CHAPEL HILL -- After Monday's State of the Union speech, developer Tim Toben told local business leaders Tuesday, "I understand the president admits global climate change exists.

"For some of us, this wasn't new information."

Toben, one of the developers of the Greenbridge condominium project downtown, spoke at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting on the UNC campus.

Named one of the nation's top 10 environmental designs by Natural Home magazine, Greenbridge will break ground next month, Toben said. By this time next year the seven- and 10-story buildings will be up, and two years from now, people will be living in them.

And they'll be paying a lot less to heat and cool their homes than their neighbors will.

Planted roofs, solar panels, water-saving fixtures and other features will make Greenbridge 58 percent more energy efficient than most existing buildings downtown, Toben said. Some 128 bike spaces, with showers and lockers, will encourage people to leave their cars at home, if they even have cars at all.

"This is not just a different way of thinking, Toben said. "It's a different lifestyle."

Energy conservation. Affordable housing. Downtown revitalization. Speaker after speaker at the chamber's 66th annual meeting spoke in upbeat tones of the development on Chapel Hill's horizon.

Developer Roger Perry said his East 54 residential, office and retail project will have a silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating for its energy-saving design.

The project on the site of the old University Inn on N.C. 54 will contain 30 percent affordable housing units -- twice what the town requires -- with one- and two-bedroom homes selling for $75,000 to $85,000.

And in a nod to a possible referendum on this fall's ballot, Perry said his East West Partners will impose a 1 percent transfer tax on itself on all units sold. The company will donate the money to the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust for more affordable housing.

To those who think a transfer tax hurts home sales, Perry added: "It ain't so. We put 53 of our first condominiums on the market, and they are sold."

Mark Cowell, UNC's associate vice chancellor for economic development, said the university's Innovation Center will be more than the first building in the planned Carolina North campus.

UNC has spun off 40 high-tech businesses since 2000, he said. But most have located outside Orange County. The 85,000-square-foot Innovation Center, a business "accelerator," will keep high-paying jobs in the county by providing researchers the lab, office, meeting and support space they need.

"Think of it as an incubator on steroids," Crowell said.

If the development brings the jobs and commercial activity promised Tuesday, it could benefit residential property owners.

Earlier in the day, a state think tank reported that local taxes and fees surpassed $2,000 per person in Chapel Hill during the 2006 budget year, giving local taxpayers the second-highest per-capita local government burden among the state's 29 largest cities.

At $2,055 per person, Chapel Hill's "local government burden" jumped from No. 5 in 2005, said the Center for Local Innovation, a division of the John Locke Foundation.

Charlotte topped the rankings. Durham fell two spots to No. 5. Cary maintained its No. 6 ranking, while Raleigh held on to No. 11.

In southern Orange County, the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service saw higher demand for its services last year, said associate director John Dorward.

The agency gave out 5,804 bags of groceries in 2007, a 38 percent increase over 2006. Those bags went to 1,068 individuals.

At the same time, the IFC saw a 55 percent increase in the number of people seeking emergency cash assistance, Dorward said.

The agency conducted about 2,700 interviews for help paying bills, up from 1,700 the year before. The number receiving aid rose 31 percent.

IFC Executive Director Chris Moran, who attended Tuesday's chamber meeting, said he's excited by the prospect of development bringing jobs.

Orange County needs more business and better-paying jobs, Moran said. "I think this is a critical time for those wondering what's going to happen to them in the next five to 10 years," he said.