The Centre of the Region Enterprise: The Effect of Transit Funding on Land Planning and Development
Creators: name: Francis, Gregory
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2006

description: The Research Triangle Park was founded in 1959 as an economic development tool to slow the brain drain from the state of North Carolina by creating research opportunities for graduates of the three major universities nearby, North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was located in the hinterland between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill near Raleigh-Durham International Airport and was the only sizeable activity in the area for over three decades. The Research Triangle Park's success as a knowledge cluster has meant that it is largely in competition with similar research and technological agglomerations nationwide. Furthermore, the Triangle region of North Carolina is in competition with metropolitan areas much larger and more established than itself. Increasingly, the labour force that firms likely to locate in knowledge clusters attract have become more discerning in their location decisions, rating the region's quality of life as high or higher than the quality of the job they are being offered. As a result, firms are now considering local urban amenities when making their own location decisions. The Triangle region of North Carolina has always been at a disadvantage in this regard vis-a-vis its peer group. However, the Research Triangle is one of the best research and technology clusters in the world and needs to be able to attract new firms to the campus to remain successful for another 50 years. To this end, the Triangle J Council of Governments and the Research Triangle Foundation initiated a study of the area around the Research Triangle Park which was published in 2002. The project, known as the Centre of the Region Enterprise (CORE), sought to exhibit cooperative relationships between local governments, regional organisations, and private sector firms that drive future development to strengthen the existing linkages in the area while creating a coherent development pattern in the long term. Much had changed in the Triangle area since 2002 and the calls for greater convenience and accessibility for RTP employees had gotten louder. In 2005, a second study was launched to identify to the changes to the CORE since the publication of the original plan to determine how the participating municipalities could support and encourage the growth in the Research Triangle region. The original CORE area was 60 square miles but had been expanded in 2005 to over 100 square miles to include the rapidly expanding areas in southern Durham County and eastern Chatham County. Multiple clients exist for this project and will use it in different ways. Such an analysis will prove valuable to the Research Triangle Foundation as both a marketing and long-range planning tool. RTF has the responsibility to recruit research and development firms to the Park. Increasingly, these target firms are voicing their concerns about the quality of life of the region in which they choose to locate because the labour force is becoming more particular about issues of proximity to amenities and traffic congestion. RTF can use this project to determine where development opportunities exist inside the CORE region and cooperate with local planners and developers to design development nodes, similar to the original CORE study in 2002, and market these special planning districts to current and potential employers as obvious growth opportunities in which, early investment is prudent. The Triangle J Council of Governments will use this project to facilitate long-term planning across its jurisdiction and introduce coherence to the process of planning for infrastructure, transportation, and green spaces. Local governments in the Triangle region will also benefit significantly from this study. Currently, the seven municipalities that comprise the CORE region are disjointed in their planning and growth strategies. Some of these municipalities have quite adversarial relationships stemming from parochial competitive interests. The CORE area plan endeavours to concentrate development activity in a cohesive and sustainable fashion around the Research Triangle Park and the economic clusters it helped spawn, while respecting the desire of each constituent municipality to grow and prosper. Inter-jurisdictional cooperation is likely the only method to achieve this common goal across the entirety of the region. Employers currently in the region or interested in relocating to the Triangle have expressed interest in a development database to aid their own long-term corporate planning processes. With the help of the CORE project database, firms may determine the long-term viability of the Triangle as an attractive location for the employees they want to recruit.