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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19890515MINUTES ' ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD ANA ORANGE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING MAY 15, 1989 The Orange County Board of Commissioners, the Orange County Planning Board and the Orange County Economic Development Commission met in joint session on Monday, May 15, 1989 at 6:00 p.m. in the Superior Courtroom, new Courthouse, Hillsborough, NC, for the purpose of holding discussion on the airport site criteria and other related issues. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chairman Moses Carey, Jr., Commissioners John Hartwell, Steve Halkiotis and Shirley Marshall. COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Don Willhoit ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Shirley Reynolds, Guido DeMaere, John Gastineau, Jim Gibson, Pat Davis, and Chairman John McKee. FLANKING BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Jean Hamilton, Dan Eddleman, Steve Yuhasz, Virginia Boland, Betty Eidnier, Carol Cantrell, Chris Best, Mike Lewis, Chairman Barry Jacobs, and Pegge Abrams. STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John Link, Assistant County Manager Albeit Kittrell, Clerk to the Board Beverly Blythe, Aeputy Clerk to the Board Kathy Baker, Director, Economic Development Commission Sylvia Price, Purchasing Director Pam Jones, Planning Director Marvin Collins, and Planners Eddie Kirk and Emily Crudup. Chairman Carey opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. and had the Statement of Purpose for the proposed airport distributed to the audience. He stated that the Statement of Purpose was meant to clarify some of the reasons that the Board of Commissioners is pursuing the planning of an airport project. He indicated that the airport has been perceived as a means to an end that are in the goals and objectives for the County. This process has been started to provide the Board with information so that decisions may be made at each step along the way. The selection of a site does not mean that there will be an airport in Orange County. The first point in the process for making that decision has not yet been made. This meeting is to gather more data and to give the Planning Board and the Economic Development Commission (EDC) an opportunity to raise any questions they may have. The first item of business is to ask the consultants to review the revised criteria far those who may not be familiar with them, and to apply those criteria to the six sites that remain on the list. He also mentioned that the purpose of the meeting was for discussion between the Economic Development Commission, the Planning Board and the Board of Commissioners. The items will be discussed in a way so that the citizens present will hear the questions and the answers that are given. If at the end of the discussion the Commissioners feel that they have enough information to narrow the sites down, they will attempt to do so. The consultants were asked at this point to review the criteria that has been revised by the Commissioners and applied to the six sites. _..,.~ MR. TOM MCDOWELL, Planning Gonsultant of McDevco, started his presentation by showing the Commissioners several slides. He indicated that the type of facility that is being proposed is a facility that will handle small aircraft, mostly single engine, although there would be some twin-engine activity. There would be a limited number of ,jet aircraft of a business nature, as well as some activity by helicopter. There would be a single runway with a parallel taxiway and an adjoining apron area. The terminal will be a small building and there will be some hanger facilities as well.. Tt would be a reliever general aviation airport for Raleigh-Durham International Airport. At this point, the criteria was addressed. A revised overview entitled Orange County Airport Selection Matrix was distributed. This matrix is incorporated into these minutes by reference. A copy of all handouts is a permanent part of the agenda file in the Clerk's office. COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that she was confused about how deeply the consultants got into the items that the points are attached to. For instance, the environmental impact will not be studied until one site has been selected. How do you study these things and put points on them but still not really have studied all of it yet. MR. MCDOWELL replied that they based their study on "known information". For example, in rating for an item such as flood lands, he stated that they used flood maps and "quad" sheets and "guesstimating" the number of acres of wetland impact. MS. BETTY.EIDNIER asked about the importance of the southwest/northeast runway configuration. She mentioned that at the last meeting the consultants were asked to look at land that was already classified in the Land Use Plan for Commercial- Industzial Development. Where on this rating would be the configuration of the runway? Is it still important that it be a northwest/southeast runway or can that aviational desire be ignored? MR. MCDOWELL stated that this requirement is not in the matrix. All of the sites under consideration are in the general northeast/southwest configuration meeting the criteria. Those that were not were screened out at an earlier stage. There, is no item in the criteria for that because all six fell into that category. He mentioned that they did take a look at some additional sites west of Hillsborough. They were not acceptable because of the east-west layout. Three hand-outs entitled (l) Matrix Criteria - Community Concerns (2) Orange County Airport Selection Matrix Summary, and (3), Proposed Orange County Airport Site Selection Matrix were distributed. Copies of these are incorporated herein by reference and is located in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. At this point Mr. McDowell went through the criteria for each site. JOHN GASTINEAU asked Mr. McDowell to explain how the travel times