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Home My WebLink AboutMinutes - 19890831,~ w~ -:~ .apnrot•ed: 10/1 i /89 ?~lI?r`'CTES OR:'~':GE C011>;TT BOARD OF GO?LtiISSIO?HERS ' SPECIAL ASEETI?~G AUGtiST 31, 1989 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in special session on August 31, 1989 at 6:00 p.. m. at the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough, AC. The purpose of the meeting was to receive the recommended strategy for-tlie rural areas of Orange Gaunt3- from consultant Lane hendig. BOARD MEhiBF,RS PRESENT: Chairman Moses Carey, Jr.., and Cammissioiiers Stephen Halkiatis, and Shirley E. Marshall. BOARD _MEMBERS ABSENT: Commissioners Dan killhoit and John Hartwell ~-T1'ORNEY I?RESENT: Geuf~'rey Gledhill STAFF PRESENT: County Managet• John ~1. Link, Jr., Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe, Deputy Clerk to the Board Kathy Baker, Planners David Stanch , Gene Bell, and Emily Crudup, and Recreation and Parks Director Mary Ann Blacl:. PLANNING I30ARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Planning Board Chairman Earrr Jacobs, and Flannin; Eoard members Virginia Boland, Betty Eidenier, Chris Best, Dan Eddleman, and A.C. Cantrell. RURAL CHARACTER STUDY COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Alcinous, Chairman, Bub _ Strayhorn, Carl halters, David Swanson, ~iinert•a Fienyon, Dolly Hunter, l"ice Chair, Lorraine Parker, Birk Pelland, Carole Crumle~-, Judson Edeburn, Ed Holland, Lit~y Ludington, and Kendal Brown. OPENING REMARY.S BX BOARD CHAIR: Chairman Carey made introductory remarks and announced that this meeting is to publicly rot=iew same of the recommendations from the Rural Character Studti. It is important to stimulate a broad understanding of how then- af'_'ect ti--e County, and to reach definitive decisions on which of the recommer:d::ticns to follo~.. .1t this meeting it is hoped that these matters will be deliberated on, viehs will be shared, snd yuesticns raised. Hopefull~•, the people in attendance at this riEeting wi.il i~ell, at1~:Ers understand the recommendations. Lane kendig, President of Lane 1•:endig, Inc., bEaan his presentation by recapping the process that,had been followed up to this point and clarif;:ing where the process will .go from here. ~•The process used was one of taking the rural study directives and going to the people and finding out what thier concerns were ?his was done by going to different townships and addressing the issues with the citizens. Some of tl;e issues discussed with residents were agricultural preservation, resource presert•atian, z•isual. resource protection and growth management. :lfter meeting with the people and hearing their concerns a series of issue papers were developed. Tiie first of those papers outlined the rural area issues. The second one dealt ~:ith implementation strategies, and the third one dealt with community character issues. Those issue papers were tal~en back to. the townships for another series of meetings to help participants understand the alternatives. There are a series of alternatives, including large lot zoning of more than 10 acres, cluster zoning, transferable development rights, etc. mother series of non-re;ulatorp elements was also studied, such as acouisition of fee sictple, purchase agreements of development rights, conservation easements, etc. Thor also leaked at various sources of funding for those acquisitions. Same of those sources are tl~,e s assessments, bond issues, special district use taxes, etc. One of the things that this study has made very-clear is that there is not a simple solution to these prol;lems. . Also, the different townships perceive different problems for their cam:.;.inities which necessitates different strategies to solve those pr•ol;lems. F•:endig stated that in some of the communities they were able to ascertain a clear idea of the direction that needed to be taken. The solution in other communities was not as cl~arls established. ~,t this point, input is needed from the groups assembled so that a clear direction can r•e decided upon i'or the next phase of this project. Hs point.erJ out that each counts l~,as many different kinds of community and rural character. Each one of the towns and townships can be divided up into areas of different characters. Some townships may decide on onlti• one character. Others may chose to hate all of the characters. ,fit this time, the staff is doing an analysis of existing