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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 02-08-2000Approved May 3, 2000 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION FEBRUARY 8, 2000 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, February 8, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr. and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager 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. Public Hearing Advertisement for February 28, 2000 Planning Director Craig Benedict said that at the February 1St meeting, the Board indicated that they wanted to discuss the Cane Creek cluster development provision before putting it on the agenda for a public hearing. He said that the minutes from the meeting held on October 19, 1999 indicated that this issue was to be brought back to a work session, but did not have to return to a quarterly public hearing. Craig Benedict made reference to the upper Eno watershed, which is the first thing on the public hearing agenda. He suggested that it would be better to present the upper Eno watershed area at the public hearing in May to be sure all the goals are addressed. He said that one of the most important goals which has surfaced is the County's sustainability goals. He suggested that Section Al and A2 be deleted from the public hearing advertisement. He said that in May there would be concurrent land use plan amendments along with recommendations to address the zoning and watershed overlay concerns. There was a consensus that Section Al and A2 would be deleted from the advertisement for the February 28, 2000 Quarterly public hearing. Craig Benedict showed on several small maps the types of soil in the watersheds and streambeds along with figures on population growth that has occurred in the Triangle. Commissioner Brown asked about the water and sewer line extension in Hillsborough and if it encroached on the protected watershed, and Craig Benedict said yes. Commissioner Brown made reference to the cluster development and said she would like to know how the cluster options in the Cane Creek watershed are going to be amended. Craig Benedict made reference to flexible development and said that the one difficulty in the code is that flexible development is allowed to provide at least 33°~ open space. However, there is no incentive far the developer to use a flexible development plan, sa the developer uses the conventional plan that provides no open space. Part of the program for Cane Creek was to allow a lot bonus of 10°~ if a developer had between 33°~ and 50°~ open space. For developments with more than 50°~ open space, a lot bonus of 20% will be allowed. The existing regulations are much more liberal. He continued with presenting more of the pros and cons of flexible development. He said that the previous density in the Cane Creek watershed was 50 lots, and now it is down to 23 lots. Commissioner Brown asked Craig Benedict for a map of the roads that are experiencing an increase in traffic. Commissioner Gordan asked for an explanation to tell the public the revisions of the procedures far concept plan approval. This is on page three of the agenda abstract, under #1, item b and item c. She also asked that the wording for the notices be the same as the explanation far the public hearing advertisement. Commissioner Brown asked if the clusters could be broken down into rural and urban clusters when this is brought back. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the analysis of clusters and recommended making it clear as to what would be done to preserve rural character versus what would be done to achieve other goals. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordan, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to approve the advertisement for the February 28, 2000 quarterly public hearing with the deletion of items Al and A2. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 2. Staff Report an Practices Elsewhere in North Carolina on BOCC Rotation of Officers John Link said that 90°~ of the counties in North Carolina use the same process as Orange County in the selection of the Chair and Vice-Chair. He referred to the material that was distributed to the Board. Chair Carey said that there are a few counties who do rotate their Chair and Vice-Chair, but it is not codified in any way. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested doing a search on NACa's website far how counties across the U. S. select officers. Commissioner Gordon questioned why this is being discussed. Commissioner Halkiotis said that it is being discussed so the Board could be more focused and efficient on agendas. He suggested asking the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board haw they do their election of officers because it seems that that board has been mare defined and focused in the past year. The staff will research NACo's website on how other counties in the U. S. elect officers. 3. Staff Report on BOCC Standing Sub-Committee Options Jahn Link summarized the information he obtained from Catawba and Cumberland Counties. He briefly outlined the main points of the administration's recommendation. The administration recommends that any committee that is undertaking a specific charge by the Board should have two Commissioners or less serving on that committee. Also, the committee should report back periodically to the Board. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the information on the blue sheet that was distributed entitled, "Yet another take on BOCC standing subcommittees." He summarized the following five subcommittees that he proposed: 1) General Operations/Personnel and Facilities/Operations/Internal Relations; 2) Human Outreach/Human Services -education will be included in this subcommittee; 3} Beyond OrangelExternal Relations; 4} Solid Waste, Public Safety, and Environment; and 5) Land Use and Open Space. He suggested that the Commissioners serving on the various subcommittees could rotate every year. He said that the next step would be to adopt some guiding principles on topics and communication. He feels there should be standardized reporting procedures to the Board. Commissioner Gordon made reference to information in the agenda beginning on page six that summarized her proposals, which also included five committees as well as other proposals. She said that at this time the Board has Commissioner task forces. She feels that the purpose of these groups is to increase efficiency. She feels that a Commissioner should not be forced to serve on one of these groups but that it be something the Commissioner is interested in and wants to do. As far as a transition, she feels the task forces that are already formed should continue and new ones could begin as needed. She thinks the two key issues are efficiency and being systematic. She feels that if three County Commissioners want to serve an a subcommittee there should be a work session, and if no commissioners want to serve then there should not be a subcommittee. She said that she tried to structure the proposed committees so that they would address the Commissioners' goals and objectives. She said that she proposes a Public Safety, Public Works, and Solid Waste Committee as opposed to Commissioner Jacobs' proposal of Solid Waste, Public Safety, and Environment. She also proposed a Land Use, Open Space, and Resource Protection Committee. She feels that there should be a definite procedure far assigning groups. Commissioner Halkiotis said that each County Commissioner represents a different perspective. He said that if there was not trust between the