were determined. MR. MCDOWELL indicated that they picked a central travel point by weighting the travel times £rom the three communities most likely to have pilots using the airport. I/ Those communities were Durham, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Using this method they arrived at an average travel time to each of the six facilities. He indicated that they do have all of the exact times to each site from each community and he would be happy to go over this information. MR. CHRIS BEST asked how this matrix is different from the one presented at public hearing? MR. MCDOWELL stated that it is primarily different in that it is broken into two different categories. One of those categories is Community Concerns and the other is Engineering and Cost Concerns. We gave those equal rating and grouped them by putting all like items together. He also indicated that the areas of Land Use and Access were most heavily weighted. CHAIRMAN CAREY asked to have the significance of the grand total figures and relate those to cost and to the concerns the Commissioners voiced in the last meeting, which resulted in including social, environmental and land use among the criteria. MR. MCDOWELL replied that those concerns were the reason they broke the matrix apart. He indicated that they tried to develop two main criteria for review. One is the environmental/community concerns and the other is the developmental, or engineering and numbers, concerns. With regards to community concerns, the highest total score is site 11. Under social and environmental concerns site 17 scored relatively high. However, when you look at the breakdown it might not be a good site. He stated that Site 11 was the best site foX community concerns. The best Site from a development view was Site 9. However, he indicated that the cost difference was not one of the most significant issues because it was only a 10~ difference. He stated that you have to look at the overview of all categories to pick the best site. DAN EDDLEMAN asked when development concerns vs, community concerns would be balanced. He stated that he could see that development concerns are off-setting land use compatibility. He did not agree that they should have equal rating. He stated that if the County decides to have an airport, they would want it to be in an area compatible with Commercial/Industrial growth. The infrastructure impact would be more compatible with a commercial-industrial use than with an agricultural or rural/residential use. CHAIRMAN CAREY stated that that concern was one of the reasons the Commissioners ask that the category of land use and applicability to current and future land use be included. The criteria as it has been applied gets at that. He asked the consultants to explain haw it was applied. MR. MCDOWELL indicated that they had three categories surrounding land use. He stated that if the focus is on future land use that was planned to be rural/residential it was simply non compatible. If it is agricultural/residential it is compatible. At this point, he reviewed all three categories, (1) Compatibility with Existing Land Use (2) Compatibility with Future Land Use and (3) Proximity to Go~patible Land Use for Economic Development. COMMISSIONER HARTWELL stated that because of his engineering training, he is used to setting his goals based on other considerations. He indicated that he decides what he wants to do based on his values. Then he brings to that his engineering expertise in order to accomplish those goals. He is not used to setting his goals based on engineering considerations. He would, however, let the engineering considerations influence his goals. For instance, if he could see that a task was impossible, that would influence his choice. He stated that he believed the decision as to what to do should be based without considering the engineering column at all. Then, after a decision has been reached an what to do, the best engineers should be hired to reach the goal. MS. EIDENIER asked if there were comparable figures for the Horace Williams Airport, and Mr. McDowell replied that they did not compile those figures. COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that an explanation was given at the last meeting as to why there would not be comparable figures for the Horace Williams Airport. MR. MCDOWELL stated that Horace Williams did not meet some of the beginning criteria in terms of runway length, the surrounding land uses, etc. MR. BEST asked if Horace Williams was or was not the 7th site, as stated at the Public Hearing and Mr. McDowell replied that it was a 7th site in the sense that it was a "do nothing" alternative, rest also addressed Commissioner Hartwell's engineering statement. He stated that he believed there was a basic fallacy with engineering thinking. That fallacy is that we are going to find what we want and we are going to build it and pay the best engineers. He indicated that the County cannot negate the fact that they have to look at how much this airport is going to cost. He felt that the preferred site is going to be picked and money will be paid out to get what is wanted. He suggested thinking less as an engineer and more as someone living on.or around the property. COMMISSIONER HARTWELL stated that was the thrust of his comments. He repeated that he said that goals should be establish based on one's values and only then should the engineering expertise be brought into play. The fact that a site is more easily engineered should not be the basis for a decision. In answer to a question from Chris Best, COMMISSIONER HARTWELL reminded him that the consultant stated that there was only a 10~ difference in cost and he therefore did not think that much weight should be put on that criteria. MR. BEST indicated that 10$ of 8 l/2 million dollars needed to be taken into account. In reference to Site l7, he asked about the compatibility with future land use. He asked how that figure was determined. `. MR. MCDOWELL stated that they tried to estimate the number of acres that would be included