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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20060921APPROVED 11!14!2006 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ASSEMBLY OF GOVERNMENTS September 21, 2006 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session far an Assembly of Governments meeting an Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen Halkioits COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Rod Visser and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below} CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Kevin C. Foy and Members Sally Greene, Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt, Jim Ward, Laurin Easthom, Bill Strom, and Bill Thorpe CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Cam Hill and Dorothy Verkerk CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Mark Chilton and Members Joal Hall Broun, Dan Coleman, and Randee Haven-O'Donnell CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS ABSENT: Alex Zaffron, Jacquelyn Gist, and John Herrerra HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Members Evelyn Lloyd, Frances Dancey, Brian Lowen, Michael Gering and Eric Hallman NOTE: All other participants are listed in the text as appropriate. NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. 1. Call to Order and Introductions Chair Jacobs called the meeting to order Mayor Foy welcomed all and introduced Chapel Hill's new Town Manager Roger Stancil. 2. Greene Tract Status Rod Visser said that the two main issues are related to reimbursement of the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund for the Greene Tract and conservation easements in the Greene Tract property. He said that as part of the 1999 interlocal agreement between the governing bodies related to solid waste management in Orange County, the 164-acre parcel of the Greene Tract adjacent to the existing landfill was the subject of discussion. Sixty acres of the parcel was titled over to Orange County as part of the agreement upon which Orange County began to conduct solid waste management oversight starting in 2000. The remaining 104 acres of the property remain in joint holding between the County and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The percentage holdings based on the initial investment and the acquisition price of the Greene Tract in 1984 are 43°~ for Orange County, 43°~ for the Town of Chapel Hill, and 14°~ for the Town of Carrboro. After the interlocal agreement was signed, it was determined that there needed to be a disposition as to what would happen to the remaining 104 acres that were jointly held. In 2001-2002, a series of meetings were held with elected officials and staff, and the group adapted a resolution that 18 acres of the 104 should be earmarked for future affordable housing purposes, and 86 acres should remain as open space protected by conservation easements. There was same discussion about how the formal recording of the conservation easement by all three jurisdictions would become the triggering mechanism for the reimbursement to the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund based on the proportional shares of ownership of the property. One consideration is when the conservation easements are implemented, that the reimbursement could be made to the fund over some period of time or as a lump sum. The landfill will reach capacity in 2010, so the County will have to move to a transfer station operation by then and the reimbursement would help a lot in this operation. Since 2005, the staff has had conversations with representatives of the Triangle Land Conservancy about their potential interest in holding 4t" party conservation easements on the 86 acres. TLC also expressed interest in having the County's 60 acres also being placed into conservation. The formal position being taken by the board of directors of TLC is that it supports TLC's participation in the Greene Tract transaction conditional upon the parties placing conservation easements on the jointly owned parcel or agree to give up development rights to the parcels. Secondly, Orange County is to agree to place its contiguous parcel into conservation either through an easement or through enrollment into the Land's Legacy program. Finally, that the government entities cover all the transaction and stewardship costs related to maintaining those 86 acres in open space under conservation easements. Mayor Chilton asked far an update from Chapel Hill an the small area planning process. Bill Strom said that he is a council representative an the Greene TractlRogers Road Small Area Planning effort, and they have been working with staff and maps. This group is trying to set dates to meet with representatives from each jurisdiction that will be involved in the process. He said that the Greene Tract/Rogers Road SAP group should have a plan for the area in close to a year. Mayor Foy said that the major issue for Chapel Hill and Carrboro is money and they should try to have a plan by budget time if they are going to do anything this fiscal year. Chair Jacobs said that the Board of Commissioners wanted to raise the flag, but the Managers have talked about payment over a number of years. Commissioner Carey asked about the triggering mechanism and Bill Strom said that having certainty about the 60 acres is very important in planning the 18 acres for affordable hauling. He spoke for himself and said that in 2002 they agreed on the 104 acres, but also the County Commissioners expressed a preference to preserve the 60 acres. Commissioner Carey wants to know who has responsibility for payback to the enterprise fund. Rod Visser said that the interlocal agreement is silent on the point of exactly when the reimbursement would take place. His view is that all three boards could amend the agreement to be specific an the payback period. Jaal Hall Broun suggested amending the agreement to be clear about the triggering mechanism. She is mare interested in the affordable housing component. Chair Jacobs suggested waiting until after the solid waste plan discussions in October when there will be mare definite numbers on fulfilling that plan. Regarding the 60 acres, the staff has proposed a Lands Legacy Land Trust. This would be a cast savings and would not involve another partner. The Board of Commissioners has not had this discussion yet. The parties can keep working on this and there is another AOG meeting in February. Mayor Foy emphasized that athree-year payback period would be too hard for them and a five-year payback period would be significant. He encouraged everyone to make a commitment to start paying back the fund this year. Chair Jacobs pointed out that right around the time that this agreement was made, the Governor sequestered local funds and everyone was having trouble paying far things. He suggested asking the Managers to get together and working out a mutually satisfactorily payment plan. Commissioner Carey encouraged afive-year plan. Mayor Foy encouraged aten-year plan. Chair Jacobs said that the only caution is that they need to see what the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund has in it. Commissioner Foushee suggested bringing back options of five, eight, and ten years. 2. Shearon Harris - History. Expansion, and Next Steps County Engineer Paul Thames gave a history of the process that began in 1999. In late 1998, the County Commissioners learned that CP&L was going to expand the use of its storage pools at Shearon Harris by putting in constructed pools that were not operational and putting in anew racking system for spent fuel rods. At the same time, CP&L was shipping its fuel rods from South Carolina and Brunswick, North Carolina to be stored at Shearon Harris. The plan was such that by the time the fuel pools were filled, there would be mare nuclear waste storage at Shearon Harris than anyplace in the United States other than the proposed Yucca Mountain storage site in Nevada. The County Commissioners hired an expert, Dr. Gordon Thompson, to evaluate the potential risks with this storage scenario. The report was frightening and the Commissioners learned quickly that there is not a good way to have a dialog with the nuclear power industry ar with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission except through a process called intervention, which is a civil suit regulatory process. The County went through a 30-month process to try and sit down in a trial atmosphere and they never got very far and there was never open testimony from the County's experts and the other experts. Fortunately, CP&L decided that they would not keep shipping nuclear waste from outside this area to Shearon Harris for storage and that they might try and have storage on-site at Brunswick and Hartford. The BOCC has not heard anything in the past couple of years. This past spring, during the North Carolina Utilities Commission's integrative resource planning process, a lot of groups tried to convince the commission that money spent in new plants could be more efficiently spent in measures to improve conservation and energy efficiency. There was no success with this. The attorney that Orange County hired is still working on similar issues in other parts of the country. Paul Thames said that the NRC's position seems to be the need to do environmental assessments on fuel storage is confined to the geographic area of the 9th District Court of Appeals. As of yesterday, NCWARN, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Nuclear Information Resource Services, North Carolina Fair Shares, and a student organization filed an emergency petition far the NRC to enforce the existing and federal fire regulations that apply to Shearon Harris. Shearon Harris has been in violation of the federal fire regulations since the beginning. He said that the industry and the NRC have been fiddling around with this for a long time and they do not seem to be any closer to a resolution. Right now, Shearon Harris plans to come into compliance sometime around 2013-2014 unless they get another extension. Shearon Harris is getting ready to apply fora 20-year extension on its operating license, which would extend it from its current term of 2026 to 2046. The process to extend the license is probably a 30-month process that would start sometime next spring. Chair Jacobs said that after September 11, 2001 the County tried to get the NRC to consider a possible terrorist attack on Shearon Harris and that it could not be considered. Secondly, the County spent a tremendous amount of money in trying to contest this. Thirdly, Commissioner Brown and he were empowered by the Board of County Commissioners to try and negotiate an agreement with CP&L that would allow a public forum in which both sets of experts would appear together and discuss this and CP&L would never agree to this. Bill Strom said that he was in Pittsbora last night and he saw a presentation about haw the nuclear plants are grossly out of compliance with federal government rules. He would like to pursue this collectively with all of their energy right now. He wants to support the resolution and try and invite the operators of the plant again to come to Orange County and explain to the citizens what is going on. They are simply asking for the rules that exist to be enforced. Dan Coleman agreed that something should be done post haste. He said that it behooves each governing body to put this on the agendas of the next meetings. Commissioner Gordon said that she was here when Orange County pursued the intervention. She thinks that it was successful in the sense that the behavior of Progress Energy was changed. She said that the least the area Boards can do is put this resolution on the agendas. She thinks that one way to influence would be to have every single governmental entity within 50 miles of the plant to sign onto something like this. Randee Haven-O'Donnell agreed that the time is now to get the local governments involved. She spoke in support of inviting Progress Energy to public meetings. Commissioner Halkiotis said that it is important that the ward go out to all officials in a 50-mile radius to behave. When there was a symposium at the Friday Center, there were officials from Pittsboro, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. He said that the rest of the 50-mile radius was quiet because they have already been taken care of. He has not been able to attend certain meetings in the last few years because the sponsors have been Progress Energy, Time Warner, and Blue CrasslBlue Shield, and Orange County has been involved in legal actions with all three. He said that everyone better be prepared to spend some money and prepared for a real battle. Clarifying questions were asked by attendees and answered by Paul Thames. Chair Jacobs added that the ten-mile evacuation plan is inadequate. He said that they need to either urge ar demand that there be planning that includes a 50-mile radius. He made reference to the incident where '/ inch of snow paralyzed Raleigh. This would be nothing compared to an incident at Shearon Harris. He said that if there were not some demand from local governments beyond the ten miles to be included and have a conversation, it would not happen. Commissioner Gordon said that if they could get any of the counties in the ten-mile radius to agree, she thinks that they could get Progress Energy to pay more money for the evacuation planning. Dan Coleman asked if it would be appropriate far each body to appoint someone to a working group that could plan an event. All agreed. Chair Jacobs asked Paul Thames to put together a sample resolution about evacuation planning. Paul Thames clarified the ten-mile radius. Apparently, the ten-mile radius was set because, if there is a nuclear accident, the problem will be with the people in ten miles almost in an instant. The people outside the ten-mile radius will have a longer period of time to evacuate. 