HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20030429APPROVED 6/26/2003
MINUTES
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ASSEMBLY OF GOVERNMENTS
APRIL 29, 2003
The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session for an
Assembly of Governments meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2Q03 at 7:3Q p.m. at the
Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret Brown and
Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, Stephen Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs
COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and S. Sean Borhanian
COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County
Managers Rod Visser and Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All
other staff members will be identified appropriately below)
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Kevin C. Foy and
members Flicka Bateman, Pat Evans, Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt, Jim Ward, Edith
Wiggins, Bill Strom
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Dorothy Verkerk
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Jacquelyn Gist,
Diana McDuffee, Alex Zaffron, Joal Hall Broun and Mark Dorosin
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS ABSENT: Mayor Mike Nelson
and John Herrera
HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Mayor Joe Phelps and
members Frances L. Dancy, ,Mark Sheridan,
HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Michael Gering, Kenneth
Chavious and Evelyn Lloyd
NOTE: All other participants are listed in the text as appropriate.
Chapel Hill - Carrboro City Schools -Board Members: Gloria Foley and Maryanne
Rosen
Orange County Schools- Board Members: Brenda Stephens, Randy Copeland,
Libbie Hough
NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE
PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE.
(EMS, police, fire}. He said that the system they have now has very little
interoperability. There are different channels far each one and this wastes time.
Commissioner Jacobs asked Nick Waters to address the 911 fees on the
telephone bills and the limitations of how this money is used. Nick Waters said
that there are two fees. One is on the land telephone and is a 50-cent 911 fee.
Another fee is on the cell phone and is 80 cents. These funds come to Orange
County, but are restricted by law as to what they can be used for. The 50 cents
can only be used for database management and to support incoming enhanced
911 calls. The $0 cents is even more restrictive to the County's use. They are
trying to lobby to release these funds for other uses.
3. School Merger Goal
Chair Brawn said that she wanted all to know what this goal is. She made
reference to attachment three.
Commissioner Carey said that the information in the packet does
represent the actions that the Board of County Commissioners has taken thus
far. There has been no decision to merge the school systems. There has been
only information gathering by the staff and a report is due back in late August.
The report is important and it will educate the elected officials and the public on
the merger issue. After this report, the Board of County Commissioners will
engage in dialogue with both school boards. He said that the Board of County
Commissioners would seek out public input with this decision as with other major
decisions. The decision to merge, if there is one, will come later.
4. School Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO}
Planning Director Craig Benedict said that in February during the
presentation to the Town of Carrboro, there were some issues that came up in
the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City School District. One was that the high school
would be over capacity in the short term, and the middle school would be over
capacity in the long term. There was also an issue about the specific mechanics
of the SAPFO Certificate of Adequate Public Schools (CAPS} system. The staff
has met with attorneys, school board representatives, local governments, and
planning directors to try and address these issues. Far the high school level in
CHCCS, they are suggesting that there be a suspension to the adequacy tests
for high schools until new space is available. This is similar to what is being
done for the OCS middle school level. Far the middle school level in the
CHCCS, the school system has added their plans in the CI P.
Concerning the mechanics of the CAPS, they met with attorneys to draft
explanations for implementation for the SAPFO. They believe that all of the
issues have been resolved. There is one more letter that is going out to the
Town of Hillsborough regarding the impact on Mebane and Durham within the
OCS district. The SAPFO should be ready far implementation in June of this
year.
Chair Brown made reference to a letter that was sent to the Town of
Carrboro and copied to everyone else. She distributed it to those who had not
seen it yet.
Commissioner Gordon explained the student population projection charts
that had been distributed.
Alex Zaffron asked Acting Manager of Carrbaro Mike Brough for any
comments about the adjustments. Mike Brough said that he will be speaking to
the Carrboro Tawn Attorney and there will be some changes. He said that the
ball is in his court.
