Stay calm, and keep up what you are doing—attending meetings, writing, and educating your neighbors. Encourage those who don’t know us to visit our web-site. (Remember, we now also own “nomegasitehere.com”) We are little people struggling against the most powerful members of our region. They have all of the money and power in the world to use against us, but they don’t have our enthusiasm, their homes are not at risk of destruction, and they lack our will to resist. Every one of you who have joined in to help oppose this is acting in the best traditions of any our ancestors who ever stood up when they saw wrong being done and blocked its path. I am very proud of you all. Speaking only for myself, I am more committed and optimistic than I have ever been. I am in this until we see it off.
Happy New Year!
Alan Ferguson
We began our life as an organization with the purpose of learning about a project about which we knew very little. We set out to educate ourselves, and that journey has been very successful. As a result of what we learned, we have become an organization opposed to the megasite project. Here is a brief summary of what we now know.
We know that the Randolph County Board of Commissioners’ application for $5,000,000 in state money, dated December 19, 2012, recited that “for the past eighteen months Randolph County has been working in partnership with the City of Greensboro on the identification, qualification, planning, and governance of a proposed megasite”. That same application recited that “all information in the proposal is complete, true and correct”. So, we know our County government has been working away at this since at least as early as June, 2011. That gave them a big head start on us.
Those of you who attended our early meetings recall that Bonnie Renfro and two of our commissioners came out to meet with us, twice. On both occasions, they told us that they really did not know that much about the project. I went home from those meetings with the impression that this was all the product of the minds of the movers and shakers up in Greensboro. No details were revealed to us.
Last January, after the second of those meetings, and as the result of some determined digging by NERPO, we began uncovering the truth about the project.
-- We got the maps revealing the actual parcels involved.
-- We got the actual application for the state tax money, revealing the detailed information possessed about this project by Randolph County government.
-- We learned that the actual grant from the state was for $1.67 million and that that grant was to expire today, December 31, 2013.
-- We got the cost estimates put together by the organizers of the project, estimating that the total cost would be somewhere around $600 million.
-- We got the statement from one of the organizers reporting that the impact on the surrounding properties (not in the actual site footprint) would be negative.
-- The application recited that Randolph County proposes to spend $2 for every $1 of state tax dollars provided. This is to be composed of “cash, fee waivers, donations of land, buildings or other assets, the provision of infrastructure, or any combination of these methods”. As they say, do the math. This means that if the State of North Carolina did come forward with, let’s say, $100 million, Randolph County would be on the hook for a $200 million contribution.
We also learned the following from a letter dated December 20, 2012, from Bonnie Renfro to the North Carolina Department of Commerce (all of the following quotes are her own words):
--That our site was 2030 acres, and “is comprised of 97 parcels with 67 landowners [parcel number appears to be correct, the number of landowners is not, and is under-reported];
--“741 acres of the site are under control by contingency contract to purchase or lease”. (Actually, the “controls” are unrecorded options.);
-- That “positive ongoing conversations [were occurring] with the majority of owners”;
--That there was a “minimal residential” presence on our lands;
--Ms. Renfro reported that “Over the last year, we’ve explored the economic impact and opportunities for an industrial corridor along US 421, anchored by the Greensboro Liberty Mega site. That corridor stretches across four counties . . .”;
--“State dollars would be matched 2:1 by the two local governments, Randolph County and the City of Greensboro”;
-- Finally, Ms. Renfro stated that the state funding she was requesting was to use the money “to complete the site due diligence and planning for this project and to proceed with property control via options or contingency sales contracts. Randolph County anticipates the completion of Phase One of the project in 2013 at which time the property will have all requisite evaluations and planning completed and the core of the property will be largely under control.”
Again, all of this was contained in a proposal bearing the date “December 20, 2012”.
We learned from the project’s agents that they had secured options from two property owners within the foot print. So far as we know, there are no others.
We know there is no offer from the state to provide additional money for this project. We know this because it was discussed, on the record, at the October, 2013 County Commissioners meeting.
We know the state is offering no additional money because Bonnie Renfro has applied for a one year extension of time during which to continue working on acquiring our properties.
We know that the two owners of the approximate 2,000 acre parcel in Chatham and Randolph Counties are currently making a very serious effort at having their property certified as an industrial site.
We have made all that we know available to the local newspapers.
Members of NERPO have attended every one of the County Commissioners meetings this year. There has been no open discussion of the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project by the commissioners at any public session of the Commissioners’ meetings. We got a couple of questions after our brief October presentation (and a few comments from Bonnie Renfro) but that’s all of the public comment that there has been from Randolph County government, elected or unelected.
We have also written numerous letters to the Commissioners, our state representative in the legislature, our state senator, the County Attorney, to the newspapers, to the Secretary of Commerce, and even to Bonnie Renfro. Speaking only for myself, I have received only one response to any of my letters, and that from our state representative, Allen McNeill. (He said this was an issue that was too far down the road for him to have any real impact upon.) We have been interviewed by every local newspaper and two local television stations. And as you all know, our “NO MEGASITE HERE” signs are now everywhere.
Despite the lack of any official response to our efforts, I believe that we have been enormously successful. The project has stopped dead in the water, and has made no headway since we made our voices known. The word about the expense of this project and the disruption to our lives it would cause is now out in the public, and it is out there only because of your organization and your constant support. Finally, there is the beginning of some public debate about the project.
For anyone who doubts our progress, an article from yesterday’s “Triad Business Journal” may help. It reports (on page 11) about our project that “Now, a year later, Randolph County has had to ask for an extension on its piece of the grant, and getting landowner cooperation for its 2,000-acre megasite near Liberty seems increasingly difficult.” The reporter apparently interviewed David Powell (CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership). She reported that Mr. Powell told her that “beyond the 2,000-acre site in Randolph County near Liberty, there are two additional large-scale sites he’s scouting as possible targets for megasite development. Where exactly those might be, he wouldn’t say.” Read that again. For the very first time, we have an indication from the proponents of the GLM that they are looking in other directions for their projects.
Wow! Stay calm, and keep up what you are doing—attending meetings, writing, and educating your neighbors. Encourage those who don’t know us to visit our web-site. (Remember, we now also own “nomegasitehere.com”) We are little people struggling against the most powerful members of our region. They have all of the money and power in the world to use against us, but they don’t have our enthusiasm, their homes are not at risk of destruction, and they lack our will to resist. Every one of you who have joined in to help oppose this is acting in the best traditions of any our ancestors who ever stood up when they saw wrong being done and blocked its path. I am very proud of you all. Speaking only for myself, I am more committed and optimistic than I have ever been. I am in this until we see it off.
Happy New Year!
Alan Ferguson
Summary of Winter 2014 Events April 19, 2014
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since we summarized where we are with the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite project. Here is the latest of what we know.
Most importantly, we are as committed as ever to having an open discussion regarding the wisdom of industrializing our corner of Randolph County. We have tried and tried to have this discussed in the only forum over which we have any direct control, the meeting of the Randolph County Commissioners. Representatives of NERPO have appeared at sixteen consecutive Commissioners meetings, first to express our concerns, and then to openly oppose the project.
Unfortunately, the proponents of the GLM, do not seem to share our concerns. For example, this project has never appeared for discussion on the agenda at a Commissioners meeting. At the October, 2013 meeting the Commissioners did give us a twenty minute extended comment period in which to communicate our concerns in a manner more complete than the three minute comment periods the law mandates we be allowed. Except for a couple of questions to us after that presentation, and a comment from a commissioner here and there during our months of regular attendance, there has been not one instance of public discussion of this project. For what it’s worth, I have spoken against the project at twelve of these meetings. Many of you have done the same. The official silence continues to be remarkable.
The secrecy with which the proponents have approached this matter has not lifted. Many of you were at our February meeting where we invited the PTP’s new real estate agent from Greensboro, Sam Simpson, to speak. At that meeting, we requested that he share with us whatever document he would be asking property owners to sign as he worked through his buying campaign. He said that he would, and confirmed that pledge later. Now, more than two months later we still have nothing, and we have been told nothing about whatever document he is tendering to property owners. Neither he nor anyone associated with his effort has communicated anything of substance to NERPO since that meeting. As has been the case since the first day I learned of this project, all that we know has been dug out by us at considerable effort in time and money.