people at the table in entrusting their peers to ga out and da something, this would not work. He said that there are the same issues with the Northern Human Services Center today that there was in 1986. He feels that the Commissioners need to empower one another to do things. Chair Carey agrees that if there is not some element of trust with one another to move things along, the Board will not be efficient and get things done. He feels that if there has to be a consensus to refer things, there will not be as many things referred to a subcommittee. He feels that the blue sheet from Commissioner Jacobs reflects everything he would like to incorporate into this process. Commissioner Brown does not support the committee structure but does support the task farces and quick response teams. Commissioner Halkiotis is concerned with how to guarantee that things came to fruition by using the subcommittees. Commissioner Gordon agrees with Commissioner Brown in continuing with the task forces. Jahn Link said that remarkable progress has been made by using the task farce approach to move issues along. He suggested having a running sheet showing the task forces that the County Commissioners have made a commitment to serve on. Chair Carey feels a timeline should be placed on any new task farce or committee. Commissioner Halkiotis feels that the real significance of getting Senator Edwards' support in the CP&L issue is the fact that not only three Orange County Commissioners attended, but also two state legislators and Commissioners from other Counties attended. He feels the Board needs to capitalize on this process. He said that the Board needs to track their goals and objectives on a continuous basis. Commissioner Brown suggested looking at these proposals again at the Board of County Commissioners' goal setting retreat in December and move ahead using what has already been set up for this year and evaluate it before the December retreat. Chair Carey would like to bring the process piece back at the next meeting. He will bring back a recommendation to the Board. 4. Outstanding Issues from January 20. 2444 Retreat _ Review of Selected 1999-2444 Goal Updates Master Aging Plan Task Force Dr. Florence Soltys, Chair of the Aging Board, gave a report of the work done to date by the Master Aging Plan Task Force. She said that there are 1 Q8 people participating on the various committees for the Master Aging Plan. There are three key themes that apply to the three categories of the aging (the well, people who have health issues, and the frail): 1) Information and Communication; 2) Mental Health and Emotional Well Being; and 3) Accessibility, Affordability, Acceptability, and Availability. The Task Force will come back to the Board in May and June with some more specificity and financial issues. She summarized the major issues for each category of the aging. She asked the Board if there were concerns with what the Task Force has done so far. There was a consensus by the Board to move ahead with the next phase of the Master Aging Plan. Affordable Housina Commissioner Brown feels that now is a great opportunity to develop along-range affordable housing plan. She said that she asked Housing and Community Development Director Tara Fikes to develop a draft plan. She made reference to the proposed affordable housing summit scheduled for March 15tH Commissioner Halkiotis said that the issue of repayment of appreciated value has not been addressed sufficiently. Commissioner Jacobs would like to have an advisory board that includes representatives from the various stakeholders including the elderly and handicapped. Commissioner Brown suggested appointing the advisory board after the summit. Commissioner Brown and Commissioner Jacobs will meet as an ad hoc committee to finalize the proposed affordable housing summit and came up with a framework for consideration of the applications which were tabled with the idea that the framework would be developed to identify the information the Board needs from the applicant. John Link said that he would be meeting soon with Geoffrey Gledhill and Tara Fikes to develop a clear rationale for the equity of the subsidy repayment. Commissioner Gordon feels that the Board should solve the problem of how to ensure long-term affordability before the applications are considered. The Board decided to adopt along-term housing affordability policy before considering any other projects. Commissioner Jacobs asked that the Communication goal and the charge to the Solid Waste Advisory Board be on one of the next two meeting agendas. He is also concerned about an outreach plan for the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. 5. WaterlSewer Boundary Task Force Chair Carey and Commissioner Gordon reviewed the Water and Sewer Boundary Agreement and identified the major outstanding issues. Chair Carey and Commissioner Gordon did not have an opportunity to meet with the Hillsborough Town Board. Chair Carey said that no decisions would be made until the Hillsborough Town Board and OWASA considered this agreement. Commissioner Gordon said that her initial position was to support the original agreement. She suggested that the Board review the document and come up with something that the Commissioners could support. The County Commissioners decided to go through the document and discuss the parts that have been changed. Commissioner Brown asked why Chapel Hill and Carrboro were deleted from the bottom of page eight regarding the adherence to boundaries. Commissioner Jacobs said that the Board prefers that any extension of lines or service into Chatham County should have the approval of Orange County, Chatham County, and OWASA. He said that he would be willing to settle for Orange County, Chatham County, OWASA, and the appropriate jurisdiction on that side of the line. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the bottom of page 13 where the statement, "or serve another essential public facility" was added. She said that the issue was the perception of what might lead to sprawl. Chair Carey said that a lot of time was spent an this issue and it had to do mainly with the placement of schools. Commissioner Jacobs clarified that it was not that the lines were going to be extended to serve a public facility, it was whether the line that was extended to address an adverse public health condition would be sized so as to prohibit even a public facility from having access to it. He said that the next item, E, was saying that the Board's preference was to have these facilities sited where public facilities were readily available. Commissioner Gordan made a suggestion an page 13, item C, to change the statement, "to comply with state technical and engineering standards." Geoffrey Gledhill will research item F and the Board will discuss it at a later time. Commissioner Jacobs said that there should be some tracking so that the water provider has to report to the staff what is happening. Several suggestions were made by the County Commissioners and Hated by the County Manager. The staff will bring back a recommendation on haw to proceed with this document. Chair Carey said that he would share the recommendation with the Mayors which will include some reference to OWASA as it relates to emergency water transfers and exempting Hillsborough. ADJOURNMENT With no further items to consider, a motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 10:35. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, February 10, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. Moses Carey, Jr., Chair Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk