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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19991012APPROVED 2/14/2000 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION OCTOBER 12, 1999 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, October 12, 1999 at 7:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Alice M. Gordon and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Stephen H. Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Albert Kittrell and Rod Visser, and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (all other staff members will be identified appropriately below). NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. 1. "A Lands Legacy Program for Orange County" - First Draft Environment and Resource Conservation Director David Stancil made this presentation. He introduced Rich Shaw who will be starting on Monday as the new Resource Manager. He said that he chose the words "Lands Legacy" because there is a federal initiative for a lands legacy program to develop a way to preserve resources in the country, and also because this program is for future generations as well as current citizens. David Stancil said that in 1998, 5.3 billion dollars was approved for funding for open space preservation nationwide. He mentioned the 44 million dollars of funding that the General Assembly approved which includes the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Natural Heritage Fund, and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. David Stancil made reference to the section on what is known about Orange County's resources. He made reference to the mapping and said that an inventory has been done of all Orange County lands. Of the 256,000 acres in the County, Orange County currently owns 730 acres for all purposes, which is 0.3% of the County land area. An inventory was also done on some of the other landowners in the County. He said that the County's largest landowner is Duke University, owning almost 5,000 acres. The County's second largest landowner is OWASA, owning approximately 3,200 acres. The County's third largest landowner is UNC, owning 2,500-2,800 acres. Eno State Park owns approximately 1,930 acres. Among the local governments, Hillsborough is the largest landowner. He referred to page 12 of the document and said that a great deal is known about the natural resource inventories Orange County has. In terms of the GIS database, the primary objective is to identify what the most significant resources in the County are. He said that this database could be used to target land acquisition by the County. He said that for every opportunity for acquisition of the County's resources, there are some basic questions that should be considered. He referred to the table on page 15 for a list of these questions. On pages 18 and 19 there are suggested criteria in terms of assessing properties that could contain natural areas and wildlife habitat. David Stancil mentioned that a very thorough assessment was just completed of the County's park needs. He said that the criteria for parklands are identified on pages 23-25 of the document. He briefly summarized the management and funding tools of land acquisition. In researching other places around the country, he found that a lot of local governments achieve land acquisitions through the development process. He is proposing that the ERCD and Planning Department staffs work over the next few months to develop a process for addressing acquisitions in this fashion. He referred to section six on page 38 that explains options for land management. The three options that have been identified in the document are land acquisitions through existing County statutory authority, County land trust, and Open Space Authority. He said that there is not a recommendation at this time for land management. He referred to part three of the document on page 47 and said that this section would be developed after initial direction and guidance is received from the County Commissioners and advisory boards. Commissioner Carey made reference to the New Hope corridor open space and asked if any of the land had been acquired. David Stancil said that Durham County has acquired some of the parcels. Commissioner Brown referred to page seven of the document about the wildlife corridor network and asked how this would be done. David Stancil said this process has been incorporated into the comprehensive plan as part of the primary conservation areas and is implemented through the voluntary flexible development program. Commissioner Brown made reference to page nine of the document and asked when the ground water recharge report would come to the County Commissioners. David Stancil said that the report should be finished by August 2000. Commissioner Brown made reference to page 10 and asked David Stancil if he is interested in getting support about connecting the New Hope Corridor system to Eno River State Park. David Stancil said that any guidance would be helpful if the Board sees this as an important area. Commissioner Brown asked about computer issues and if it would help if the ERCD staff attended the IT committee meeting to update the committee on what is happening. She also asked about the priorities on page 18 and the impact of noise and David Stancil said that the impact on natural areas and wildlife habitat from noise is low. Commissioner Brown made reference to page 29 and the payment-in-lieu and asked if David Stancil had a recommendation about when the Board should look at this issue. David Stancil said that the ERCD is going to be convening a group to think about related issues and this group could take the work that was done by the Master Recreation and Parks group and give the Board an assessment