All of the following new information that I am sharing with you today comes out of the Triad Business Journal’s “State of Randolph” meeting last week in Asheboro. (I have no way to confirm any of this, as Mr. Simpson has told neither me nor any representative of NERPO anything about his plans or progress.) At that meeting, Mr. Simpson and Bonnie Renfro spoke regarding progress on the GLM. Mr. Simpson stated that he now had approximately 1,050 acres under “option agreements”.(Their stated goal is just over 2,000 acres.) He stated that property owners who signed these agreement had granted the entity he represents (he didn’t name it, so I can’t tell you with any certainty the name) the right to purchase property within two years. As I said, I have seen none of his agreements, but as a general rule, an “option” means that the option holder has the right to pay for and require owners to deed it the property within that period, but that the holder is not required to complete the purchase. In the meantime, his group has a contingent claim to those land titles which “fixes” upon payment of whatever price he has agreed to pay. So far as I know, none of the documents referenced by Mr. Simpson which would now encumber land titles in the “footprint” have been recorded in the office the Randolph County Register of Deeds. This means that these documents are not a matter of public record so far as the rest of the world is concerned and, like the rest of the proponents' information surrounding their effort, remain hidden from public view.
At the same meeting, Mr. Simpson also said “the optioning” effort would be complete by the end of June or July. Mr. Simpson said he had spent about $500,000 for options to date, and that the project would require a total of about $50 million to buy the land and install water and sewer service. He did not discuss the source of these funds, nor whether his group had any money to actually consummate the purchase transactions, nor whether the City of Greensboro has agreed to pay to run water and sewer into Randolph County. He did report that the unnamed organization he represents would be performing what he called “due diligence” during the month of April, and that he expected this process to be completed by the end of April. He specifically noted his organization’s concern with determining the depth of the underground rock and evaluating the wetlands. So you may see some activity around the footprint upon any parcels which have been committed to the project.
A subject we have not discussed much to date is also of utmost importance, and I’m going to mention this here primarily for the benefit of our friends at the Piedmont Triad Partnership and in County government who seem to have forgotten this point: our area is zoned residential-agricultural. Any use proposed by the proponents of this project will require that our area be rezoned to heavy industrial. Long-standing Randolph County planning and zoning districting neither proposes nor allows this kind of development in our area. Any change is contrary to the considerations already written into the zoning ordinance by Randolph County itself. I strongly believe that such a rezoning campaign is underway by the proponents of the project without the public considerations and processes which are required by North Carolina law.
Those of us who would be left behind to contend with the effects of industrialization in our formerly agricultural and residential backyards are entitled by law to have our opposition heard and formally considered and attended to. It may appear that much of what we have done has fallen on deaf ears, and that may indeed have occurred. But much that has been ignored to date cannot be ignored when the requirements of the law dictate that the facts be properly considered with the filing of any future rezoning petition. And it will all be in the open. It is illegal for these matters to be discussed by public officials behind closed doors and in closed meetings. Any decision they make that is the result of such closed sessions can be voided if challenged in court—at it will be so challenged.
We should also remember that rezoning petitions, even those proposed by the rich and powerful who would be requesting a change in the law to transform our area with their project, do not always succeed. As you may have recently heard about in Greensboro, the City elites and the best rezoning attorneys in town failed to put a “Trader Joe’s” grocery into a residential neighborhood. Determined opposition by the residents stopped it.
NERPO is also continuing to solicit members in the areas around the footprint, in both Guilford and Randolph Counties. Three new members have come in during the past week. In addition, we have taken the preliminary steps toward hiring our own professional in Raleigh (a “lobbyist”) to look out for our interests in those offices where the PTP are attempting to secure state tax dollars to buy land in our area for their project. This will require a substantial financial commitment.
Finally, let me be very clear about one point. I continue to believe that this project will go away, if we continue to emphasize its realities. I assure you that I will be doing all that I can to see that this happens sooner rather than later. I have seen nothing whatever to convince me that the proposed use of the land is right for our area, and the money that is required is an extravagant waste of scarce tax dollars. That’s where we are. We are a long way from the end of this project. We all want this controversy to end, but the PTP seem determined to push their project, and they are rich and resourceful and very well-connected. I am as optimistic as ever that we will ultimately see this off, but we will all have to call upon our patience to stick together and see it through until we drive this threat away from us.
Best wishes to you all,
Alan Ferguson
President, NERPO
Chatham-Randolph Megasite Certified;
Continental Tire Chooses Chester County, SC Site June 18, 2014
Good Afternoon, Everyone. You may now have heard that late last week the Chatham-Randolph Megasite was certified as an industrial megasite by the State of North Carolina. According to the Triad Business Journal, this means that the Chatham site “has all necessary infrastructure and engineering in place to be construction-ready within a year.” As of this afternoon, there is no indication that the site yet has a manufacturer interested in building there. (Here is a link to the Chatham-Randolph Site’s web site if you would like to see what they have been doing down there: http://chathamrandolphmegasite.com/index.php.)
Diane Reid, the President of the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation stated to the TBJ that she is now actively working with David Powell of the Piedmont Triad Partnership and his executive committee to market the property. Her target is an automobile manufacturer.
The question for us is what effect does any of this have on the efforts to industrialize our own Greensboro-Liberty Megasite? No one is telling me. The obvious follow-up question concerns the effect upon our efforts to oppose the development of the GLM.
I believe the Chatham-Randolph certification changes nothing for us. We should assume that the efforts to industrialize us will continue, and that the proponents of the project will soon announce a renewed effort to secure taxpayer financing for the water and sewer for the acres they now have under option but do not yet own. I believe we will hear nothing about their wishes for and the necessity of rezoning the property for some time now.
So, with all your support, our effort will continue. We expect delivery of an additional 200 “NO MEGASITE HERE” signs tomorrow. They will be available for pickup or delivery immediately afterwards, and will be available at our next meeting. We expect to spread them widely throughout our area.
Aside from the additional signs, I have no news regarding our project. As of this afternoon, there are no documents recorded (other than the five acres Alpath Capital, LLC bought after a foreclosure sale on the acreage this past March). As far as the public record reveals, all is as it was in mid-2012 when I first became aware of this project.
The only other related news concerns a tire company which just this week chose a site for a new tire factory in Chester County, South Carolina south of Charlotte. This is relevant because the company is rumored to have looked in our area also. Here is a link to that site if you would like to take a look at a site on which something is really happening, right now, complete with acreage, utility and pricing information: http://www.considerthecarolinas.com/pdfs/03ctc-Chester-CarolinasI-77MegaSite2.pdf.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Diane Reid, the President of the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation stated to the TBJ that she is now actively working with David Powell of the Piedmont Triad Partnership and his executive committee to market the property. Her target is an automobile manufacturer.
The question for us is what effect does any of this have on the efforts to industrialize our own Greensboro-Liberty Megasite? No one is telling me. The obvious follow-up question concerns the effect upon our efforts to oppose the development of the GLM.
I believe the Chatham-Randolph certification changes nothing for us. We should assume that the efforts to industrialize us will continue, and that the proponents of the project will soon announce a renewed effort to secure taxpayer financing for the water and sewer for the acres they now have under option but do not yet own. I believe we will hear nothing about their wishes for and the necessity of rezoning the property for some time now.
So, with all your support, our effort will continue. We expect delivery of an additional 200 “NO MEGASITE HERE” signs tomorrow. They will be available for pickup or delivery immediately afterwards, and will be available at our next meeting. We expect to spread them widely throughout our area.
Aside from the additional signs, I have no news regarding our project. As of this afternoon, there are no documents recorded (other than the five acres Alpath Capital, LLC bought after a foreclosure sale on the acreage this past March). As far as the public record reveals, all is as it was in mid-2012 when I first became aware of this project.
