What exactly happened to plans for the Megasite?

Make no mistake about it. We whole-heartedly endorse the Burke County economic development project widely known as the Great Meadows Megasite, as it has been publicly presented.

We agree with the descriptors used publicly by proponents such as “Game Changer” and “Generational Opportunity.”

We applaud county leaders for collaborating with leading environmental groups to develop for the Megasite a sound land-use conservation plan that was approved by all stakeholders.

Our position has been consistent since developmental plans for the 1,350-acre site, on the border of Burke and McDowell counties, were unveiled in October 2023.

That grandiose unveiling was staged on Megasite grounds — a pine tree forest — on a groomed area with straw spreads covering the mud, large graphics on poster board atop easels, a microphone podium, a giant prop business check representing the $35.8 million commitment from the N.C. Legislature to the Burke Partnership for Economic Development, Inc. (BDI).

And all the peel-and-eat shrimp you wanted. Served atop a white cloth-covered table.

Front and center were Burke commissioners and state legislators. Conspicuously absent was BDI CEO Alan Wood. Read into that what you want. It’s interesting on several levels, especially since the multimillion-dollar check was made out to his firm.

During the event, Burke County Manager Brian Epley declared the megasite project “a massive step forward as an economic catalyst for the region.”

Commissioner Scott Mulwee said, “We’ve never seen an opportunity like this and probably won’t see another opportunity like this in our lifetime.”

That was then, and this is now.

Change in Direction

The on-again, off-again megasite is, apparently, off again, perhaps even doomed. This time it appears to have been harpooned by a quiet, some would say secretive, legislative maneuver by Burke County Commissioners to N.C. Legislators that was outside local taxpayers’ ordinary fields of vision.

The Burke commissioners asked for inclusion in Senate Bill 382 that dealt primarily with allocation of Hurricane Helene relief monies, and, controversially, definition of legislative powers including those of the Governor.

Specifically, the commissioners asked for legislative approval to reallocate $20 million that is earmarked for the purchase of Megasite land and position the funds to support a speculative shell building in the generally sedate 20-year-old Burke Industrial Park.

As a point of interest, opponents to the Megasite were quick to question the wisdom of pouring county financial and marketing resources into the new venture, thereby leaving the decades-old, essentially empty, industrial park high and dry with regard to progressive funding, community support, and marketability.

This astounding discovery, detailed in these pages recently, took our breath away. The kept-secret transfer request represented a sudden and alarming shift in Burke County economic development strategies.

Almost overnight, the Megasite project was dethroned from a “once in a lifetime” economic boost, complete with seemingly secure funding, political support and organizational fortitude, to being “unfunded,” in the words of Burke County Manager Brian Epley.

Under the bill’s guidelines, the $20 million that was allocated by the state to purchase the Megasite land from the Phillips family in McDowell County, would be diverted, repurposed, reversioned, reallocated, whatever you want to call it, to a different project, one with a lackluster record of success.

Those monies would have to be recouped, recovered or replenished (whatever you want to call it) by the sale of a fictional speculative shell building sometime in the near future.

Importantly, maybe crucially, the bill states that BDI would be liable for any deficiency in the recoupment of funds used or obligated.

The funding must be recouped by BDI within 36 months of use or by Dec. 31, 2027, whichever comes first. Any unutilized or unencumbered funds by Dec. 31, 2030, will revert to the Regional Economic Development Reserve. Burke will lose it.

What Happened and Why?

Our question is, simply, what happened?

One minute we’re on the transformational verge of economic greatness and the next minute that fabulous project is demoted down the line. The Burke Business Park, with its documented shaky start, is apparently promoted to Number One.

Just like that.

Burke County’s taxpayers — all of the state’s taxpayers for that matter — deserve to know why our commissioners are quietly but effectively tampering with our significant economic future outside of public view.

It is poor governance, this lack of transparency. It shrouds Burke commissioners’ actions with overtones of secrecy, behind-closed-door transactions, and mystery. Poor communication injects high levels of doubt, suspicion and questionable motivation into public perception.

This recent episode features all of those characteristics.

To recall the commissioner’s Megasite pitches, the Megasite would attract powerful employers, generate hundreds of good-paying jobs, and create a tax revenue stream that is nearly 25% of the county’s current receipts.

The Megasite would put Burke County on the economic map, they said, because it’s the last viable industrial site complex in the state with ideal infrastructure and opportunity profiles.

Why are commissioners throwing deep economic development plans into reverse with the resurrection of a decades-old industrial site that lacks success over a site that seemed filled with potential?

What happened?

Did the public anti-Megasite stance of the majority of current commissioners make some county employees who supported the Megasite worry about employment?

Was something discovered during Megasite land studies that deemed the project untenable?

Once BDI had possession of the grant monies to buy the land, and once required rezoning was passed (4-1 with Phil Smith voting against), why didn’t the real estate transaction occur?

If the House votes to override the veto next week, as expected, Senate Bill 382 is law.

And then the monies secured for the purchase of the megasite land are reallocated. Meaning that no land can be purchased, possibly placing the entire project in jeopardy.

Mike Stroud put a stake in the ground during comments last week after taking the oath. “Transparency, that’s what we ran on,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to stand by. We’re really going to be open … to let people know what we’re doing.”

It is not transparent when our elected officials make significant decisions affecting our local economy without including open dialogue from those that placed them in office.

We encourage our elected leaders, and the staff employed by them, to demonstrate the genuine transparency as stated by newly-elected Mike Stroud.