By Joanie Morris

Kannapolis Citizen

City Manager Mike Legg has one word of advice for city council members — plan now for the city's future.

"Over the course of the next several weeks and months, there will be things that we need to delve into," Legg told council during a Town Hall meeting Monday night. "I think we have to start thinking large. Thinging big."

Legg told council that checks and balances need to be built in with all of the aggressive thinking that should go with billionaire David Murdock's announcement last week of the North Carolina Research Campus.

"I think we need to think outside the box," Legg said. "This project is outside the box."

Legg said the city will need several things in preparation for what is to come in Kannapolis, including a new economic development strategy.

"That's going to be critical," he told council and a crowd of about 50, including city staffers. He said the development will put new emphasis on quality of life, the YMCA, schools and corridors.

"We've already had conversations with Kannapolis City Schools and will continue to on what their role is," Legg said. "They know their role will be to foster life sciences and biotechnology in the schools. They would like to pursue a new biotech lab at the new Kannapolis Middle School. That's about $50,000."

When the floor was opened for comments, Brenda Adams commended Legg on bringing up many of her concerns with the campus, adding that the schools are going to be most important.

"I'm glad to see you are already working on that," Adams said. "You are going to be inundated with children when people come."

Legg said it is the job of the city to make sure that the right things are going on at the right time, beginning now. For the corridors into the city, he said, significant changes need to be made, including a corridor plan and aggressive code enforcement.

"We have the money in the budget for a corridor plan along Hwy. 3 and Dale Earnhardt Boulevard," Legg said. "You want the city's looks to match the way our downtown looks and will look in the future. That's going to be very important to sending the right signal."

In addition to all the changes about to take place in the city through Castle & Cooke's redevelopment of downtown, Legg told council that the city needs to make changes to policy also, including the land use plan and land currently available in the city for developement.

"Areas where we thought may only be good for residential, we may have to take another look," Legg said. Those areas could be useful for small business retail or something else.

"We are feverishly working to maximize this thing," Legg said. "It's a wonderful time to be a citizen of Kannapolis and Cabarrus County. The key is to maximize this. If we sit on our hands, we will miss a lot of opportunities that will fly us by...

"Others will capitalize on this," Legg said. "The closer you are to this campus, the more you will benefit."

Contact Joanie Morris at 704-932-3336 or jmorris@kannapoliscitizen.com.