The only other related news concerns a tire company which just this week chose a site for a new tire factory in Chester County, South Carolina south of Charlotte. This is relevant because the company is rumored to have looked in our area also. Here is a link to that site if you would like to take a look at a site on which something is really happening, right now, complete with acreage, utility and pricing information: http://www.considerthecarolinas.com/pdfs/03ctc-Chester-CarolinasI-77MegaSite2.pdf.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Volkswagen Expanding In Chattanooga July 16, 2014
Hello Everyone,
Here is another piece of the megasite puzzle falling into place. As you all know, the stated purpose for developing our proposed megasite is to attract an automobile manufacturer. This week one of the possible occupants is off the table. Volkswagen just announced that its long-anticipated North American expansion will occur in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here’s the link to the story in the Greensboro News & Record.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VOLKSWAGEN_SUV?SITE=NCGRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
That’s one more down, and one less to worry about.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Here is another piece of the megasite puzzle falling into place. As you all know, the stated purpose for developing our proposed megasite is to attract an automobile manufacturer. This week one of the possible occupants is off the table. Volkswagen just announced that its long-anticipated North American expansion will occur in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here’s the link to the story in the Greensboro News & Record.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VOLKSWAGEN_SUV?SITE=NCGRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
That’s one more down, and one less to worry about.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Letter to Triad Business Journal Regarding Jim Melvin Article and Interview August 8, 2014
The following is my response to an article in the Triad Business Journal about the efforts of Greensboro's Jim Melvin to push the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite. The writer was Justin Catanoso.
"Mr. Catanoso:
I enjoyed your report of your interview with Jim Melvin in the August 8 edition.
You may have heard of our organisation, the Northeast Randolph Property Owners. We formed to begin gathering information about what is now known as the "Greensboro-Liberty Megasite" back in the summer of 2012 after unsigned fliers began appearing in our mailboxes informing us of an effort to buy our land. The rumor spread that the purchase was for an automobile factory.
I am the President of NERPO, and I can tell you that the majority of local property owners do not want this project to happen on top of them.
Many of my neighbors are terrified at the harm this project will bring to them and their families. Yes, some of them have signed-up with Mr. Melvin's companies. A few just want to move. Others signed on out of fear and because they do not believe that little people like us can possibly have any effect on public land use regulation when so many of the rich and powerful line up against them. Others are just tired of the fight, and who can blame them. They only wanted to be left alone. I and many other of my other neighbors do not feel that impotence, and we are not tired.
I am happy that a project insider has finally come into the open regarding the costs of this project. We have been publicizing these costs for over one and one-half years on our website, nomegasitehere.com. We have believed from the start in the importance of a public discussion anytime $600,000,000 in public dollars is on the table. I was also happy to read that the project has now shrunk from more than 2000 acres to thirteen or fourteen hundred acres.
However, some of the information Mr. Melvin gave you is not correct.
His organizations do not own 200 acres. We monitor every day the recordings of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, Alpath Capital, LLC and NC Megasite, LLC in the office of the Randolph County Register of Deeds. As of this afternoon, Alpath holds title to an approximate five acre tract, and the PTP holds title to a 22.18 acre parcel and an approximate 15 acre parcel. That's about 42 acres.
I have no way of knowing how many option agreements Mr. Melvin's groups hold, because they have chosen to keep these out of public view. I suspect that the biggest component of the 1,150 acres he reported as under contract is the 637 acre parcel owned by a single individual. Another 100 I suspect is owned by an absentee owner.
I know that your article was not intended as a primer on the megasite, but because I expect that you will revisit this topic regularly before it dies, it's important to note several points that are never discussed with regard to the GLM.
--This land is zoned agricultural. The Randolph County Growth Management Plan, propounded by the five current county commissioners, and the current county manager, does not contemplate the kind of game-changing transformation of our area from residential and agricultural to heavy industrial. We have bet our lives on the planning our county government has done, and we expect that planning to be followed. We are watching closely the rezoning effort in Chatham County for the Chatham Park" project outside Pittsboro. Among other complaints, the lawsuit that was filed yesterday to stop that rezoning alleged that the local government had failed to follow its own master plan (on which Chatham residents also no doubt relied). A judge and then appellate court may someday disagree with them, and then with us, but that resolution is far into the future.
--Much of this poisonous uncertainty could have been avoided if there really had been transparency from the inception of this project. So far as I know, not a single property owner surrounding this project has been so much as spoken to, much less brought into the discussion. Rather, we seem to have been encouraged from the beginning to feel the heavy weight of inevitability. There is no one more affected by Mr. Melvin's actions that those who will be left with the mess of living cheek to jowl with heavy industry. If you think we are being overly pessimistic, just read the reports done early in the project about its affects on the surrounding people stranded there. (It's on our website.)
--The representatives of the people of Greensboro (who presumably would pay for the water and sewer expansions into an adjoining county and the then the maintenance of those lines) know nothing about this project. One council member recently told me that the only thing they know about Randolph County is that Randolph County is happy to take Greensboro's garbage.
--There has been no discussion of the eminent domain likely for at least some of the water and sewer expansion. The proposal I have seen is for a line running down NC 62, to the west! This project is down in the country. Some folks will just not sell and Mr. Melvin's groups. I realized that he will probably succeed but his lawyers will have to take these peoples' property and that can only be done in Superior Court.
--As for eminent domain, a big component always mentioned with auto factory projects is the railroad. Isn't it probable that if the project truly is game changing that the adjoining Norfolk Southern line would also be upgraded, or even double tracked? That's eminent domain also. The same goes for improved roadways and natural gas service.
--Finally, we really, really doubt Mr. Melvin's effort is about jobs. If it were, he would put all of his weight behind finding an auto factory for the Chatham-Randolph Megasite. As you know, it is already certified, and wants only a tenant. It's only about 10 miles from the edge of the GLM and would draw from the same labor pool, if it really did provide high-paying jobs. The lack of support from the powerful elites of Greensboro, such as
Take a look at our website some time. Thanks again for the article.
Alan Ferguson
4794 Troy Smith Road
Liberty, Randolph County, North Carolina"
"Mr. Catanoso:
I enjoyed your report of your interview with Jim Melvin in the August 8 edition.
You may have heard of our organisation, the Northeast Randolph Property Owners. We formed to begin gathering information about what is now known as the "Greensboro-Liberty Megasite" back in the summer of 2012 after unsigned fliers began appearing in our mailboxes informing us of an effort to buy our land. The rumor spread that the purchase was for an automobile factory.
I am the President of NERPO, and I can tell you that the majority of local property owners do not want this project to happen on top of them.
Many of my neighbors are terrified at the harm this project will bring to them and their families. Yes, some of them have signed-up with Mr. Melvin's companies. A few just want to move. Others signed on out of fear and because they do not believe that little people like us can possibly have any effect on public land use regulation when so many of the rich and powerful line up against them. Others are just tired of the fight, and who can blame them. They only wanted to be left alone. I and many other of my other neighbors do not feel that impotence, and we are not tired.
I am happy that a project insider has finally come into the open regarding the costs of this project. We have been publicizing these costs for over one and one-half years on our website, nomegasitehere.com. We have believed from the start in the importance of a public discussion anytime $600,000,000 in public dollars is on the table. I was also happy to read that the project has now shrunk from more than 2000 acres to thirteen or fourteen hundred acres.
However, some of the information Mr. Melvin gave you is not correct.
His organizations do not own 200 acres. We monitor every day the recordings of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, Alpath Capital, LLC and NC Megasite, LLC in the office of the Randolph County Register of Deeds. As of this afternoon, Alpath holds title to an approximate five acre tract, and the PTP holds title to a 22.18 acre parcel and an approximate 15 acre parcel. That's about 42 acres.
I have no way of knowing how many option agreements Mr. Melvin's groups hold, because they have chosen to keep these out of public view. I suspect that the biggest component of the 1,150 acres he reported as under contract is the 637 acre parcel owned by a single individual. Another 100 I suspect is owned by an absentee owner.
I know that your article was not intended as a primer on the megasite, but because I expect that you will revisit this topic regularly before it dies, it's important to note several points that are never discussed with regard to the GLM.
--This land is zoned agricultural. The Randolph County Growth Management Plan, propounded by the five current county commissioners, and the current county manager, does not contemplate the kind of game-changing transformation of our area from residential and agricultural to heavy industrial. We have bet our lives on the planning our county government has done, and we expect that planning to be followed. We are watching closely the rezoning effort in Chatham County for the Chatham Park" project outside Pittsboro. Among other complaints, the lawsuit that was filed yesterday to stop that rezoning alleged that the local government had failed to follow its own master plan (on which Chatham residents also no doubt relied). A judge and then appellate court may someday disagree with them, and then with us, but that resolution is far into the future.
--Much of this poisonous uncertainty could have been avoided if there really had been transparency from the inception of this project. So far as I know, not a single property owner surrounding this project has been so much as spoken to, much less brought into the discussion. Rather, we seem to have been encouraged from the beginning to feel the heavy weight of inevitability. There is no one more affected by Mr. Melvin's actions that those who will be left with the mess of living cheek to jowl with heavy industry. If you think we are being overly pessimistic, just read the reports done early in the project about its affects on the surrounding people stranded there. (It's on our website.)