5. Countywide Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan -Dave Stancil,
County Environment and Resource Conservation Director
Dave Stancil distributed information on this. He made reference to the
proposal for an Early Action Compact last year and the impending designation of
the Triangle region as anon-attainment area for ground level ozone. He said
that this would probably became a reality in April of next year. The first issue in
the memo is that each of the local governments is responsible for preparing an
emissions inventory and an action plan to reduce emissions in the jurisdictions.
The jurisdictions could prepare this separately, or the work could be combined to
pursue a joint emissions inventory. The second issue in the memo is the
designation in April 2004 of the Triangle region as non-attainment for ozone.
Once this happens, there will be about a year to develop transportation
conformity analyses and by 2007 the State will have to submit a program to EPA
that shows how we are going to meet our goals and get into compliance with the
eight hour ozone standard.
The staffs have met and talked about how to join together to address the
data collection needs. He explained the opportunities for working jointly with the
jurisdictions, which are in the memo. He said that there is an opportunity for a
State energy program grant for the cost of this program. However, the
applications are due in two weeks. If this is of interest, a tentative decision will
have to be made as to the joint initiative.
Commissioner Jacobs asked if there had been any discussion about trying
to get an ozone monitor in Orange County. Dave Stancil said that that was one
of the recommendations in the State of the Environment Report that was just
released. Most of the contributing factors to the emissions are the adjoining
counties and they do have monitors. He thinks it would be worthwhile to get a
monitor for Orange County.
Alex Zaffron said that all jurisdictions would need to play a part in meeting
the air quality conformity. He said that coordinated efforts would be very
important in meeting the goals and mandates.
Commissioner Halkiotis said that the proposed investment of $11,718 to
be split is a small price to pay for the potential that this position could afford us.
Dave Stancil pointed out that this is aver two fiscal years.
Chair Brown asked who would coordinate the grant and Dave Stancil said
that Judy Kincaid with the Durham County Environmental Affairs Board (EAB}
would be preparin~q the grant application. He needs to give her a sense of
interest by May 13 ".
Chair Brown asked Dave Stancil to send the information to the mayors to
see if there is interest.
Bill Strom said that a quarterly joint planning report that will list pending
items would be very helpful.
Chair Brown asked who would create the document and Bill Strom said
whomever the staff decides.
Chair Brown clarified that we are asking the managers to came up with a
process and a quarterly joint planning report on issues that are pending.
The reports will not be emailed.
Hillsborough will be included in the joint planning process also.
Each jurisdiction voted separately on this issue:
The motion is as follows: That the Managers of Orange County, Chapel
Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough will develop a process to inform each board of
pending joint planning issues. Also, a quarterly report of these joint-planning
issues with action dates will be given to each board.
Town of Chapel Hill:
Motion - Flicka Bateman
Second -Jim Ward
VOTE: UNANMOUS
Board of County Commissioners:
Motion -Commissioner Halkiotis
Second -Commissioner Jacobs
Commissioner Jacobs said that one pending item he would like to see on
the agenda from the County's perspective is if there were any contemplations of
changes in zoning south of Chapel Hill where it had been downzoned. He said
that there was discussion about whether some of it should became rural buffer.
He said that this was never resolved.
Commissioner Gordon pointed out that there is one joint planning
agreement between Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County and another
between Orange County and Hillsborough.
VOTE: UNANIMOUS
Town of Carrboro:
Motion -Diana McDuffee
Second - Joal Hall Broun
VOTE: UNANIMOUS
Town of Hillsborough:
There was no quorum. It will be forwarded to the Town Board for approval.
7. Informational Items
a) open Space Provisions in Recently Adopted Rural Buffer
Zoning District Amendments
Craig Benedict said that previously Urange County had in its zoning
code atwo-acre minimum lot size and in its subdivision code it had only one type
of option that was mandated by the code - a conventional option. There was not
a requirement for open space. other rural sections of the County had the
provision of providing a conventional (no open space required) and a flexible
open space plan where 33% open space was required. Based an some
development that has occurred in the rural buffer without the open space
provision, the staff thought it would be better to have the option in the rural buffer.