in each one of the land use categories. On the Land Use Plan there is a rural/industrial node that cross roads near site 17 and that is where the difference came from. Some of the property may be acquired from that node. COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that she was not sure that this process could be kept theoretical. She stated that at least three sites scored so low in land use that the other scores were irrelevant. Where there is more evenness it. would be possible to talk about the technical differences. MS. EIDENIER stated that the handouts mentioned economic impact. She asked if someone from the EDC could address the positive aspects of the economic impact of an airport. MR. MCKEE stated that the EDC had not formulated an idea as to what was best. The EDC sees this as an opportunity to improve the job situation in the County. A lot of this depends on the site chosen. The EDC interviews people who have companies who would like to take a look at Orange County. One of their concerns is always, how close is it to an airport that can be used for their executives. The idea is to accommodate that if possible. The EDC would not advocate an airport .site incompatible with the Land Use Plan. The EDC would not have a definite position on the importance of the airport until a site is chosen. CHAIRMAN CAREY asked the Commissioners if they had enough information to narrow the sites down to one or two for purposes of going into the public hearing. GOMMISSIONER HARTWELL stated that the detailed copy of the matrix had been very helpful. He expressed surprise at some of the figures. He was surprised at the number of people who live in the site 8 area. He indicated that he would be happy to narrow the debate down to site 11. A motion was made by Commissioner Hartwell., seconded by Commissioner Marshall, to narrow the discussion of a proposed airport to Site 11. COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that Site 11 comes up first, and is the only one that is acceptable from the perspective of community concerns.. However, with reference to the development concerns, that comes up 5 out of 6. She agreed with Commissioner Hartwell that compatibility with the community is important. However, the other areas°need to be looked at. She mentioned that one concern she has about Site 11 is the proximity to Seven Mile Creek Reservoir. CHAIRMAN CAREY indicated that was also his concern. If Site 11 is considered as the site to take to public hearing, more information will need to be presented about the impact on a future reservoir. He stated that he also feels that Site 11 scores high on social/environmental concerns and on land use concerns as well. That may mean that there are fewer families to be relocated and is the closet site to the areas on the land use plan that are earmarked for future economic development. ...~ However, that site received the same weight as the others on access. He felt that _-_ Site ll is the only site that is feasible to consider beyond this point. The other criteria tells him there are problems associated with the other sites that make them unsuitable for further consideration for an airport. PLANNING BOARD GHAIRMAN BARRY JACOBS stated that the Planning Board would be pleased to see the land use concerns and the social/environmental concerns given considerable weight by the Board of Commissioners. He indicated that under the more general heading of community concerns, he would have to make the case that an airport is needed. However, he felt that the best possible job has been done with the current matrix on the sites that are left, but he did not believe that the matrix was made to be used on Horace Williams. He indicated that the public hearing was the appropriate place to address the concern. COMMISSIONER HALKIOTIS stated that this process has been .very interesting to watch over the last several weeks. He stated that it started with a double digit number, is now a single digit number, may be narrowed down even more tonight and the conclusion may eventually be reached that the number is actually zero. Commissioner Marshall raised the issue several weeks ago that the Board may ultimately realize that there is not a suitable site. This has. been an open process and he voiced the hope that people would continue to be patient until the process continues along its natural progression. He stated that he did not believe that there was a person in the room, either at the table or in the audience, who wants to see the county trashed. He also mentioned that there is a tremendous cost involved .to keep our county beautiful and untrashed and people have to be willing to pay that cost. They need to realize that the cast is going to be heavy. -=~''' COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that monthly they are faced with issues which try to lead away from the ideals that the Board of Commissioners have had and that the citizens' letters have stated, to try to keep this a fairly rural area. There are other questions that are just as important as the issue of an airport and the help of the citizens is needed to help decide those issues as well as the airport issue. CHAIRMAN CAREY stated that the citizens who raised concerns about the planning effort will be given an opportunity to contribute to the process and help determine alternatives far pursuing the goals that the County wants to pursue. The citizens are formally invited to participate an task forces to supplement what is already in place. The motion on the floor is to eliminate all sites but #11 and there is a second. VOTE: Ayes - 3 Noes - 1 (Commissioner Marshall) COMMISSIONER MARSHALL stated that she voted against the motion because the difference between the social concerns and the development concerns was 1 to 5. Therefore, although she felt that Site 11 was the only possible one, that seemed to be out of line. She indicated that she did not believe there is a suitable site. There being na further business, the meeting was adjourned. Moses Carey, Jr., Chairman Beverly A.Blythe, Clerk