--The representatives of the people of Greensboro (who presumably would pay for the water and sewer expansions into an adjoining county and the then the maintenance of those lines) know nothing about this project. One council member recently told me that the only thing they know about Randolph County is that Randolph County is happy to take Greensboro's garbage.
--There has been no discussion of the eminent domain likely for at least some of the water and sewer expansion. The proposal I have seen is for a line running down NC 62, to the west! This project is down in the country. Some folks will just not sell and Mr. Melvin's groups. I realized that he will probably succeed but his lawyers will have to take these peoples' property and that can only be done in Superior Court.
--As for eminent domain, a big component always mentioned with auto factory projects is the railroad. Isn't it probable that if the project truly is game changing that the adjoining Norfolk Southern line would also be upgraded, or even double tracked? That's eminent domain also. The same goes for improved roadways and natural gas service.
--Finally, we really, really doubt Mr. Melvin's effort is about jobs. If it were, he would put all of his weight behind finding an auto factory for the Chatham-Randolph Megasite. As you know, it is already certified, and wants only a tenant. It's only about 10 miles from the edge of the GLM and would draw from the same labor pool, if it really did provide high-paying jobs. The lack of support from the powerful elites of Greensboro, such as
Take a look at our website some time. Thanks again for the article.
Alan Ferguson
4794 Troy Smith Road
Liberty, Randolph County, North Carolina"
Report of Jim Melvin Interview in the Triad Business Journal
--August 12, 2014
Hello Everyone.
This is my latest update on our Greensboro Liberty Megasite project. There has been some news since our last message.
The August 8 edition of the Triad Business Journal carries a cover story about Jim Melvin, the former mayor of Greensboro and the current head of the Bryan Foundation, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. That’s where we come in. Justin Catanoso, the author of the article, reports that, “Melvin is now leading a regional effort to establish a 1,400-acre megasite in Randolph County.” And that, “The goal is to attract an auto manufacturing plant and the thousands of high-paying jobs that come with it.”
Mr. Melvin told the paper that, “My role is to get up every day and push this project. I push it every day. I call meetings with Sam Simpson and David Powell. We have two attorneys working on the team.”
He further told the paper that, “As of today [August 8 was the date of the interview], we have under contract, under option or under ownership some 1,150 acres. We want to get to 1,300 or 1,400 acres. We own more than 200 acres. Those people wanted to sell and move on. They weren’t interested in options.” [He is mistaken about the acreage. His companies hold title to three parcels of land, comprising about 42 acres, for which he has paid roughly $672,000, for three separate deeds, all according to public records in the Randolph County Register of Deeds office. One closed in March, the next in June, and the last in July. I have no way of confirming the accuracy of the remainder of Mr. Melvin’s statements regarding contracts and options as these are entirely private matters until they are recorded.]
Responding to a question about the absence of water and sewer on the site, Mr. Melvin replied that, “Water and sewer is a huge thing; you’re talking about 12 miles of water and sewer lines. You’re looking at two years to do all this—a year for surveying and environmental tests, another year for all the site preparation.”
With regard to the costs of the project, Mr. Melvin stated, “you’re probably talking about $26 million for water and sewer, $30 million for land acquisition and another $3 million for an interchange to get into the property. Then things get serious—maybe $50 million to do the grading and site preparation. So more than $100 million before you even start looking at any buildings.” He also mentioned the $600 million total cost that we have long-published in our NERPO website.
The interviewer asked Mr. Melvin about the recently state-certified 1,800-acre Chatham-Randolph megasite, and whether he believed our state legislature would pay for two megasites. Mr. Melvin’s response was that we need two megasites: “We are not in any way trying to compete with Chatham because in reality, the state needs more than one megasite . . . And any state incentives need to be available to both. But we understand that only one is going to get funded at a time.”
Those are Mr. Melvin’s statements. Here are mine.
--The project seems to have shrunk from more than 2,000 acres to from 1,300 or 1,400 acres. I have no idea about the current boundaries of the proposed project, or which parcels are included in his planning and which ones are not. If anyone can obtain an updated map, I would very much like to see it.
--Mr. Melvin is mistaken about the acreage he controls, as of August 8, and as of right now on August 12. His companies hold title to three parcels of land, comprising about 42 acres, not 200 (unless there are other companies whose names are unknown to us), for which he has paid the three separate owners roughly $672,000, all according to public records in the Randolph County Register of Deeds office. I have no way of confirming the accuracy of the remainder of Mr. Melvin’s statements regarding contracts and options as these are entirely private matters until they are recorded.
-- Essentially all of the targeted land, and the equally affected surrounding tracts are zoned agricultural. The Randolph County Growth Management Plan, propounded by the five current county commissioners, and the current county manager, does not contemplate the kind of “game-changing” transformation of our area from residential and agricultural to heavy industrial. I, and many, many others of us have bet our lives and our fortunes on the land use planning our county government has done, and we expect that planning to be followed. We are watching closely the rezoning effort in Chatham County for the “Chatham Park" project outside Pittsboro. Last week a lawsuit was filed to stop that rezoning. Among other complaints, the lawsuit alleged that the local government that changed their zoning ordinance (it was apparently re-written for them by the developers) had failed to follow its own land use master plan (on which Chatham residents also no doubt relied). A judge and then appellate court may someday disagree with them, and later on with us, but that resolution is far into the future.
--There continues to be much necessary talk about water and sewer, but the representatives of the people of Greensboro on the city council (who presumably would pay for the water and sewer expansions into an adjoining county and the then the maintenance of those lines) know very little about this project. As one council member told me several months ago, the only thing they know about Randolph County is that Randolph County is happy to take Greensboro's garbage.
As I have told all of you many times, I am in this until the project either goes away or is built out. I am not tired, and I am not leaving. There is much yet to be done.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
This is my latest update on our Greensboro Liberty Megasite project. There has been some news since our last message.
The August 8 edition of the Triad Business Journal carries a cover story about Jim Melvin, the former mayor of Greensboro and the current head of the Bryan Foundation, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. That’s where we come in. Justin Catanoso, the author of the article, reports that, “Melvin is now leading a regional effort to establish a 1,400-acre megasite in Randolph County.” And that, “The goal is to attract an auto manufacturing plant and the thousands of high-paying jobs that come with it.”
Mr. Melvin told the paper that, “My role is to get up every day and push this project. I push it every day. I call meetings with Sam Simpson and David Powell. We have two attorneys working on the team.”
He further told the paper that, “As of today [August 8 was the date of the interview], we have under contract, under option or under ownership some 1,150 acres. We want to get to 1,300 or 1,400 acres. We own more than 200 acres. Those people wanted to sell and move on. They weren’t interested in options.” [He is mistaken about the acreage. His companies hold title to three parcels of land, comprising about 42 acres, for which he has paid roughly $672,000, for three separate deeds, all according to public records in the Randolph County Register of Deeds office. One closed in March, the next in June, and the last in July. I have no way of confirming the accuracy of the remainder of Mr. Melvin’s statements regarding contracts and options as these are entirely private matters until they are recorded.]
Responding to a question about the absence of water and sewer on the site, Mr. Melvin replied that, “Water and sewer is a huge thing; you’re talking about 12 miles of water and sewer lines. You’re looking at two years to do all this—a year for surveying and environmental tests, another year for all the site preparation.”
With regard to the costs of the project, Mr. Melvin stated, “you’re probably talking about $26 million for water and sewer, $30 million for land acquisition and another $3 million for an interchange to get into the property. Then things get serious—maybe $50 million to do the grading and site preparation. So more than $100 million before you even start looking at any buildings.” He also mentioned the $600 million total cost that we have long-published in our NERPO website.
The interviewer asked Mr. Melvin about the recently state-certified 1,800-acre Chatham-Randolph megasite, and whether he believed our state legislature would pay for two megasites. Mr. Melvin’s response was that we need two megasites: “We are not in any way trying to compete with Chatham because in reality, the state needs more than one megasite . . . And any state incentives need to be available to both. But we understand that only one is going to get funded at a time.”
Those are Mr. Melvin’s statements. Here are mine.