This would still require atwo-acre minimum lot size but require 33% open space
beyond the two-acre minimum lot size. If a flexible open space plan is provided,
it reduces density in the area from one unit per two acres to one unit per three
acres if this option is chosen.
The staff also looked at how neighbors were notified in the rural
buffer compared to other sections of the County. The neighborhood information
meeting is now required in the rural buffer. They are also putting signage on the
property. These provisions were brought forward to public hearing and the local
governments in the joint planning area were notified. There were na comments.
The amendments were adopted a few months ago.
b} Southern Human Services Center Grounds and Pond - Ameri-
Carps Volunteers
Chair Brown said that she put this on the agenda because she has
been asked about the house on this property a number of times. There have
been some funds available to put on a new roof and keep it maintained. The
County Commissioners would like to refurbish and provide a public meeting
place. The County recently received a grant from Ameri-corps.
Dave Stancil said that a group of 12 volunteers from Ameri-corps
came from January 15th to the end of February. The group constructed trails and
did a trail connector into the Horace Williams Tract and cleaned up around the
house.
c) School Siting Proposal
Commissioner Jacobs said that there is a brief document - 7-c -,
which talks about the flaws in the statutory process by which schools are sited.
The County Commissioners considered this worthy of further discussion on
whether or not to pursue putting together a memorandum of understanding. This
would propose that the planning staffs and other staffs would work together and
get out front of the school siting process and try and develop a proactive plan on
where we are likely to site schools for the next ten years. This would be using
the knowledge and expertise of land use planners who are already employed by
the municipalities. It would be similar to the way joint planning is done. The
exempting certain deserving groups, but she hopes this will not exempt groups
that should pay.
Commissioner Jacobs said that the differential fees sound like
QWASA's discussions about paying for cast of service and then backing away
from it and how to adjust the rates - a tax or a fee. He said that same of the
sizes of the funds are based on large ticket items that the Board has not
discussed yet. These fees are including a lot of assumptions that look like lots of
money.
Bill Strom said it is good to know that the Board of County
Commissioners is still in the early stages of this. Regarding "pay as you throw",
he said that in order to attain the higher volumes of recycling, there should be
enhancements to recycling and possibly roll carts for recycling.
Chair Brown asked that these items be put in writing so that the
County Commissioners can factor them into the discussions.
e) Carolina North
Chair Brown said that this item was a result of a conversation with
the Mayors. This property used to be called the Horace Williams Tract and the
University has changed the name to Carolina North. She made reference to a
document from Carrboro.
Carrboro Planning Director Ray Williford said that the information
was from a request from Mayor Nelson. There have been committees formed
with the goal of formulating a final plan by the fall for this property.
Diana McDuffee said that Carrboro has not been very involved in
these committees. She is on two committees but has been unable to attend on
short notice. There are two other citizens that were appointed, but she did not
see their names on the committee list. They also wanted Mayor Nelson on the
Infrastructure Committee, but he is not on this. She does not know what is going
on.
Roy Williford said that the information on the committees came
from the website.
Alex Zaffron said that this illustrates a lack of transparency in the
process.
Mayor Foy said that Chapel Hill is participating in two committees -
the University's committee and the Council's committee. He made reference to
attachment E, which outlines Chapel Hill's concerns. They anticipate that the
University will come forward with a request for something firm with regard to the
development process within the next year.
Jim Ward said that the whole committee has not met since the first
meeting. The University has four major committees and mare sub-committees
and it is hard to feel on top of issues. He said that it is a very diffuse process.
Bill Strom said that he is a member of the Chapel Hill committee
and the goal is to have some town-created principles with which the University's
proposal can be compared. He asked Roy Williford if there was going to be a
final plan in the fall. Roy Williford said that he got his information from the
website.
Bill Strom said that he would be surprised if they were still on the
same timeline because he had no sense that this was going to be drawn together
by the fa II .
