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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 1976121418 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS DECEMBER 14, 1976 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in special session on Tuesday, December 14, 1976, at 7:30 p.m., in the Commissioners' Room of the Courthouse in Hillsborough. Members present were Chairman Richard Whitted, Commissioners Norman Gustaveson, Jan Pinney, Norman Walker, and Donald Willhoit. Others present were S. M. Gattis, County Administrator, Neal Evans, Finance Director, Ervin Dobson, Planning Director, Hal Minis, Chris Edwards, and Kathy Hoffer of the Planning Staff, Jean Anderson of the Orange County Planning Board, and Agatha Johnson, Clerk. Chairman Whitted stated that the first order of business for the Board was to discuss insurance overage for the County awned buildings. The County Manager presented to the Board a list showing the build- ings owned by the County, the actual cost value and the replacement cost of these buildings. He informed the Board that the insurance coverage an these buildings had expired and that presently coverage was through a binder. He added that the fiscal property had doubled and the premium would be greater than before. The Board needs to decide what type of coverage the County should have, coverage of the actual cost value ar the replacement cost value. Chairman Whitted stated that the policy would be a blanket policy and the rate ®ould be between seven and ten cents per one hundred dollar evaluation of the buildings. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Pinney stated that he felt the buildings should be insured for the maximum figure and recommended that the buildings be insured for the replacement cost. The consensus of the Board was to insure all County owned buildings at the replacement cost value. The County Manager was authorized to proceed with securing the needed insurance coverage. The Chairman stated that the Board had met tonight, to talk with the Planning Staff to set priorities and schedules for the Planning Staff. He then turned the meeting over to the Planning Director, Erwin pobson. Mr. Dobson stated that he would like to bring the Board up--to- date as to where the Planning Staff is at this point and to learn where the Plann~.ng Department should go from here. Mr. Dobson asked Hal Minis to inform the Board as to where the Planning Staff is regarding mapping data. Mr. Minis showed to the Board maps of soil suitability far Bingham, Chapel. Hill, and Cheeks Townships. The next map viewed was a map of septic tank suitability. Mr. Minis stated that these two maps would be used together in the development of subdivisions and developments. He stated that the Planning Department had received from Triangle J, a computer printout of prime agriculture soils. He added that maps would be ready by the end of the month for public utilities, facilities, and land use for Bingham, Cheeks, and Hillsborough Townships. Land Use maps have been com- pleted for all townships. Kathy Hoffer spoke of the development trends in the County's unplan- ned townships. She stated that some development was going on in all of the unplanned townships. She added that Bingham Township presently had three known subdivisions underway, and that lots sizes ranged from five to twenty .acres in size. Chris Edwards stated that development taking place in the University watershed was basically two acre lots. He stated that the trend to the west of Chapel Hi11 is for larger lots. Mx. Edwards stated that plats had to be recorded if the plat involved a new road or a change in an existing road. He added that there were two new roads, of any size, in Bingham Township. The Planning Director asked Ms. Hoffer to report on the progress of the Sign Enforcement Program. Ms. Hoffer stated that 40 letters were sent out concerning signs on I-85, Old Highway 86 and new Highway 86. The sign 19 owners have until January 15, 1977 to comply. She said that to her knowledge, no one had taken their sign down, however, some of the owners had been by the Planning Office and asked for copies of the Subdivision Ordinance. Chris Edwards stated there were five types of signs which were permitted. These axe: 1) small signs, one and one-third feet or smaller; 2) small professional signs, two square feet or smaller, attached to the building; 3) for sale or rent signs, not exceeding four square feet; 4) church, bulletin boards; 5) agziculture product. Besides these, nothing else is allowed unless the sign is on the premise. Commissioner Pinney stated that he felt the Board should review the signs portion of the Ordinance. The Planning Director stated that this portion of the Ordinance was a poor section. He suggested that the Planning Staff make some recommendations to the Board regarding the signs. Mr. Dobson informed the Board that Robert Page would be joining the Planning Staff as .,the County's Plumbing Inspector effective December 16, 1977. He added that the staff was working on alternatives to a plumbing fee schedules which would be presented to the Board for approval. Mr. Dobson stated that the response of residents to the new pro- posed Planning Board had been very good. xe added that within one week, twelve people had responded. He added that another advertisement would be in the paper this week. Mr. Dobson referred the Board to his work program concerning the County Ordinance and Codes Revision, Land Classification and Land Develop- ment, the County Public Improvements element, and the time phasing indicated. Chairman Whitted then called far discussion of the projects which the Planning Staff had undertaken. Mr. Gustaveson asked that the 'following objectives be listed: 1. Baseline Date 2. Enlarge the Planning Board, with special focus on training and work with the Planning Board. 3. Extend the Subdivision Regulations County-wide. 4. Extend the Zoning Ordinance to Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough Townships. 5. Establish Planning Advisozy Councils for Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough Townships with focus on Land Use Planning. 6. Revision of the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances. 7. Implementation of the Orange County Comprehensive Planning Council. 