--The project seems to have shrunk from more than 2,000 acres to from 1,300 or 1,400 acres. I have no idea about the current boundaries of the proposed project, or which parcels are included in his planning and which ones are not. If anyone can obtain an updated map, I would very much like to see it.
--Mr. Melvin is mistaken about the acreage he controls, as of August 8, and as of right now on August 12. His companies hold title to three parcels of land, comprising about 42 acres, not 200 (unless there are other companies whose names are unknown to us), for which he has paid the three separate owners roughly $672,000, all according to public records in the Randolph County Register of Deeds office. I have no way of confirming the accuracy of the remainder of Mr. Melvin’s statements regarding contracts and options as these are entirely private matters until they are recorded.
-- Essentially all of the targeted land, and the equally affected surrounding tracts are zoned agricultural. The Randolph County Growth Management Plan, propounded by the five current county commissioners, and the current county manager, does not contemplate the kind of “game-changing” transformation of our area from residential and agricultural to heavy industrial. I, and many, many others of us have bet our lives and our fortunes on the land use planning our county government has done, and we expect that planning to be followed. We are watching closely the rezoning effort in Chatham County for the “Chatham Park" project outside Pittsboro. Last week a lawsuit was filed to stop that rezoning. Among other complaints, the lawsuit alleged that the local government that changed their zoning ordinance (it was apparently re-written for them by the developers) had failed to follow its own land use master plan (on which Chatham residents also no doubt relied). A judge and then appellate court may someday disagree with them, and later on with us, but that resolution is far into the future.
--There continues to be much necessary talk about water and sewer, but the representatives of the people of Greensboro on the city council (who presumably would pay for the water and sewer expansions into an adjoining county and the then the maintenance of those lines) know very little about this project. As one council member told me several months ago, the only thing they know about Randolph County is that Randolph County is happy to take Greensboro's garbage.
As I have told all of you many times, I am in this until the project either goes away or is built out. I am not tired, and I am not leaving. There is much yet to be done.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Channel 8 Television Interview September 5, 2014
Good morning all. Two days ago a reporter for Channel 8 called me up and asked me to do an interview about the megasite project. She said she had called the usual movers and shakers and no one would talk to her, and then she had found me. I congratulated her on finding the only source of public information about this project, NERPO.
I informed her, correctly I believe, that to this very day, there would be no publicly available information about this project but for the efforts of this group. Our State would be contemplating giving away to some unknown rich and powerful private stockholders up to $200 million worth of land purchase and development work with absolutely no public comment.
And by the way, you all may have also seen the recent story about growth in the Southeastern states. North Carolina is second among southern states (trailing only Louisiana with its oil production) and ninth in the United States in the percentage increase in its gross domestic product (the gold standard measure for how a state economy is doing).
Somehow, North Carolinians are doing this without the giveaways proposed by the boosters of the Greensboro-Liberty-Megasite. All of this leads me to conclude that the project is indeed about jobs--the very well-paying jobs of the economic development folks who push these sorts of things everyday.
As a further update, Greensboro's former mayor, and the man we now know to be the megasites biggest pusher, Jim Melvin, has again mentioned in print (this time in the Triad Business Journal) the creation of "an Authority" to operate the megasite.
As we emphasized at our last meeting, this is potentially a very great danger to our area. Any such "authority" will NOT be beholden to the folk who live here and pay their taxes every day. In fact, we'll be fortunate to even know the names of the human beings who are likely to have the power to affect all of our lives and the use and enjoyment of our property in dramatically bad ways. We all need to get the word out to our wider area on this danger.
I think Channel 8 did a nice job. The link is below.
Spread the word, because we need to grow into our wider area. And let me know what you are hearing. Information is our friend.
http://myfox8.com/2014/09/04/opposition-to-proposed-megasite-near-randolph-guilford-county-line/
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
I informed her, correctly I believe, that to this very day, there would be no publicly available information about this project but for the efforts of this group. Our State would be contemplating giving away to some unknown rich and powerful private stockholders up to $200 million worth of land purchase and development work with absolutely no public comment.
And by the way, you all may have also seen the recent story about growth in the Southeastern states. North Carolina is second among southern states (trailing only Louisiana with its oil production) and ninth in the United States in the percentage increase in its gross domestic product (the gold standard measure for how a state economy is doing).
Somehow, North Carolinians are doing this without the giveaways proposed by the boosters of the Greensboro-Liberty-Megasite. All of this leads me to conclude that the project is indeed about jobs--the very well-paying jobs of the economic development folks who push these sorts of things everyday.
As a further update, Greensboro's former mayor, and the man we now know to be the megasites biggest pusher, Jim Melvin, has again mentioned in print (this time in the Triad Business Journal) the creation of "an Authority" to operate the megasite.
As we emphasized at our last meeting, this is potentially a very great danger to our area. Any such "authority" will NOT be beholden to the folk who live here and pay their taxes every day. In fact, we'll be fortunate to even know the names of the human beings who are likely to have the power to affect all of our lives and the use and enjoyment of our property in dramatically bad ways. We all need to get the word out to our wider area on this danger.
I think Channel 8 did a nice job. The link is below.
Spread the word, because we need to grow into our wider area. And let me know what you are hearing. Information is our friend.
http://myfox8.com/2014/09/04/opposition-to-proposed-megasite-near-randolph-guilford-county-line/
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Summing Up Our February 2 Public Hearing February 15, 2015
Hello Everyone.
The dust has now settled from our little marathon meeting on February 2, and we have not gone away. And the world as we know it has not ended.
And despite only our neighbor, David Allen, alone on the County Commission standing up to those up in Greensboro pushing this project, and their allies in our County seat, and voting "NO" on February 2; and despite that "Golden Leaf" announcement two days later (announcing they they would make $50 million available to the first megasite with an auto plant customer), nothing has really changed.
As of today, Randolph County has NOT paid for anything, and the Piedmont Triad Partnership has NOT given the County a deed to anything. Procedurally, the County voted to spend the money on the 12 parcels, but they have not yet done so.
That's where we are. There's other news. The best came up about four hours ago. Governor McCrory implied during a trip to Rocky Mount (the home of the Golden Leaf Foundation) that his recent trip to London was to pitch Edgecombe County's Kingsboro-Rose Megasite as a great location for an auto manufacturing plant. He said,
"Rocky Mount is close to a major economic revival,” he said. “I’m recruiting business to the Rocky Mount region because of the close proximity to the airport in Raleigh, to rail lines, to ports.
“Another thing you have in Rocky Mount, you have some great land to bring in your industry, that major economic regions do not have. ... I would like you to know I’m selling that land right now."
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/13/4553267/mccrory-comment-ties-mystery-united.html#storylink=cpy
So you see, apparently the economic development world is not spinning entirely on the axis of the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite (or whatever they are calling it this month). Incidentally, Edgecombe County appears to hold an option to purchase the entire Kingsboro-Rose Megasite, should that necessity appear. Like our nearby Chatham-Siler City site, it's ready to go today, if there is a company wanting to come there.
Also, this past Wednesday, the Bryan Foundation took a victory lap of sorts at our expense at their annual meeting in Greensboro at the Marriot. Former Greensboro Mayor Melvin announced that everything was now going splendidly with the GLM, what with "regional cooperation" now being in full effect after our February 2 meeting and vote. Mayor Melvin thanked Mr. Simpson for his efforts and they then shared what they considered a funny story about how strange and interesting it has sometimes been to acquire options in our area. Apparently, we are now a source of entertainment for them as well as cheap land.
I have also prepared and sent to the Courier-Tribune a response to the paper's editorial of February 8. In that editorial, the paper cautiously praised the commissioners' vote, while also promising to keep on top of the story and to attempt to address public concerns about this business venture with public money. Annette Jordan, the editor of the paper said she would publish it, which surprised me as my little piece is longer than their usual letters from members of the public. If you would like to read it, it is attached.
Hang in there, and hang on.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
The dust has now settled from our little marathon meeting on February 2, and we have not gone away. And the world as we know it has not ended.
And despite only our neighbor, David Allen, alone on the County Commission standing up to those up in Greensboro pushing this project, and their allies in our County seat, and voting "NO" on February 2; and despite that "Golden Leaf" announcement two days later (announcing they they would make $50 million available to the first megasite with an auto plant customer), nothing has really changed.
As of today, Randolph County has NOT paid for anything, and the Piedmont Triad Partnership has NOT given the County a deed to anything. Procedurally, the County voted to spend the money on the 12 parcels, but they have not yet done so.
