In May 2014 the Town Council rezoned 180 acres with the goal that the entire area needed a face lift and that redevelopment would bring vitality and new revenues to the town. Those goals have so far not been achieved.
- Town goal: to create a more vibrant walkable area. The new building on Elliott resembles a beached cruise ship and strangles the surrounding space making the previously convenient shopping center much less walkable than before. Some merchants and patrons have complained that the overpowering new buildings actually make patronizing more than one business more difficult. Citizens who fought to improve the code were disappointed that the 2014 Council was unwilling to create a Weaver Street Market public space along Booker Creek. Instead the present code allows the building footprint to use every inch of space forcing the reconstruction of the greenway and the removal of canopy oak trees along shaded Elliott Road.
- Town goal: to create net positive revenues for the town. The town’s own fiscal analysis demonstrated that the town investment would not yield net positive revenues for twenty years; the Orange County staff and commissioners expressed similar doubts. Usually developers pay a contribution for affordable housing units, and a % of road improvements for nearby intersections, but this code allowed a free pass.
- Community goals. Where this type of zoning has worked the best in the United States is when a community consensus is translated into standards for the Code. Most people who participated in the community process to develop a small area plan did so in good faith. They were upset to learn that the Town Manager and the Town Council approved a Code that did not resemble the plan endorsed by the community. Missing are parks, green space, graceful buildings that would have created livable walkable spaces, affordable housing units, and community amenities. See 2011 small area plan.