characters. He referred to the map wllieh indicated the different characters in Orange Countti-. :1t this point I;End; g presented a brief' summary of the districts which are .being recommended initially. Those districts are Rural Agricultural, Rural Countryside, Estate-Countryside; Rural Eoundar~-, neighborhood Conservation, and Suburban Estate. A copy of this presentation is attached. He also presented a brief summary of the major poiic~* issues which are (1) Easiness Aevelopment near the Rural T;uffer, 12) Sewer :'alternatives for the Rural areas, and (3) Rural Roads. In response to a question from Dolly Hunter, liendig stated that in the horse and buggti* days it might have made sense for the hamlets to be located directlt at an .ntersection. However, it now makes more sense to have it near, not at, the --'intersection. Todaz• there needs onls* to be easy access. He also stated thst there needs to be some criteria for location. so that hamlets would not be located in inaccessible locations simple far the finat,cial gain of the cri;ii:al property owner. kirk pelland stated that it is his understandi,:g tizat if a person has a hamlet of 500 acres only 50 acres would be developed and the other X50 would not be. l~er-dig stated that that was correct. ?.gricultural use or farestrz° use would be the eptions after the initial ;,0 acres was de~-eloped with the exception of indi~•idual situations where an additional house could be located on a large tract. roe exaTM~wle, one house on a 40 acre lat. l~iichael 'duller stated that he was surprised by the ?0 to 25 acre minimum lot size as he did not believe that this size lot actually existed in the Counts. liendig indicated that the proposal was recommending future options not what was actually happening in the County at the present time. These are suggested zoning requirements. He also mentioned that the color blue on the map meant that the existin; community character is what thet* would call Countryside. Country*side could ha~~e a ~•ariety of zoning standards within it. In response to a question ~s to whether the plan was to expand the existing water and sewer network or create and oversee treatment facilities Iiendig stated that the Land Treatment Plan was basically foolproof with only two moving parts, a pump and an air blower. For that reason the Land Treatment Plan is the method they recommend. kitl'i this si*stem there is a 21 to 30 day minimum storage capacitt~. There could be a two dot- power outage and the s~•stem ~:ould still work. There would be time to identify and solve a problem should one come up because the sewage woes from the Land Treatment S~-stem to the storage facility which ;lees arather EO dsys buffQr. He also indicated there is very little possibility of this type of system being designed or built incorrectly. _ , 'y ;`,; ~~;~ ti_ , ,fin unidentified participant asi:ed for furtltier clarification of joint use and ' finPncin; of thNSe s~'stems. Nandi; stated that the requirEment wcuid be that t},e first . de~~eloper h°ould pal- for the s~•stem. If it later became a joint use project the financing Mould then be negotiated. In response to a question concerning the kural agricultural category, l;e stated that all of the farms could be put in this category-. Hoh~e~•er, it has been indicated that the townships must make these decisions. He also indicated that the F:ural Agricultural district would mean that if a farmer developed all of t}~is land in the single family option it could need to be in 2D acre lots. However, he could use the plannFd option, or cluster option, and continue to f'arro the majority of his lard. He also mentioned Transferable Development Rights being an option for neighbors where oi,e of them lived at the interchange of a major Interstate Highway. The neighbor who lived farther away could sell his development rights to. the propert•- owner 1UCatE:1 at the interstate. liendig also indicated that the smaller roads being sug;csted hould not cause anS difficulty for the fire departments in responding to emergency calls. He also mentioned tlyat then did not expect the townships to choose only- one option, rather the~- anticiuated that each township would choose set•eral options. There being no further discussion, Chairman Carey adjourned the meeting. The next regular meeting hill be held on September 5, 19E9 at 6: 3D p.m. at Orange High School, Hillsborough, IvC. '~3oses Care-, .7 r. , Chairman Beverly Blithe, Cler};