That's where we are. There's other news. The best came up about four hours ago. Governor McCrory implied during a trip to Rocky Mount (the home of the Golden Leaf Foundation) that his recent trip to London was to pitch Edgecombe County's Kingsboro-Rose Megasite as a great location for an auto manufacturing plant. He said,
"Rocky Mount is close to a major economic revival,” he said. “I’m recruiting business to the Rocky Mount region because of the close proximity to the airport in Raleigh, to rail lines, to ports.
“Another thing you have in Rocky Mount, you have some great land to bring in your industry, that major economic regions do not have. ... I would like you to know I’m selling that land right now."
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/13/4553267/mccrory-comment-ties-mystery-united.html#storylink=cpy
So you see, apparently the economic development world is not spinning entirely on the axis of the Greensboro-Liberty Megasite (or whatever they are calling it this month). Incidentally, Edgecombe County appears to hold an option to purchase the entire Kingsboro-Rose Megasite, should that necessity appear. Like our nearby Chatham-Siler City site, it's ready to go today, if there is a company wanting to come there.
Also, this past Wednesday, the Bryan Foundation took a victory lap of sorts at our expense at their annual meeting in Greensboro at the Marriot. Former Greensboro Mayor Melvin announced that everything was now going splendidly with the GLM, what with "regional cooperation" now being in full effect after our February 2 meeting and vote. Mayor Melvin thanked Mr. Simpson for his efforts and they then shared what they considered a funny story about how strange and interesting it has sometimes been to acquire options in our area. Apparently, we are now a source of entertainment for them as well as cheap land.
I have also prepared and sent to the Courier-Tribune a response to the paper's editorial of February 8. In that editorial, the paper cautiously praised the commissioners' vote, while also promising to keep on top of the story and to attempt to address public concerns about this business venture with public money. Annette Jordan, the editor of the paper said she would publish it, which surprised me as my little piece is longer than their usual letters from members of the public. If you would like to read it, it is attached.
Hang in there, and hang on.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
February 28, 2015
Hello Everyone.
I am sorry the ice prevented us from having our regular meeting this past Tuesday night. Don’t take the cancellation as anything more than a concern for all of our safety. Our determination to fight on until “megasite fever” no longer afflicts our political leadership is as strong as ever.
Clearly, after four of our County Commissioners voted with the Asheboro Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Melvin’s friends from Greensboro to spend $4,186,552 to purchase 255 acres, we are in a new phase of the struggle. Remember, that our neighbor, David Allen, alone stood against this project as it has been proposed. Here’s what we know.
Writing letters to our local newspapers, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, and the Greensboro News and Record is important. The people who publish these papers mean well, but they have to sell advertising to the Chamber of Commerce folks who have the money to buy it. Views contrary to those held by the Chamber of Commerce are more likely to see the light of day if you present those facts in letter to the editor. That way, the publishers can claim that they had no responsibility for these contrary opinions, and that they are those of us anti-progress rustics up here in the country. They will publish what you send in. Here’s a link to my letter in the February 21 Courier Tribune. http://courier-tribune.com/opinion/letters/some-talking-points-proposed-megasite
The site is now apparently on its third name. First it was “The Liberty Megasite”. Then it was the “Greensboro-Liberty Megasite”. Now, I suppose to honor our County’s generosity it’s been re-christened “The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite”. We’ve all seen this before haven’t we? When sales folks are trying sell a product, and they just can’t move it, they give it a new name. If that doesn’t work, they change the name again. Many of you are familiar with Greensboro’s struggle with the name of the big road that runs around the Greensboro Coliseum. You know, “Lee Street”. I mean “High Point Road”. Sorry, that’s now “Gate City Boulevard”. (That should clean up the mess along there, right?) Since Randolph County actually has little to do with this project, and will have less to say about its development and operation, if it comes to pass, I’m going to give it a fourth name, and this is the one I will be using: “The Greensboro Megasite”.
Randolph County has purchased NOTHING since the February 2 hearing. I repeat, the Piedmont Triad Partnership (the “PTP”) has given our county NO deeds to any piece of property. Randolph still owns precisely nothing. This is not surprising. As I reminded the Commissioners at the meeting, there was not even a contract between Randolph and the PTP spelling out the terms of any sale. I am told they are now working on a contract.
When will any deeds for these properties change hands? I suppose whenever the PTP tells Randolph to jump the County will jump to it and pay the PTP the money they have requested from us. My guess is sometime in late summer or fall.
So why the wait? That’s two easy answers. (1) THERE IS STILL NO MONEY TO FUND THIS PROJECT! And (2) THERE IS NO OCCUPANT TO WHOM TO GIVE AWAY THE LAND ONCE WE TAXPAYERS BUY IT! I’m sorry, but the answer is no more complicated than that.
The proponents are waiting on the Big Daddy in this drama, the State of North Carolina, to step up and promise it will pay most of the bills if they can recruit an “auto manufacturer” to occupy its Greensboro Megasite. This will likely take a new provision in the North Carolina law to pay for this. This is what was done in order to fund the failed Dell Computer project over in Forsyth. Dell got its friends in the legislature to introduce and then pass a law just for them.
Members of the State Legislature are openly asking why such a large proportion of state incentives money goes to urban areas. That would be us, by the way, because Randolph is part of the Greensboro metropolitan area, for statistical purposes. Over the past few years, in fact, 83% of state tax dollars paid to private parties to induce them to move here have gone to just TWO counties, Mecklenburg and Wake. (The obvious implication here is that the companies who moved to Charlotte and Raleigh just might have already been looking there anyway, but that’s another story.)
We hear a lot about the Greensboro Megasite being partly funded by “The Golden Leaf Foundation”. Golden Leaf made an announcement on February 4 that they would contribute $50,000,000 to the first site to land an auto plant. Some people, including some who publish newspapers, have taken that to mean that the Golden Leaf was now funding the proposed Greensboro Megasite. Well it’s more complicated than that. As we all know, the megasite industry have already “certified” two sites in North Carolina: the Chatham-Randolph site at Siler City, and the Kingsboro-Rose site in Edgecombe County, near Rocky Mount. The Golden Leaf is headquartered in Rocky Mount. It’s directorship has strong representation from eastern North Carolina. Edgecombe County’s unemployment rate is 9.8% (it’s 4.8% in Randolph)! Edgecombe is at the very heart of the diminished tobacco growing area that the Golden Leaf was formed to help into a new economy.
Up in Greensboro, again, the City Council are now becoming involved in the Greensboro Megasite. At this coming Tuesday night’s council meeting (that’s March 3) at 5:30, the last item on the agenda (item 34!) is a proposed resolution to begin engineering studies to run water and sewer lines down into Randolph County. In Greensboro's policy statement about expanding water and sewer lines, there is a lot of language about the growth of the City and, yes, annexation. For any of you in Guilford County, this is your future. NERPO have been saying for some time now that the Greensboro Megasite was more about the growth of Greensboro than about “jobs” for Randolph County.
If I had to guess, I would forecast that if Greensboro does build its water line, you won't hear much more about the Greensboro Megasite. Mayor Melvin and the PTP would have got what they really want, a development corridor down through southeastern Guilford County, and a clear path toward annexation of that area.
I will be at that council meeting on Tuesday night, and I will be speaking out against this resolution. Any of you who are interested in coming up to Greensboro, come on up. If you want to wear your Red, that’s even better.
Of course, we also have our monthly County Commissioners meeting at 6 PM on Monday night, March 2. I will be at that meeting also. I believe it is important that NERPO keep up a presence there, and maintain as much influence as we can over the course of our County’s decision making. Remember, next year is an election year, and two of the commissioners, Commissioners Kemp and Lanier, who have shown no sympathy whatever to our arguments, are up for reelection. As the Greensboro Megasite stalls out over the course of this year, they may become more sensitive to the concerns of prudent taxpayers.
I’ve probably left out something, but this is a lot of information. If you have any questions at all, please call or e-mail me.
We’ll have an announcement soon about the date of our next meeting.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
I am sorry the ice prevented us from having our regular meeting this past Tuesday night. Don’t take the cancellation as anything more than a concern for all of our safety. Our determination to fight on until “megasite fever” no longer afflicts our political leadership is as strong as ever.