6. Focus planning efforts on land use planning. Commissioner Gustaveson stated that when these objectives are put along side the 701 planning, that priorities should be meshed. Chairman Whitted asked if the Board members had any additions to this list. Commissioner Willhoit stated that he felt one priority should be the identification of the environmental sensitive areas dealing with water resources. Another item mentioned by Mr. Willhoit was growth management particularly the question of housing opportunities within the County. He added that the Planning Department should be looking at areas suitable for a higher density of population an the County. Commissioner Gustaveson stated that he felt the question of housing would relate to another topic of which Mr. Whitted had prev- iously discussed, the housing programs. He added that this item should be talked about at a later time with other housing programs. Commissioner' Pinney questioned the order in which the priorities were listed. z® The Chairman asked the Board to review each of the objectives to get an idea of where the Planning staff stood and what is expected of them. 1. Baseline Date - Chairman Whitted summarized just where the Planning Staff was. He stated that the Baseline Data needed for Land Use Planning was complete. Other baseline data, specifically, Housing surveys should be done at a later date with a coordinated effort of existing data that is available, and to touch base with the other exist- ing programs such as Section 8, the Housing Rehabilitation Program, Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action and Triangle J Housing Development. 2. Enlarge the Planning Board - Chairman Whitted stated that the Board would appoint five additional members to this Board at the January 4th meeting. Discussion ensued concerning an educational program for the Planning Board which would include a good understanding of the bylaws. Mr. Whitted summarized this item by stating that the County Attorney should look into the matter of terms as set out in the bylaws. He stated that at the December 21st meeting, the Planning Staff should furnish the Bommissioners with a list of names of persons interested in serving on the Planning Board. The Commissioners will also at that time submit names as recommendations to the Planning Board. The Board talked about the length of terms to be served by the Planning Board. `Mr. Gustaveson stated that he assumed the terms would be for three years. Commissioner Walker stated that he certainly felt that there should be zepresentation to the Planning Board from all townships. Chairman Whitted stated that this was the desire, however, he did not feel that the Board should be locked into this action. The Chairman added that another area of through concerning the Planning Board was that of training. The Planning Director suggested that the manual "Mr. Planning Commissioner" be used in the training sessions as well as other educational material. Commissioner Gustaveson stated that he felt it was important to have a planning staff employee to work with the Planning Board and the Commissioners to enable the Planning Board to have the resources they needed and so that both Boards and the staff will understand what is involved. The Planning Director stated that the training sessions would be a continuing program and he added that the Planning Department would work out a schedule of training sessions for the Planning Board. 3. Extend the Subdivision Regulations County-wide. Mr. Gustaveson stated that at the last meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee, the group had a rough set of suggestions. as~ramendments to the present Sub- division Regulations. He stated that the Committee broke the suggested amendments into two classes, one class contained amendments which the Planning Staff would attempt to insert into the present Subdivision Regula- tion for immediate purposes, and the second class was for long range plan- ning. He stated that the next meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee was scheduled for January 5, 1977, at 12:30 p.m., and at that time, the Committee would have ready a revised rough draft of suggested amendments to the Subdivision Regulations. Commissioner Finney stated that he felt the establishing of the Planning Advisory Council should take place before extending the subdivi- sion Regulations county-wide. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Gustaveson stated that.:;he saw this as a parallel effort to extend the Subdivision Regulations and developing the Advisory Councils which would essentially look forward to County-side zoning. Discussion ensued further concerning the citizens imput regard- ing the Subdivision Regulations extension. Commissioner Walker spoke of the imput of citizens at the proposed public hearing for the extension of the Subdivision Regulations and the Zoning Ordinance. He stated that regardless of what the Subdivision Regulations say, "are we going to listen to the people and be guided by the public hearing, or are we going to do it anyway?" Commissioner Gustaveson replied that it could be seen in Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough Townships, that there has been, and continues to be poor development in these township and the Commissioners have no review of what is going on. He stated that it was important to the quality of life in Orange County to be kept informed of what is happening in these townships. The Planning Director stated that the Subdivision Regulations was important to the safety, health and welfare of the citizens of the County. piscussion ensued again concerning citizen's imput about the pro posed County-wide extension of the Subdivision Regulations and the Zoning Ordinance. Chairman.Whitted summarized that with the Technical Advisory Committee's continual work on the Subdivision Regulations, they should be ready for adoption by the end of February or the first of March. The Advisory Planning council would be appointed sometime the first of January. The Board agreed that the time schedule should be left up to the Planning Staff for, the implementation of these two items. 