Jim Ward said that something is going to be drawn together by the
end of May because the current committees are going to be asked to submit their
final presentations by that time.
Flicka Bateman said that her committee has been meeting steadily
and that their report is due this summer and some broad report will come out in
the fall. They are anticipating that this will be a long process.
Commissioner Gordon said that she wandered if anyone knows if
they are actually going to adopt a plan at the University level this time. She has
been involved in two other studies in the past.
Jim Ward said that a couple of things have changed - a
commitment of UNC to close Horace Williams airport and getting serious about
cleaning up the chemical waste site. He thinks something will be built here within
ten years.
Chair Brown said that she and Commissioner Jacobs sit on
committees for this plan.
A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by
Commissioner Gordon to adjourn the meeting at 9:05 p.m.
VOTE: UNANIMOUS
Margaret Brown, Chair
Donna S. Baker
Clerk to the Board
1. Emergencv Evacuation Plan -Nick Waters, Emergency Management
Director -combined items one and two
2. Emergencv Communications Study
Deputy Director of EMS Kent McKenzie made the presentation. He said
that the first study was a joint project with Guilford, Alamance, Durham,
Chatham, Wake, and Johnston Counties. The purposes of the study were to
provide recommendations for addressing terrorism, to identify a comprehensive
management strategy for mass casualty situations, and to provide an analysis of
terrorist tactics and targets. The study identified 3,776 licensed hospital beds in
the region and 4,829 licensed physicians in the study area. The study identified
that there were no existing regional evacuation plans ar routes, na identified
reception areas, and based on DOT flow formulae, immediate evacuation is not
possible. The evacuation time for the entire region is flue to six days. Also,
immediate or large-scale quarantine may be impossible because of too many
control points, too many non-system access routes, limited local public health
personnel, and too few law enforcement officers. In conclusion, this study found
that our region is at risk far all types of terrorism, that there might not be enough
hospital beds to handle the number of casualties, that evacuation might take a
week or more, and that there is inadequate communication and very limited
interoperability at the regional response level.
The second study, the Consolidated Communications Study, was
approved by County Commissioners in June 2001 to examine existing
communication systems. This is an overview of phase I of this study. As part of
this study, public safety and other stakeholders were interviewed throughout the
County. Existing communications equipment was also examined. It was found
that there are limited redundant communications, very limited local
interoperability, na regional interoperability, inadequate mobile and portable radio
coverage, channel crowding and congestion, and very little compatibility with new
technology. The follow-up recommendation is to execute phase II, part I of this
study. Phase II involves re-interviewing public safety agencies to determine
current and future functional needs, examining interoperability and technology
requirements, and designing a system to meet public safety demands for the
next ten years. Phase II has not yet been funded. The complete text of both of
the study documents is available an the County's website at
www.co.orange.nc.us/ems.
EMS Director Nick Waters said that it is critical that we start addressing
the communication needs over the next five years. The existing technology is 20
years old. He said that there is a recommendation in the budget for the funding
for phase II.
Jacquelyn Gist asked where all of the homeland security money is. Nick
Waters said that it comes in different farms -fire grants and law enforcement.
EMS has received one grant for $50,000 for protection far first responders and
they bought masks. They did also apply for a one million dollar grant for
communication assistance but it was denied.
Chair Brawn asked Nick Waters to talk about problems with
communication because the different systems are not compatible with each other
6. Chapel Hill Northern Transition Area Amendments
Mayor Foy distributed some information. He said that Chapel Hill adopted
a new comprehensive plan in 2000 and there are still same outstanding issues
that they wanted to raise with their colleagues. The memo describes the issues.
The last issue is the joint planning annexation provisions, which Carrboro and
grange County also need to discuss and decide.
The second issue is the Greene Tract. Mayor Foy said that part of the
reason he thinks the County did not approve the joint planning agreement is
because the Greene Tract was still an the table. Naw it is not on the table in the
same way.
Chair Brawn said that she thought the Board did pass the annexation
provision of the joint planning agreement.