Clearly, after four of our County Commissioners voted with the Asheboro Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Melvin’s friends from Greensboro to spend $4,186,552 to purchase 255 acres, we are in a new phase of the struggle. Remember, that our neighbor, David Allen, alone stood against this project as it has been proposed. Here’s what we know.
Writing letters to our local newspapers, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, and the Greensboro News and Record is important. The people who publish these papers mean well, but they have to sell advertising to the Chamber of Commerce folks who have the money to buy it. Views contrary to those held by the Chamber of Commerce are more likely to see the light of day if you present those facts in letter to the editor. That way, the publishers can claim that they had no responsibility for these contrary opinions, and that they are those of us anti-progress rustics up here in the country. They will publish what you send in. Here’s a link to my letter in the February 21 Courier Tribune. http://courier-tribune.com/opinion/letters/some-talking-points-proposed-megasite
The site is now apparently on its third name. First it was “The Liberty Megasite”. Then it was the “Greensboro-Liberty Megasite”. Now, I suppose to honor our County’s generosity it’s been re-christened “The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite”. We’ve all seen this before haven’t we? When sales folks are trying sell a product, and they just can’t move it, they give it a new name. If that doesn’t work, they change the name again. Many of you are familiar with Greensboro’s struggle with the name of the big road that runs around the Greensboro Coliseum. You know, “Lee Street”. I mean “High Point Road”. Sorry, that’s now “Gate City Boulevard”. (That should clean up the mess along there, right?) Since Randolph County actually has little to do with this project, and will have less to say about its development and operation, if it comes to pass, I’m going to give it a fourth name, and this is the one I will be using: “The Greensboro Megasite”.
Randolph County has purchased NOTHING since the February 2 hearing. I repeat, the Piedmont Triad Partnership (the “PTP”) has given our county NO deeds to any piece of property. Randolph still owns precisely nothing. This is not surprising. As I reminded the Commissioners at the meeting, there was not even a contract between Randolph and the PTP spelling out the terms of any sale. I am told they are now working on a contract.
When will any deeds for these properties change hands? I suppose whenever the PTP tells Randolph to jump the County will jump to it and pay the PTP the money they have requested from us. My guess is sometime in late summer or fall.
So why the wait? That’s two easy answers. (1) THERE IS STILL NO MONEY TO FUND THIS PROJECT! And (2) THERE IS NO OCCUPANT TO WHOM TO GIVE AWAY THE LAND ONCE WE TAXPAYERS BUY IT! I’m sorry, but the answer is no more complicated than that.
The proponents are waiting on the Big Daddy in this drama, the State of North Carolina, to step up and promise it will pay most of the bills if they can recruit an “auto manufacturer” to occupy its Greensboro Megasite. This will likely take a new provision in the North Carolina law to pay for this. This is what was done in order to fund the failed Dell Computer project over in Forsyth. Dell got its friends in the legislature to introduce and then pass a law just for them.
Members of the State Legislature are openly asking why such a large proportion of state incentives money goes to urban areas. That would be us, by the way, because Randolph is part of the Greensboro metropolitan area, for statistical purposes. Over the past few years, in fact, 83% of state tax dollars paid to private parties to induce them to move here have gone to just TWO counties, Mecklenburg and Wake. (The obvious implication here is that the companies who moved to Charlotte and Raleigh just might have already been looking there anyway, but that’s another story.)
We hear a lot about the Greensboro Megasite being partly funded by “The Golden Leaf Foundation”. Golden Leaf made an announcement on February 4 that they would contribute $50,000,000 to the first site to land an auto plant. Some people, including some who publish newspapers, have taken that to mean that the Golden Leaf was now funding the proposed Greensboro Megasite. Well it’s more complicated than that. As we all know, the megasite industry have already “certified” two sites in North Carolina: the Chatham-Randolph site at Siler City, and the Kingsboro-Rose site in Edgecombe County, near Rocky Mount. The Golden Leaf is headquartered in Rocky Mount. It’s directorship has strong representation from eastern North Carolina. Edgecombe County’s unemployment rate is 9.8% (it’s 4.8% in Randolph)! Edgecombe is at the very heart of the diminished tobacco growing area that the Golden Leaf was formed to help into a new economy.
Up in Greensboro, again, the City Council are now becoming involved in the Greensboro Megasite. At this coming Tuesday night’s council meeting (that’s March 3) at 5:30, the last item on the agenda (item 34!) is a proposed resolution to begin engineering studies to run water and sewer lines down into Randolph County. In Greensboro's policy statement about expanding water and sewer lines, there is a lot of language about the growth of the City and, yes, annexation. For any of you in Guilford County, this is your future. NERPO have been saying for some time now that the Greensboro Megasite was more about the growth of Greensboro than about “jobs” for Randolph County.
If I had to guess, I would forecast that if Greensboro does build its water line, you won't hear much more about the Greensboro Megasite. Mayor Melvin and the PTP would have got what they really want, a development corridor down through southeastern Guilford County, and a clear path toward annexation of that area.
I will be at that council meeting on Tuesday night, and I will be speaking out against this resolution. Any of you who are interested in coming up to Greensboro, come on up. If you want to wear your Red, that’s even better.
Of course, we also have our monthly County Commissioners meeting at 6 PM on Monday night, March 2. I will be at that meeting also. I believe it is important that NERPO keep up a presence there, and maintain as much influence as we can over the course of our County’s decision making. Remember, next year is an election year, and two of the commissioners, Commissioners Kemp and Lanier, who have shown no sympathy whatever to our arguments, are up for reelection. As the Greensboro Megasite stalls out over the course of this year, they may become more sensitive to the concerns of prudent taxpayers.
I’ve probably left out something, but this is a lot of information. If you have any questions at all, please call or e-mail me.
We’ll have an announcement soon about the date of our next meeting.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
May 6, 2015 Update--Land Acquisitions
May 6, 2015
Hello, Everyone.
Here’s all the latest. As you know, the County Commissioners held their regular meeting this past Monday at 6:00 P.M. We were on the agenda for the following action:
--An “update on mega site purchase” from County Attorney, Ben Morgan, and
--To “appoint a county representative to the Greensboro/Randolph Megasite Foundation Board”.
First the update. Mr. Morgan informed the Commissioners that Randolph County is now the owner (that is the County now holds the deeds to approximately 255 acres concentrated along the railroad track and north of the power line. These parcels were acquired by twelve separate deeds from the Piedmont Triad Partnership between April 7 and April 30. The County paid the PTP something over $4,100,000 for these acres. The parcels are NOT all connected to each other—that is, they do not each share a common boundary with an adjoining County-owned parcel.
This is all according the approval of these purchases by your County Commissioners on February 2, over the objection of Commissioner Allen. This was all to be expected after February 2. The County’s purchase of these twelve parcels effectively reimburses the PTP for its earlier purchases of the parcels from individual private property owners.
However, the County paid more for the 255 acres than PTP paid for the parcels. The “tax stamps” which state law requires to be affixed to a deed (based upon the price paid for the property) indicate that the County paid PTP approximately $397,000 MORE THAN PTP had paid. We don’t yet know where this money went, or to whom it was paid, but we will find out. The best guess is real estate agent commissions and legal fees.
This is all contrary to what we have been told over and over again that “no one is making any money out of this effort.” In fact, as you see, and as we have long predicted, there is a great deal of money to be made from the development and marketing of these projects. This $397,000 was paid from public funds it is the first of what will be many millions like it if this project comes to pass. More about that in a moment.
The second agenda item was the discussion of the appointment of a Randolph County representative to the five-member board of the new Authority, the “Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, LLC”, created earlier this year to develop, manage, and market the yet to be born megasite. The other members of this board are Mr. Melvin and two other members of Greensboro’s Bryan Foundation which he chairs, and the City Manager of Greensboro. During the discussion, we spoke from the floor and pointedly asked why Randolph County only had 20% of the representation there when we were owning nearly all of the property on the site, and after we had put up nearly all of the money for the land purchases. We wondered why Greensboro was paying nothing now and yet had four votes to our one. Chairman Frye answered that this was because “it was their money”. We didn’t understand that, but he’s the boss.
