After years of back-and-forth planning, 900 acres of developable land are under consideration by the City of Mebane and Orange County.
The Buckhorn Area Plan aims to provide more commercial and industrial growth to western Orange County by “identifying properties that could be zoned for nonresidential purposes and best support economic development.”
The Buckhorn Economic Development District was dedicated as a development district by the City of Mebane and Orange County in 2011 to include a variety of manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, retail and service uses. The district is located just off exit 157 from Interstate 85/40, and includes approximately 900 acres of developable land.
The existing land use for that area is currently agricultural and residential. The Executive Summary for the plan states that the large land areas and low residential growth of the area make it “ideal for commercial and industrial growth.”
Current land use for the Buckhorn Area Plan (photo via City of Mebane)
Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Renee Price said both the City of Mebane’s and Orange County’s planning departments had a chance to sit down this week to discuss renewed interest in the area and the overall intent of the development.
“We’ve had the Buckhorn Economic Development District on the map for decades,” Price said. “For a long time nothing happened and now we’re getting some interest in that area.”
According to the City of Mebane’s website, the Buckhorn Area Plan assesses the feasibility of long-term economic development along the Buckhorn Road corridor, which “has experienced significant growth pressure as more and more residential and commercial/industrial entities show interest in western Orange County.”
The City of Mebane held a public meeting dedicated to the Buckhorn Area Plan in November of last year. Primary concerns were about development standards, such as traffic, buffering, noise, and lighting. The meeting was 2 hours long and about 25 people attended.
At their work session on Tuesday, Price said Orange County and Mebane’s planning boards both expressed the need to hear from more people who currently live in the Buckhorn area.
“The controversy has come up that we have a lot of homeowners that live there now, and they have felt left out of the process and were really expecting this [area] to remain rural-residential or agricultural land and now we have competing interests in the same area,” said Price.
The Comprehensive Land Development Plan defines the Buckhorn Area Plan as a G-2 Industrial development – which advises developers to “Maximize non-residential use and discourages further single-family developments.”
While the development plan is clear about not including more residential development, Price said it provides no guidance for residents who are already living on those 900 acres.
“It can be quite jarring for people who live in an area where something has been on a map for 20 years, but nothing’s been done and then all of a sudden there’s interest and things begin to change,” Price said.
The City of Mebane and Orange County adopted several previous plans that provided goals and strategy for the Buckhorn area dating all the way back to 2006.
Some developments in the works, like the recently dismissed Efland Station development, were proposed along the I-85 corridor – which sits within the Buckhorn Economic Development District.
Learn more about the Buckhorn Area Plan here.
Lead photo via City of Mebane.
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