From: Gene Galin
Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 7:12:47 AM
Subject: WNCN – Pittsboro prepares for 7,000-acre technology park
PITTSBORO, N.C. – There’s a huge new development on the horizon in the Triangle. A new technology area known as Chatham Park near Pittsboro is seeking official approval for its newly revised master plan.
Instead of being just a location for building high-tech office space, the project wants to create a live-where-you-work environment that will attract thousands of people to that part of Chatham County.
Chatham Park will encompass 7,000 acres between Pittsboro and the Haw River.
The project is the vision of Preston Development, which along with billionaire investor Jim Goodnight, have spent close to a decade buying up the land in the area that’ll make up the region’s newest technology park.
Right now, Chatham Park is all on paper; a collection of maps, documents and information that’s part of a master plan for the live-where-you-work business park.
When it’s completed, it will bring an estimated 55,000 people to the Pittsboro area.
“There will be townhouses starting at $175,000 or apartments you can rent by the month; all the way up to $1 million dollar homes for doctors, lawyers or whoever can afford it,” explained Preston Development co-founder Tim Smith.
Right now Pittsboro is home to about 4,000 people.
Although the project is being developed outside the Pittsboro city limits, the town retains control of the site because it’s part of Pittsboro’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
That means is Pittsboro will still oversee things like zoning, planning and code enforcement.
“Chatham County will change whether Chatham Park comes or not,” says Preston Development’s planning consultant Philip Culpepper. “Chatham Park lets it be done in a planned community rather than just piecemeal.”
Read the entire story at
http://www.wncn.com/story/22283444/pittsboro-prepares-for-7000-acre-live-where-you-work