Craig Benedict said that the County had passed the annexation
provisions. The only other issue is that we are waiting for the Greene Tract work
group to come up with the uses for the tract. The plan that was adopted by
Chapel Hill and Carrboro for this area specified housing and open space. Naw
the uses are affordable housing, open space, and County use. There should be
consistent definitions and land use designations far these areas.
Chair Brown asked to send to Chapel Hill the information concerning when
the County had passed the agreement to extend the annexation provisions far 20
years.
Mayor Foy said that Chapel Hill and the County have agreed to extend it,
but he does not know about Carrboro. All three parties need to agree.
Interim Carrboro Manager Mike Brough said that the annexation
agreement is not done yet and they will schedule it as soon as possible.
Craig Benedict said that he would take the advisory work group's
recommendation that has been approved by all three parties and put it in the final
adopted joint planning area land use map.
Alex Zaffron verified that they have agreed upon the policy but the staff
needs to clarify the definitions for final approval.
Chapel Hill Planning Director Roger Waldon said that it is important to
Chapel Hill that this is taken care of because the comprehensive planning
designations in the transition area do not apply yet because the joint planning
area has not been amended to reflect the designations.
Flicka Bateman suggested that all managers come up with a process to
make sure that they have a structured way to know when items like these come
up.
Chair Brawn asked if all the managers meet and John Link said that they
meet every month.
John Link said that he would ask Craig Benedict to do this and the County
staff would be glad to set up a process.
Flicka Bateman said that she would like a quarterly report with a list of
items and action dates.
municipalities should indicate in the near future whether they would be willing to
devote some staff time to participating in this kind of an effort and MOU.
Commissioner Carey said that OCS is looking at middle school
sites and the Board of County Commissioners and the OCS Board need to
schedule a meeting within the next month.
d) Solid Waste Alternative Financing
Rod Visser said that each of the four jurisdictions have received a
presentation from the SWAB. The SWAB has worked on recommendations on
what is needed to supplement the existing solid waste revenue structure. The
goal is to do something different from relying on tipping fees to pay far the entire
solid waste operation, including the very successful recycling program. The
SWAB has developed same proposals for the County Commissioners to
consider, but the Board has not had the opportunity to discuss it in depth. The
County Commissioners would like feedback from the other jurisdictions.
Jacquelyn Gist, a member of the SWAB, encouraged all to look
closely at the proposal to have the availability fee. She said that she is in the
minority and in favor of exempting from the fee structure non-profit organizations
that own and operate multi-family housing. She said that once you get up to
$120/year, the non-profit would be billed for all of the units. If you raise these
fees on all non-profits, then they will come to the local governments and others to
get money to pay for these fees. The other thing about the availability fee is that
it is not a tax and it will allow them to exempt people from these fees. She asked
the County Commissioners to consider this.
Mayor Foy said that the Town of Chapel Hill has been looking into
the "pay as you throw" system as a way to decrease the amount of solid waste
generated and increase the amount of recycling. Over the last couple of years,
because of the transition to County management of the solid waste system, they
have held off on instituting the system. They anticipated that it would increase
recycling to the level that they might not be able to handle. They would like to
move forward with this system and for the County to consider this.
Diana McDuffee said that the Town of Carrboro was urging the
County Commissioners to go ahead and implement the full fee as soon as
possible and eliminate the tip fee that the towns pay. She asked about the status
of what the County Commissioners are thinking now.
Chair Brown said that there have been no decisions yet.
John Link said that the Manager's Budget would propose a menu of
options to the Board of County Commissioners. One option is to have no fees on
July 1St and enact a fee later on. The Board of County Commissioners will have
a list of options, but the staff does not recommend that the Board of County
Commissioners raise the tipping fees.
Diana McDuffee said that in Carrboro, they have looked at moving
the charges for collection out of the tax base and they are interested in how the
Board of County Commissioners would handle the solid waste fee. She said that
they are interested in the opportunities that implementing this fee allows for