of any improvements. In answer to a question from Commissioner Brown, Geoffrey Gledhill said that the land trust for affordable housing has a different purpose, although it has the same corporate structure. He said that the County could not form a nonprofit organization. If the County is going to be the only funding authority for the nonprofit organization, then there is no reason to go to the IRS. Commissioner Brown asked if there could be an outcome so that the Board could see what was being accomplished. She suggested that the baseline indicators should be worked into the document so that forests, farmland, water quality, parks development, etc. could be tracked. David Stancil said that an annual action plan is proposed in the document and the indicators could be folded in very easily. Commissioner Brown asked how the purchase or development of any of the properties would fold into the countywide trail system. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page six and said that he thought some of the land on Seven Mile Creek was considered as County land. David Stancil said that the Seven Mile bottomlands did not extend to the County landholdings. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the New Hope Corridor and said that he would like to make sure this does not fall between the cracks. He made reference to the historic corridor and said that he would like to see a map. On page 12 of the listing of existing coverages, he feels that "watershed" could be broken down more specifically to delineate water quality critical areas. He made reference to page 17 and said that it might be a good idea to continue the relationship the County has started with Duke University. He said that under the intactness priority on page 18 it occurred to him that under the medium priority a statement should be added that says, "other forms of pollution in proximity to dump sites, highways, interstates, and some four-lane highways." He said that for someone who lives near one of these, it is a major impact. He made reference to page 21 and said that he would be interested in exploring the idea that through subdivision regulations and other methods that buffers around historic sites could be provided that are larger than normal. He made reference to page 24, Parklands Acquisition Criteria, and said that watershed protection should be added as one of the criteria. He said that areas that are lightly served or not served for lands that are under County control should be included. He said that he agrees with Commissioner Brown in figuring out what to do with the payment-in-lieu. He also has a question about whether the Recreation Board should be making decisions on whether or not the County will accept land or money. He made reference to page 32 and said that Julie McClintock tried to get officials from around the region to start talking about local options for taxes. He made reference to stewardship and said that he feels there needs to be a plan for County-owned land. He said that there are no restrictions like "no hunting", etc. He said that right now the County's property is indistinguishable from anyone else's property. He said that the standards needed to be determined for the property. He also asked about the direction for the land trust. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the issue of open space is very complex and difficult. In answer to a question from Moses Carey, David Stancil said that there would be sharing of data with Durham and Chatham Counties. Chair Gordon made reference to page 26, and said that she feels it will be a trick to try to balance the general criteria. She made reference to the various options for land management. She mentioned the statement about the Board of County Commissioners being the ultimate decision-maker in land acquisitions, and she feels that this is important for the Board of County Commissioners to pursue. Commissioner Jacobs asked how the Planning Board fits into the Lands Legacy Program. David Stancil explained how the Planning Board would be involved. He said that if land were going to be acquired for resource preservation purposes through the normal process, the Planning Board would be making recommendations. Chair Gordon referred to the Land Management Options on page 38 and said that she preferred option "A", the Lands Legacy Program through Existing County Statutory Authority. Commissioner Carey feels that option "A" is the best option to start with. Commissioner Jacobs said that option "D", Joint Ventures with Existing Land Trusts, would fit very easily with option "A". David Stancil said that there has been a lot of progress made in working with the Triangle Land Conservancy and the Eno River Association. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested informing the legislative delegation of Orange County's resource preservation intentions. Commissioner Jacobs mentioned some federal money that was available in matching funds for resource preservation. Commissioner Carey made reference to the DOT scenic vistas and asked if DOT has criteria for which ones they accept. David Stancil said that he had some introductory information about the DOT criteria, but he did not know the specifics. Commissioner Brown feels that the matching grant funds should be pursued. In answer to a question Commissioner Jacobs had about option "A", David Stancil said that the seller may want to know what the County's use for the property would be and if there is no stated use up front, some indication that it could be used for other purposes later. Commissioner Jacobs asked about how comfortable people would be in conveying land to the County as opposed to soil and water conservation or private land trust. Chair Gordon said