Environmental Resource Program (ERP): Camden County, NC

This project, funded by the Golden Leaf Foundation and administered by the Institute for the Environment of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will produce an assessment of the feasibility of developing a "green" industrial park in Camden County, North Carolina. You can access presentations and summaries of community meetings through these links.

Project Documents

• 3-13-08 Community Workshop PowerPoint Presentation
• Notes from 3/13/08 Community Workshop
• 6-16-08 Economic Development PowerPoint Presentation

The project involves four primary teams, described below.

1. An environmental team, headed by David Salvesen of the Institute's Center for Sustainable Community Design. This team will be responsible for producing an assessment of the environmental impacts of such an industrial park; the technologies, building designs and practices that might minimize these environmental impacts; and the methods by which these impacts will need to be quantified and compared against benchmarks if the park is to stand as a regional and national example of best practices.
2. A business opportunities and regional development team, headed by Brent Lane, director, and Jason Jolley, research director, of the Center for Competitive Economies in the Kenan-Flagler Business School's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. This team will assess the county's economic development competitive advantages and then determine if and how those advantages match a green industrial park. Specifically, this team will be responsible for 1) conducting a demographic and economic scan of Camden County, 2) conducting a regional industry cluster analysis, 3) identifying targeted industry prospects, and 4) evaluating environmental business opportunities.
3. A governance and finance team, headed by Jeff Hughes and coordinated through the Environmental Finance Center of the School of Government. This team will be responsible for producing an assessment of legislation and local regulatory standards impacting how the project is financed, developed and governed. The team will analyze different public and commercial financing options and develop a series of cash flow scenarios based on different project development options, outcomes and assumptions.
4. A community engagement team, headed by Kathleen Gray and coordinated through the Environmental Resource Program of the Institute for the Environment. This team has interviewed key stakeholders in the community and conducted a community workshop in Camden County on March 13, 2008. The workshop brought together the full range of stakeholders, so the project teams can determine their values, goals and concerns, as well as resources that could be brought to the table for such a park. Project teams prepared materials to be discussed at the workshop and will incorporate substantive feedback from the workshop into their assessments. The community engagement team will summarize feedback received for inclusion in the final report.