VOLUME 8 ISSUE 21 | THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2023
CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM
C HATHAM NEWS & R ECORD THE CHATHAM COUNTY EDITION OF THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL
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VinFast unveils factory site plans By Matt Mercer North State Journal MONCURE — VinFast, the Vietnamese electric car manufacturer bringing the largest economic development project in state history to Chatham County, has posted initial site plans for its electric vehicle factory. The site plans were filed with the Chatham County Planning Department on July 11 and show a total of six major buildings and a couple smaller ones. In total, VinFast is planning to build a more than 2.8 millionsquare-foot facility. The largest of those is a 955,000-squarefoot general assembly building, followed by the body shop at slightly under 800,000 square feet. Detroit-based Albert Kahn Associates Inc. is the engineering firm and architect for the site plans. The firm has designed other automobile plants, including the Volvo facility near Charleston, South Carolina. They also designed VinFast’s industrial park in Vietnam. The site plan represents what the company calls the first phase of development. There are also adjacent plots of land marked as a “future phase,” with earli-
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Gov. Roy Cooper, state officials and executives from VinFast celebrate the announcement of the state’s incentive packing bringing the carmaker to Chatham County in March 2022. er company plans indicated it would be intended for battery production. Vehicles slated to be produced at the site include the VinFast VF 9, a 7-passenger all-electric Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and the VinFast VF 8, a 5-passenger, all-electric mid-size SUV. “We’ve been closely aligned
with VinFast,” said Michael Smith, director of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation, told the Triangle Business Journal in response to the plans. “This is an important milestone, the entire community is coming together to celebrate this event and we’re excited to see what VinFast has in store.”
In addition to the two largest buildings, the others listed in the plans are a paint shop at 513,200 square feet, a press shop at 497,950 square feet, a central energy plant at 33,900 square feet, a waste building at 8,200 square feet, a pump house at 800 square feet and a guard house at the entrance of the site
at 288 square feet. Site plans also call for new water and sewer line as well as a new rail line at the facility. The proposed plans mark the latest milestone for the company in establishment its first North American manufacturing plant after initial hiccups relating to their timeline and entry into the United States. Late last week, the company’s planned SPAC merger with Black Spade Acquisition Co. extended its deadline to complete the deal by a year. The amended deal now gives Black Spade and VinFast until July 20, 2024, to complete its merger. SPACs, or Special Purpose Acquistion Companies, are formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company, according to Investopedia. Despite the challenges, the company is confident it will deliver on the promise of investing over $4 billion in Chatham County and creating 7,500 jobs. State economic development leaders continue to tout the project, noting that North Carolina received Area Development magazine’s 2023 Platinum Shovel Award recognizing states that went above and beyond the gold standard for investment and job creation. The VinFast deal was recognized as the 2022 Manufacturing Project of the Year.
Immigrant Community Advisory Committee Pittsboro Board of Commissioners held a discusses meeting dates, reviews its Transportation Community Priority List water and wastewater utility merger workshop special meeting By Valeria Cloës Chatham News & Record PITTSBORO — The Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners met at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 13, for a water and wastewater utility merger workshop special meeting. Commissioners discussed recent June raw water samples from Sanford and Pittsboro, asked questions regarding the recent PFAS lawsuit settlements and went over how town employees would be impacted by the water and wastewater
utility merger. No action was taken at this meeting. To start off the meeting, Assistant Town Manager and Engineering Director Kent Jackson said that Sanford and Pittsboro drinking water meets current regulation and proceeded to give a presentation to the commissioners on recent raw water samplings, which has not gone through the treatment process, taken from the water utility systems’ water intake. See PITTSBORO, page A11
ICAC and Town of Siler City Community Development Director Jack Meadows decided on the following dates for their meetings: Tuesday, Sept. 19, and Tuesday, Oct. 17 By Valeria Cloës Chatham News & Record SILER CITY — The Immigrant Community Advisory Committee (ICAC) met at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12, to discuss scheduling a meeting with Siler City Police Department Chief Mike Wagner, to decide the next meeting dates and to speak about ICAC membership, in addition to reviewing the Transportation Community
Priority List. Though ICAC’s last meeting solely focused on learning more about Language Access Plans, that line of conversation was put on hold to address more pressing topics. First, the committee members unanimously moved to invite Chief Wagner to the next ICAC meeting at 6 p.m. on Aug. 2 to discuss recent police vehicular checkpoints around Siler City. Second, because of scheduling conflicts with committee members, ICAC and Town of Siler City Community Development Director Jack Meadows decided on the following dates for their meetings: Tuesday, Sept. 19, and Tuesday, Oct. 17. Third, the committee said that there are some concerns
with membership and quorum. Hannia Benitez, ICAC chair, said the committee had requested at the beginning of 2023 to receive a draft of a proposal for streamlined updated policies, procedures and guidelines for advisory committees from the Town Manager Hank Raper’s Office. These drafts will be presented to the town board of comSee ICAC, page A6