Regarding the identity of Randolph’s one representative, the Board’s discussion suggested that County Manager Johnson should be further appointed to the new board of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, LLC. Commissioner Allen objected and suggested that our representative should be an elected official. He volunteered, but was quickly shot down by Commissioners Kemp and Lanier. Commissioner Lanier in particular objected that a commissioner might be “biased” but that County Manager Johnson would not be. (He did not elaborate on his concerns regarding bias.) He and Mr. Kemp quickly accomplished a four to one vote in favor of appointing Mr. Johnson as our representative on Mr. Melvin’s new foundation board.
During the meeting, we also asked if there had been any progress in the investigation of the “financial irregularities involving [its] former CEO”, which were announced by the PTP on April 15. As you recall, that PTP announcement stated that the PTP “has provided law enforcement authorities information about financial irregularities”. The press release stated that the PTP “intends to issue a report at the appropriate time.” Apparently, they continue to investigate, as no report is yet forthcoming. Chairman Frye stated that the County had been told nothing about the matter.
The final item on the meeting agenda was another of the Board’s “closed sessions” for the “discussion of acquisition of real estate”. As it turned out, one of the acquisitions the Board discussed was more property for the megasite. We do not yet know the details (but we soon will), but it appears that four members of the Board believe that Randolph County should spend some more money to buy more megasite land on behalf of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation.
Where is the property? They didn’t say, but our best guess, and one in which I have confidence, is up along the railroad, again north of the power line. I also predict that they are beginning to move into Julian. I believe the County will attempt to connect its separated parcels of land and shift the site over to the west. I also doubt we are talking about very many acres—probably less than 200, as the cost otherwise would be too high.
Where is this money coming from? We don’t yet really know, but the most likely prospect is that it will be borrowed money—yes public debt.
If this is true, another prediction that NERPO have long made—the piling up of public debt in the service of this project—will have become true. If you believe this is a good way to spend your money, then that’s certainly a defensible political position. If you do not, you have a chance to object. The Board scheduled a public hearing on this new purchase for June 1 at 7:00 PM (the actual statement at the meeting was “June 4” which is a Thursday, and I believe was in error). We will have more details about this as it develops, and about the organized NERPO response.
As a very important aside, the North Carolina General Assembly has appropriated absolutely nothing regarding “our” or any other megasite. So far as we can tell from out contacts in Raleigh, it’s not so much as even being discussed. Again, we have long predicted this result.
Finally, there are still no prospects for this project. As you have long heard, the stated purpose to this project is to “attact a car manufacturer”. Here’s a bit of the latest automobile manufacturing news:
--Toyota announced a new factory in Mexico
--Toyota announced a new factory in China
--Volkswagen announced an expansion in Chattanooga
--Honda announce the moving of production of a model out of Ohio and back to Japan
--GM is building a new plant in Mexico
--Audi is building a new plant in Mexico
--Kia is planning a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
--Hyundai announce that it is exploring a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
--Jaguar/LandRover announced it was looking toward a site in Mexico
This is the evidence. What we once called this project, is what it remains, a Field of Dreams plowed for a phantom crop, but using your very real money.
As always, please share this with anyone who will listen. I hope to see you all soon.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
Hello, Everyone.
Here’s all the latest. As you know, the County Commissioners held their regular meeting this past Monday at 6:00 P.M. We were on the agenda for the following action:
--An “update on mega site purchase” from County Attorney, Ben Morgan, and
--To “appoint a county representative to the Greensboro/Randolph Megasite Foundation Board”.
First the update. Mr. Morgan informed the Commissioners that Randolph County is now the owner (that is the County now holds the deeds to approximately 255 acres concentrated along the railroad track and north of the power line. These parcels were acquired by twelve separate deeds from the Piedmont Triad Partnership between April 7 and April 30. The County paid the PTP something over $4,100,000 for these acres. The parcels are NOT all connected to each other—that is, they do not each share a common boundary with an adjoining County-owned parcel.
This is all according the approval of these purchases by your County Commissioners on February 2, over the objection of Commissioner Allen. This was all to be expected after February 2. The County’s purchase of these twelve parcels effectively reimburses the PTP for its earlier purchases of the parcels from individual private property owners.
However, the County paid more for the 255 acres than PTP paid for the parcels. The “tax stamps” which state law requires to be affixed to a deed (based upon the price paid for the property) indicate that the County paid PTP approximately $397,000 MORE THAN PTP had paid. We don’t yet know where this money went, or to whom it was paid, but we will find out. The best guess is real estate agent commissions and legal fees.
This is all contrary to what we have been told over and over again that “no one is making any money out of this effort.” In fact, as you see, and as we have long predicted, there is a great deal of money to be made from the development and marketing of these projects. This $397,000 was paid from public funds it is the first of what will be many millions like it if this project comes to pass. More about that in a moment.
The second agenda item was the discussion of the appointment of a Randolph County representative to the five-member board of the new Authority, the “Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, LLC”, created earlier this year to develop, manage, and market the yet to be born megasite. The other members of this board are Mr. Melvin and two other members of Greensboro’s Bryan Foundation which he chairs, and the City Manager of Greensboro. During the discussion, we spoke from the floor and pointedly asked why Randolph County only had 20% of the representation there when we were owning nearly all of the property on the site, and after we had put up nearly all of the money for the land purchases. We wondered why Greensboro was paying nothing now and yet had four votes to our one. Chairman Frye answered that this was because “it was their money”. We didn’t understand that, but he’s the boss.
Regarding the identity of Randolph’s one representative, the Board’s discussion suggested that County Manager Johnson should be further appointed to the new board of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, LLC. Commissioner Allen objected and suggested that our representative should be an elected official. He volunteered, but was quickly shot down by Commissioners Kemp and Lanier. Commissioner Lanier in particular objected that a commissioner might be “biased” but that County Manager Johnson would not be. (He did not elaborate on his concerns regarding bias.) He and Mr. Kemp quickly accomplished a four to one vote in favor of appointing Mr. Johnson as our representative on Mr. Melvin’s new foundation board.
During the meeting, we also asked if there had been any progress in the investigation of the “financial irregularities involving [its] former CEO”, which were announced by the PTP on April 15. As you recall, that PTP announcement stated that the PTP “has provided law enforcement authorities information about financial irregularities”. The press release stated that the PTP “intends to issue a report at the appropriate time.” Apparently, they continue to investigate, as no report is yet forthcoming. Chairman Frye stated that the County had been told nothing about the matter.
The final item on the meeting agenda was another of the Board’s “closed sessions” for the “discussion of acquisition of real estate”. As it turned out, one of the acquisitions the Board discussed was more property for the megasite. We do not yet know the details (but we soon will), but it appears that four members of the Board believe that Randolph County should spend some more money to buy more megasite land on behalf of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation.
Where is the property? They didn’t say, but our best guess, and one in which I have confidence, is up along the railroad, again north of the power line. I also predict that they are beginning to move into Julian. I believe the County will attempt to connect its separated parcels of land and shift the site over to the west. I also doubt we are talking about very many acres—probably less than 200, as the cost otherwise would be too high.
Where is this money coming from? We don’t yet really know, but the most likely prospect is that it will be borrowed money—yes public debt.
If this is true, another prediction that NERPO have long made—the piling up of public debt in the service of this project—will have become true. If you believe this is a good way to spend your money, then that’s certainly a defensible political position. If you do not, you have a chance to object. The Board scheduled a public hearing on this new purchase for June 1 at 7:00 PM (the actual statement at the meeting was “June 4” which is a Thursday, and I believe was in error). We will have more details about this as it develops, and about the organized NERPO response.
As a very important aside, the North Carolina General Assembly has appropriated absolutely nothing regarding “our” or any other megasite. So far as we can tell from out contacts in Raleigh, it’s not so much as even being discussed. Again, we have long predicted this result.
Finally, there are still no prospects for this project. As you have long heard, the stated purpose to this project is to “attact a car manufacturer”. Here’s a bit of the latest automobile manufacturing news:
--Toyota announced a new factory in Mexico
--Toyota announced a new factory in China
--Volkswagen announced an expansion in Chattanooga
--Honda announce the moving of production of a model out of Ohio and back to Japan
--GM is building a new plant in Mexico
--Audi is building a new plant in Mexico
--Kia is planning a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
--Hyundai announce that it is exploring a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
--Jaguar/LandRover announced it was looking toward a site in Mexico
This is the evidence. What we once called this project, is what it remains, a Field of Dreams plowed for a phantom crop, but using your very real money.
As always, please share this with anyone who will listen. I hope to see you all soon.
Alan Ferguson
President, Northeast Randolph Property Owners