that when people have had these concerns, the County did not have this department. David Stancil said that a Use-In-Access policy would address this concern. Commissioner Brown referred to the last objective on page 24. She described a development in Chapel Hill where the basic recreation needs were met. She asked if this could be done in other developments in the County. Craig Benedict said that under the Land Use Plan, a development could have some neighborhood recreation for private and public purposes. Commissioner Carey asked who would make the decision about the land management options and David Stancil said that the Board of County Commissioners would make the decision. He also made reference to page 26 and asked for clarification about the last guideline that states, "previous funding provided for the type of resource." Initials thoughts on the funding sources: Karen Barrows, Chair of the Planning Board, asked about funding and Purchase of Development Rights (PDR). David Stancil said that he was not aware of any initiatives for development acquisition with regards to PDR. Craig Benedict said that the key was to find an area where the density could be increased. John Link said that David Stancil has talked about being clear about the intent of purchasing the property. He said that it is cleaner to talk about just buying the property. Also, he said that the criteria needed to be set up for farmland preservation. The Board discussed TDR, which is in the Board's goals. Commissioner Brown said that if a TDR program were set up, maybe Chapel Hill and Carrboro would be interested. The Board decided to ask the staff to come up with suggestions on the role of County advisory boards, etc., and an augmentation recommendation. 2. Report on Comprehensive Plan Update Planning Director Craig Benedict made a PowerPoint presentation. He said that he would explain the basis of the plan in 1981, and then explain the basis of the new plan. He said that as the development in Orange County increases, the comprehensive plan needs to be more specific. He explained maps of different development scenarios based on transportation, public facilities, and urban areas. He then explained the areas where growth should be discouraged, such as where the soils are not suitable, in protected watersheds, and in protected environmental areas. He then introduced the Planning Department staff. He explained that there was a lack of public facilities in the Bingham Township area. He said that this plan supports the Cane Creek recommendations for environmental and watershed preservation in lowering densities in this area. He referred to page 43 of the agenda abstract. This page explains the different types of comprehensive plans. The plan that is in place now is called a Land Classification Plan. The current plan has strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths of the current plan is that it is a long-range plan. Commissioner Brown said that when she was reading the agenda material on the comprehensive plan, she realized that joint planning agreements with the towns of Hillsborough, Durham, and Mebane needed to be developed. Craig Benedict said that the urban fringe is the most delicate area to study for a comprehensive plan. He said that if an adequate public facilities ordinance is developed, Mebane and Durham should be included. Commissioner Jacobs said that in talking with some of the Hillsborough elected officials today, he thinks Hillsborough is very appreciative of the information that the County developed on the Corbin Downs development. He feels it is a good opportunity to work with Hillsborough, and maybe the starting point could be the Economic Development District. He said that the County could ask Hillsborough to sit with the Commissioners and start to update the County's EDD that has an impact on Hillsborough. Chair Gordon made reference to Hillsborough, Mebane, and Durham and said that she feels it is the right time to start working on inter-jurisdiction planning. John Link said that seven or eight years ago when the Board decided to pursue GIS, it was a good decision that is now beginning to pay off. Craig Benedict explained the values that he used when he did the various maps. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he supported what Hillsborough did in denying Corbin Downs. He said that he would dedicate himself to sitting down with Hillsborough and cooperating on future endeavors. He referred to the traffic problems on US 70 and said that he did not think that it would ever be four lanes. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the timetable for updating the plan. Craig Benedict said that they would set the timetable for each step. He said that before the end of the year there would be a meeting with the Planning Board to refine the comprehensive plan, and then at the first of the year there would be meetings with the Commissioners and the public to discuss the shape of the plan. Commissioner Jacobs asked John Link to contact Hillsborough and meet with them to help Hillsborough understand the EDDs. Chair Gordon said that she thought it would just be helpful to meet with Hillsborough and talk about what the EDD is and not redefine the EDD. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested that John Link bring back some ideas in coordination with the Hillsborough Town Manager. John Link will meet with the Hillsborough staff and go over the presentation of the comprehensive plan. He would also like to see if DOT has the same GIS perspective on doing their plans. The Board discussed looking at the GIS to see if the number of vehicles could be ascertained. 