TO THE EDITOR:
The DTH should research and report the full ongoing story of the Obey Creek site before allowing itself to become a one-sided mouthpiece for promoters of a Target there.
The Obey Creek site is right in the middle of one of the most insolubly traffic-congested areas of Chapel Hill. A major retail development there could make traffic worse not only for South Columbia Street, Southern Village and U.S. Highway 15-501 South but all the way to Manning Drive and Mason Farm Road. A Target at Obey Creek would not be a big box “supercenter” in any case – it would at most be a smaller urban version with a more limited range of goods, at the very real cost of attracting more traffic into an already overloaded area.
For increasing retail opportunities, Chapel Hill already has major areas that are more centrally located and better supported by both parking and buses. Or as a more radical idea, perhaps UNC should consider a Target and other attractive retail stores among its other uses at Carolina North, as Stanford University has so successfully done.
Sales tax revenues go to the county, and only a small fraction of them come back to Chapel Hill. A Target anywhere in Orange County would provide just as much sales tax revenue to Chapel Hill, and in any case it would provide only a miniscule diversification of the town’s tax base. In fact, it might provide less revenue than other uses of the Obey Creek site could. A recent study by UNC Professor Emil Malizia reported that UNC spinoff companies in the life sciences and IT need more local spaces to start up and grow, or we will continue to lose these even higher-value activities to Durham and the Triangle as well.
Before the DTH endorses a Target at Obey Creek, therefore, I would encourage its staff to listen fully to the ongoing discussions of the Obey Creek Compass Committee, who are working very hard to identify the best mix of uses for this site. All its meetings and documents are public and are available on the town’s website.
Pete Andrews
Professor
Public policy