4. Extend the Zoning Ordinance to Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough Townships. The Planning Director had indicated to the Board from his work sheet that the preparation of data would take until the end of November. Meetings and interviews with agencies and local representa~ tives would take until the end of January, 1977. Community meetings would be scheduled zor the months of January and February. The Plan . Development. would'be from the middle of January through March of 1977. Mr. Dobson stated that the Plan Development would be the land use plan. He stated that the Planning Department foresaw the classification and land development for the Townships of Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough going hand and glove with. the extension of the Zoning Ordinance. He added further that by the end of March, the Planning Staff would have ready a rough draft of the land development and land classification plans for the entire County, and at that time, the Board would be in the position to extend zoning to Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough Townships. Discussion ensued further concerning the time schedule and the staff availability to implement these various elements of the planning program. Commissioner Whitted summarized that the Board had indicated to the Planning Staff that land use planning should be the focus of the Staff. He stated that the Board had talked about the Subdivision Regulations and its time schedule, and now, the extending of zoning to Bingham, Cheeks and Hillsborough. He said that now the Board was just listing priorities and the Planning Staff would come back to the Board at another time and present some suggested.time frames for implementa- tion of these. He stated that he felt the time frames should be realistic. One issue that needed to be resolved was whether the zoning Ordinance to be extended should be new, amended, or just what we presently have. He added that this would establish what the time frame would be, however, when the Board presented this at a public hearing, they should have something that they could defend. Commissioner Gustaveson added that it was important to stick to the time schedule that was presented by the Planning Staff. The Board agreed that in order to establish some sequence of imple- mentation, the Planning Staff should work on the instituting the Subreg, organization of the Advisory Council and the instituting of the zoning Ordinance in the different townships and that effort should be parallel. The-Planning Staff should continue work and attempt to fit these prior- ities into their time schedule. The size of .the Planning Advisory Councils would be left up to the Planning Department to decide what is feasible, however, the Advisory Council should focus their attention on land use planning. 6. Revision of the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances. The Chairman stated that as spon as the Subdivision Regulations are ready, the Technical Advisory Committee would turn their attention to the amendments to the Zoning Ordinance in an attempt to make the Zoning Ordinance and amendments more workable. One exception to this is the section dealing with signs. The Zoning Ordinance would essentially be the same for all Townships, however, some districts of the different townships would not necessarily apply. 22 7. Implementation of the Orange County Comprehensive Planning Council. Commissioner Gustaveson stated that this priority would not involve very much staff time at first. This is a very important prior- ity of the Board and will be on the agenda for the December 21st meeting £or adoption. 8. Focus Planning efforts on land use planning. The Board agreed that this item had been engrained in the entire discussion. 9. To identify environmental Critical Areas - This will be a part of the mapping of the existing usage to be incorporated into the overall process of the land use development plan. 10. Housing opportunities is a long range goal which the Berard will talk about at another time. Commissioner Pinney stated that he would not like to see the Planning Department get involved in the Community Development project again, unless it would be of some assistance to other municipalities. Chairman Whitted stated that another concern was I-40 and that the Board and the Planning Staff should be ready to assist in any way when the Department of Transportation issues it Environmental Impact Statement. The Planning Staff was requested to take the list of priorities as discussed and to work on a time schedule to be presented to the Board at another time. A list of names of persons interested in serving on the Planning Board and on the Advisory Planning Council is to be ready for the December 21st meeting. A legal clarification of terms concern- ing the Ordinance of 1965, which established the Planning Board, should be ready for the December 21st meeting. Chairman Whitted spoke of the future meeting with the officials from Chapel Hi11, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and members of the legislation from the area. The County Manager was asked to investigate the possi- bility of such a meeting. Upon motion of Commissioner Pinney, tlhe /meeting! a~adjourned. '~~L-'~".' ~ ~'~ (.tip :6~L~~Gr Richard E. Whitted, Chairman Agatha Johnson, Clerk ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS DECEMBER 21, 1977 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, December 21, 1976, at 7:30 p.m., in the Commissioners' Room of the Courthouse in Hillsborough, N. C. Commissioners present were Chairman Richard Whitted, Norman Gustaveson, Jan Pinney, Norman Walker, and Donald Willhoit. a Others present were S. M. Gattis, County Manager, Neal Evans, Finance Director, Steve Bernhol2 and Jeffery Gledhill, County Attorneys, and Agatha Johnson, Clerk. Chairman Whitted referred to Item 1 on the Agenda: Persons not on this agenda having business to transact with the Board of Commissioners should make their presence known. No one came forth. Mr. Whitted referred to Item 2: Minutes of Commissioners' meetings of December 6th and 14th to be considered for approval. The minutes of December 6, 1976, were reviewed and corrections were pointed out. Upon motion of Commissioner Pinney, seconded by Commissioners Gustaveson, it was moved and adopted that the minutes of December 6, 1976 be approved.