3. Buckhorn Road Economic Development District EDD Chair Gordon referred to the three questions on page two of the agenda abstract which are as follows: 1) First, do you want to utilize the bond funds approved in 1997 ($1.2 million) to provide service to Efland consumers or to engineer the entire system? 2) Second, the Buckhorn Road Economic Development District is currently geared toward industrial uses and does not permit residential uses. Is there a desire to add residential? Is there a desire to have activity zones within the EDD, for example, heavy industrial, light industrial, office zones? 3) Third, Orange Alamance Water is at capacity, with 80 percent of its water going west of Buckhorn Road. Are we to explore options for dealing with water availability in our planning efforts? Chair Gordon said that she thought that it was in the bond brochure that service would be provided to Efland consumers. Craig Benedict said that 1.2 million dollars has to be used to service the people of Efland. The question should be modified to include whether the money should be leveraged to expand the area for water and sewer services to possibly pick up some of the EDDs in the general area. He said that a larger water and sewer system is typically more financially feasible and could lower the rates for everyone in the general area. Craig Benedict made a brief presentation on the Buckhorn Road Economic Development District. He said that at this time, EDDs have primary and secondary sections. Primary means that it is all non-residential, industrial, manufacturing, and commercial. Secondary means that residential uses are allowed. The Board is to consider whether the uses within the EDDs should be broken down to a few different categories (question 2). He said that when the EDD was first proposed in the Buckhorn Road area, it was just north of 1-85, and then it was further modified to include the area just south of 1-85. This issue was brought up because one of the property owners said that there could be no industrial development because there was no water and sewer. At this time, Mebane does not plan to extend water and sewer systems east of Buckhorn Road. He said that Orange Alamance has used up all of the allocations from the reservoirs and cannot extend the system any further. He said that if there was going to be higher residential density, it should be near the interstate where there is water and sewer. Chair Gordon would like some pros and cons of each scenario. She feels there needs to be more structure to the decision making. Craig Benedict will come back to the board with some pros and cons for each question. Commissioner Halkiotis asked for an update on the history of the Efland sewer line and the proposed expenditure for the 1.2 million dollars. He feels this needs to be thought out very carefully. He noted that the 1.2 million dollars would only take care of the remainder of phase one and all of phase two, and there are four phases. John Link said that if a utility line is run past someone's house, the homeowner is charged the minimum whether or not they use it. It needs to be made clear as the County Commissioners make decisions on expanding this utility that it would be run as a utility in the future. Commissioner Carey would like to leverage the 1.2 million dollars to help provide water and sewer to the EDD. He said that inter-basin transfers should be limited. Commissioner Jacobs feels that the 1.2 million dollars should be leveraged to serve the EDD, but water needs to be addressed along with sewer. He asked why the Orange Alamance water system is shipping water to another drainage basin. He would like to get more information about whether the Orange Alamance Water System could be acquired or influenced to keep its water within the basin. Commissioner Brown asked what the people of Efland think. Providing water and sewer could change Efland. She does not think Efland is interested in the impact of increased development. She thinks that the County's service boundary needs to be considered. Regarding the Efland Small Area Plan, she asked if that was in the goals. Craig Benedict said that there are three goals wrapped into one that addressed this concern. This issue is an opportunity to take a look at the small area plan. Commissioner Brown said that Efland is the biggest area for affordable housing. She asked about the applications for septic tanks in the developments in Efland. Craig Benedict said that it is difficult to get an answer. A sewer extension policy on who uses the sewer system and who does not is a very delicate issue. Commissioner Brown feels it is very important to decide what is going to be done. Commissioner Halkiotis said that Efland-Cheeks Elementary School is at capacity. There are a lot of people who do not want Efland to change. He said that the Commissioners should be very careful and revisit the proposal on the Buckhorn Road EDD. Chair Gordon said she feels the County has an obligation to the people they promised to serve, but after that there is not any further obligation. She said that there are a lot of decision points because this is a critical decision. Commissioner Jacobs said that Efland is a fragile community. He suggested looking to see if Efland should be an historic district and protected in its current state and then look beyond that for whether any further services need to be provided. 4. Update on Mebane/Orange Count Planning Coordination John Link will pursue a time for a meeting on the Mebane/Orange County Planning Coordination. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to adjourn the meeting. The next meeting will be held on October 13, 1999 at 8:00 p.m. in the Board room of the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Alice M. Gordon, Chair Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk