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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 09-15-2011 APPROVED 10/18/2011 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEBANE CITY COUNCIL Joint Meeting September 15, 2011 6:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in a joint dinner meeting with the City of Mebane on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. in the West Campus Office Building — Lower Level Conference Room 004, 131 West Margaret Lane, Hillsborough, NC. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier and Commissioners Valerie Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, Barry Jacobs, Pam Hemminger, Earl McKee, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Frank Clifton, Assistant County Managers Michael Talbert and Gwen Harvey, and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below); Craig Benedict, Perdita Holtz, Steve Brantley, Dottie Schmitt CITY OF MEBANE COUNCILMEMBERS: Glendel Stephenson - Mayor, Patty Philipps - Mayor Pro-Tem, Tim Bradley, Ed Hooks, Everette Greene and Jill Auditori CITY OF MEBANE STAFF PRESENT: Robert Wilson- City Manager, David Cheek- Assistant City Manager, Charles Bateman- City Attorney, Stephanie Shaw- City Clerk, Darrell Russell- City Engineer, Wayne Pore-Assistant Public Works Director, and Montrena Hadley- Planning Director Oranqe County Representative to the City of Mebane Planninq Board: Thomas Fenske NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. INTRODUCTION OF ELECTED OFFICIALS AND STAFF City of Mebane: Mayor Glendel Stephenson Orange County: Chair Bernadette Pelissier, Board of County Commissioners UPDATES AND ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION: Overview by Frank W. Clifton, Orange County Manager and Robert Wilson City of Mebane Manager 1. ORANGE COUNTY LAND USE AND UTILITY DISCUSSIONS— County and City Staff work items: (Craig Benedict & Darryl Russell [AWCK]) A. Buckhorn area utility design study and funding scenarios. B. Utility services agreement between Mebane and Orange County. C. Efland sewer flows and potential for future contract between Mebane and Orange County for maintenance/operation of the sewer system. [The system is now maintained by Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA)] D. Land use and zoning. Frank Clifton introduced Steve Brantley, Economic Development Director. Steve Brantley said that next week he will begin working as an employee of Orange County along with Dottie Schmitt. He is a Durham native. He gave his credentials. He said that earlier today he met with some people from a Japanese industry that were interested in some properties in Mebane, particularly the Oakwood area. He said that it is hard to find outstanding properties that are close to an interstate and an airport and it would be enjoyable for him to introduce some of these contact companies to Orange County. Commissioner McKee arrived at 6:25 PM. Frank Clifton said that he and Mebane City Manager Robert Wilson have been working together a lot on some economic development projects. Robert Wilson said that the staff has been working hard on this issue. He made reference to the packet and said that he provided some ideas of things that could take place along the corridor of Mebane and Efland. There is a lot of property in this area that could be developed. He said that Steve Brantley brings a lot to Orange County. He said that Mebane wants to work with Orange County and not against it. Craig Benedict showed some pictures of the potential plan. He said that the most important part of this is that this can only be achieved through intergovernmental coordination. Orange County does not have utilities and this is a prerequisite to focusing growth in the right place. He said that the staff took into account the typography of the land, the streams, the property lines, the regulations, etc. There are several scenarios and this is just a concept plan. The Mattress Factory interchange is going to be a very important component for this area. Areas B and C, which amount to about 1,200 acres, are part of the existing agreement that was adopted in March 2004 with Mebane to allow the utilities to service this area. More recently, 423 acres were added into an economic development zone. He showed more examples of what might be in this area. Retail is not suggested in this area because direct access to the interstate is not easy. Frank Clifton said that he and Robert Wilson, the Mayor, and the Chair had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and the position that the County Commissioners have taken on the utility infrastructure is the County's advance funding for these systems, and when the system is installed, then Mebane would take ownership of it and the County becomes responsible for the debt service until it is paid for. One of the important things is that with the '/4-cent sales tax, it would generate $2.5 million per year in Orange County and the County Commissioners have dedicated half of that to economic development over the next ten years. He said that it would be good for the City of Mebane to endorse this concept for the residents of Mebane that are in Orange County. Craig Benedict continued showing overview maps of the water and sewer plans. 2. COLLABORATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES — How Staffs may assist with economic development efforts beneficial to both Mebane and Orange County. (Robert Wilson) Robert Wilson said that the City of Mebane has been looking at these areas for years for utilities. He said that he thinks that everyone is seeing that Mebane and Orange County are working together to come up with something. Tim Bradley asked how, long term, they would decide issues like zoning when certain industries come in. He asked if there would be a process for determining how to resolve questions about whether an area can be annexed, etc. Robert Wilson said that Mebane's policy will be in place and when they take control of a parcel, they will take control of the zoning, etc. He said that once they annex, the general statute gives the City this authority. If a company wanted to come into the joint planning areas, these issues would need to be drafted out for the elected officials to approve. Tim Bradley said that when a company builds and taps into their sewer, then the city would need to bring this land into the city. He said that this is great and exciting, but he wants a process in place when the time comes. Frank Clifton said that he and Robert Wilson have talked, and the original agreement between the entities worked for smaller term plans, but for a greater area, they will need to work out an agreement. The State has changed some annexation laws, but this will have to be negotiated with the State. He said that the County wants to be fairly selective and work with the Department of Commerce. Anyone is welcome to come and look. Darrell Russell, City of Mebane Engineer, said that in conversations with the County's Design Engineer, the preliminary design is based on primarily low water use type industries. Craig Benedict said that no matter what happens, there will have to be a utility service agreement between Orange County and Mebane. Ed Hook asked about the '/4-cent sales tax and if there would be a presentation to the City Council. Frank Clifton said that he would work with Robert Wilson on presenting something so that the Council can endorse it. 3. ORANGE AND ALAMANCE COUNTY LINE UPDATE— County staff will summarize the status of this project and schedule for further actions. (Craig Benedict) Craig Benedict said that over the last few years they have been trying to define the 1849 county line. Based on recent legislation, 91% of the line has been agreed upon. This leaves 9%, which was a separate local bill. The county attorneys have been working together to resolve this. This 9% is within five different sections of the county. There are modifications in North Orange subdivision, a minor modification on Ninth Street, Mebane I-85/40 LLC just north of Tanger, the Tanger project, Collington Farms, Arlington Fontaine, and an area south on Mebane Oaks. On October 17th in Alamance County and October 18th in Orange County, there will be public hearing. The local bill for the 9% was not as criteria intensive as the other bill. Craig Benedict made reference to the Mill Creek and the Morrow Mill section. Some deviations were made that lie outside the 91% and the 9%. It is the intent that after the 100% is resolved, that specific petitions will come forward from those two areas and can be focused and isolated with new legislative bills that would have to be agreed upon or not on both sides of the line and submitted independent of this process. Letters have been written from the Board of County Commissioners' Chair to the residents of the area explaining this process. Frank Clifton continued to explain this process for these two areas to make separate petitions. In answer to a question about the Efland sewer, Frank Clifton said that ultimately there will be 400 sewer customers. The specifics will be sent to Mebane. He said that all of the discussions that the County has had with the people in that area have led the County to follow the Mebane outside-the-city rate and there should be no problems. The groundbreaking is supposed to be October 21St Robert Wilson said that these customers could not be annexed if Mebane wanted to because they are six miles outside of the city limits. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the Efland-Mebane Small Area Plan in 2004 and said that the Mebane elected officials kept assuring the Efland residents that Mebane had no intention of annexing Efland. He also remembers after the meeting last year, he and Tim Bradley exchanged some emails about farmland preservation. He said that they are looking at all of the economic development opportunities. He would like to step back and look at the entire picture of the joint borders. He said that Orange County can work on farmland preservation, extend trails, and work on recreation opportunities, and those are not in this picture. He said that it would be nice to have a joint vision that has been articulated and perhaps put on a map that everyone agrees with. He suggested bringing something back by next year's meeting. Tim Bradley agreed and said that there are a lot of things that both parties could collaborate on besides just economic development. Commissioner Yuhasz said that it is good to have a shared vision, but he does not want to hinder the growth potential of Mebane. Chair Pelissier said that she sees a lot of head nods. 4. REGIONAL TRANSIT AND TRANSPORTATION PLANNING ITEMS — A. County staff update on evolving plans related to the Regional Transit Plan and how it may impact Orange County and Mebane. (Craig Benedict & Frank Clifton) Craig Benedict said that this is an update on regional planning efforts. He said that Orange County is part of the Triangle and the Triad. He said that Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties were given the opportunity to proceed with a regional transit tax of %2 cent that would bring light rail to the Triangle from Raleigh to Durham and Orange County and enhanced bus service. The County Commissioners decided that the timing was not right for this tax at this election. Part of the plan did include the participation of Mebane staff to figure out how things could connect from Mebane through Hillsborough and Durham. The suggestion was a regional express route that would tie into the Piedmont Area Rapid Transit, which comes through Graham and then down 54 to Chapel Hill. There are continued discussions about bridging between the Triad and the Triangle. B. Burlington-Graham MPO and Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO (open) Chair Pelissier asked about the two MPO's and how this gets communicated to the Burlington Graham MPO. She does not understand the relationship between the Durham- Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO and the Burlington-Graham MPO. Craig Benedict said that he thinks there needs to be improvement in this communication between the two MPO's. He said that his staff attended the meeting in Burlington-Graham about a month ago and heard a presentation from the Department of Transportation, which is the overview authority of the boundaries of MPO's. He thinks that this was the beginning of dialogue with Burlington-Graham. The recommendation that came forward from the Department of Transportation was to leave the boundaries the way they are at this time, analyze census data that will be coming out early next year, look at the boundaries and find out what areas are urban and not, and how best a line can be defined and communication improved. Ed Hooks said that with Mebane, it is difficult to be in two MPOs. There is a good relationship with the Burlington-Graham MPO. He said with what they have discussed tonight, and with the emphasis on economic development, he sees that it may be a good thing for this part of Orange County to be in the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO. He said that they could work it out. Commissioner Gordon said that it is a good idea to improve the dialogue between the two MPOs. Chair Pelissier thanked the staff in Orange County and the City of Mebane for all of their hard work to help the collaboration between the two entities. OTHER TOPICS, DISCUSSION AND FUTURE MEETING OPTIONS: 1. OTHER (open) Chair Pelissier said that Commissioner Jacobs had suggested talking about land use issues at their next meeting. Commissioner Jacobs said that he hoped that the two entities would talk before next year about this topic. Frank Clifton suggested that the two staffs starting looking at the two zoning issues for each entity. ADJOURNMENT With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 PM. Bernadette Pelissier, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board