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particularly important.
Several development decisions taken by various
municipalities have caused problems for neighboring
communities. For example, land-use decisions that
appeared sensible to individual local authorities do
not necessarily make sense when looked at systemati-
cally in terms of the overall region. A good example is
the large amount of land zoned for office and indus-
trial use by nearly every jurisdiction in the CORE
area. These large areas zoned for single uses appear to
each jurisdiction as opportunities to build their tax
base and take advantage of their proximity to the 
airport and RTP. However, the cumulative result is a
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CHAPTER SEVEN
●
THE REGION
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60 square mile area devoted to employment with no
thought given to convenient and affordable housing
for workers. The net effect of these disparate policies
is a workforce that must commute increasingly long
distances, giving rise to the troubling congestion and
pollution at the heart of the region’s problems.
KEY ISSUES AND GOALS
The key issues facing the design team during the
charrette could therefore be summarized as follows:
1. The CORE area had an imbalance between
employment, homes and services.
2. There were few housing opportunities in the 
RTP.
3. The thoroughfare system was heavily congested.
4. There were minimal transportation alternatives to
the car.
5. The existing patterns of development were heavily
auto-dependent.
6. To meet the future challenges of economic devel-
opment the CORE area needed a stronger physi-
cal identity, and a sense of place.
7. The region needed a stronger collaborative plan-
ning structure to address common concerns and
development impacts.
In turn these issues led to the statement of two main
goals for the overall project.
1.
Short-term goal
: Demonstrate how local govern-
ments, regional organizations and the private
sector could collaborate to match new patterns of
development more efficiently with the public
infrastructure and its planned extensions.
2.
Long-term goal
: Plant the seeds of commitment
among local governments, regional organizations,
and land development interests to produce a
pattern of development that is more balanced and
sustainable.