3. Building Permit Information Data Sharing Planning Director Craig Benedict said that presently the Planning departments share information among jurisdictions -Hillsborough, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill. The planning departments are suggesting to work on some standardization of the forms sa that information can be exchanged more seamlessly. They would like to count new building permits, the type, how much square footage of non-residential there is, etc. This information is used for capital planning purposes -schools, grants, economic development opportunities, etc. The staff is suggesting working together to come up with some standard forms in order to share data in a more efficient way. All boards were interested in this. Craig Benedict will work with the counterparts and possibly Information Technology on this issue. 4. Essential Public Facility Definition Carrboro Planning Director Roy Williford made this presentation. He said that the documents that an essential public facility relies on contain around 50 pages within two agreements, which took over 26 years to accomplish. Essential Public Facility Review the definition of an Essential Public Facility as defined by the Joint Planning and Water and Sewer Agreement Multi jurisdictional Agreements that limit the extension of public water and sewer The Joint Planning Agreement adopted by Orange County, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro on November 2, 1987 The Water and Sewer Management Planning and Boundary Agreement adopted by Orange County, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and OWASA on December 3, 2001 Joint Planning Areas Transition Area o That portion of the Joint Planning Area designated on the Joint Planning Area Land Use Map as such. This area is further defined as being in transition from rural to urban or already urban in density. Urban services (public utilities and other town services} are now provided to this area or are projected to be provided to this area. Rural Buffer o Is further defined as land which, although adjacent to an Urban or Transition area, is rural in character and which will remain rural, contain low-density residential uses and not require urban services (public utilities and other town services}. Water and Sewer Boundary Agreement The Water and Sewer agreement basically allows for the extension of public water and sewer into the Rural Buffer to serve an "Essential Public Facility" or to address an adverse public health condition. The Water and Sewer agreement defines an "Essential Public Facility" as: A publicly owned facility, or a facility wholly financed by Federal, State, or local government (or a combination thereof) that provides a service for the health, safety, and general welfare of County residents (far example, a school, fire station, public safety substation, or solid waste convenience center). Public water or public sewer lines extended to provide service to an adverse public health condition or essential public facility cannot be used for other purposes or other parties, except to remedy another adverse public health condition, Discussion ensued about the definition of "essential." Chair Jacobs said that the Boards have discussed twice at the Assembly of Governments meetings having the Planning Directors of the three municipalities and the County get together with the planners for the two school systems to determine where future school sites will go. The school systems are still not convinced that the rural buffer is not a good place to put schools. Carrboro High School was originally proposed outside the Urban Services Boundary. It is not clear what is meant by "essential." Mayor Chilton said that his opinion is that school sites need to be inside the Urban Services Boundary and he does not see any reason why the school system should look to any site outside this boundary. He wants to be clear about this so that the message gets across to the people that are looking at possible future school sites. Mayor Foy thinks that the default position should be that nothing goes in the rural buffer. This would eliminate the need far this discussion. Joal Hall Broun said that they need to identify school sites now because people move here for the school system. Chair Jacobs said that there is a meeting with the County Commissioners and the two school boards soon and the primary discussion topic is school construction standards. One of the proposals is separating the square foot cost, requirements, and number of students per classroom from the acreage. The acreage would be a separate consideration depending on whether it was a traditional model or non-traditional. Mayor Foy said that Chapel Hill gat special legislation a couple of years ago to be able to have the school's designated site, and once the site is designated, the school system has a limited period of time within which to exercise its right to take the site. He said that this is a useful way to take a step in the right direction because it also farces the school system to make a decision. Mayor Chilton said that in Carrboro, the next six schools that will be in Carrboro's jurisdiction are on properties already owned by the government. Carrboro High School is the first of those. Dan Coleman asked Mayor Foy if he was suggesting to remove the definition. Mayor Fay said that he thinks it is misleading to say that an essential public facility could go somewhere or water and sewer could be extended somewhere because it makes the document say, "Nobody else is allowed to do it, but the government is going to do it." He thinks that this is not the intention. He thinks that the intention is that it would have to be some extreme circumstance. He said that if it is an emergency, they can act quickly, but if it is not, then they should all be willing to talk about it. Discussion ensued about the definition of essential public facility. It was agreed that Chapel Hill's Planning staff would craft some language. Chair Jacobs said that the agreement would have to be amended and they would also have to include OWASA. It is better to get it all cleared up so that there are no misunderstandings of what the language might or might not mean. The charge to Chapel Hill is to take the documents and suggest how they could be amended to achieve what was discussed and then it will be circulated. 5. Informational Updates (VIlritten Materials - No Planned Presentations) a. Solid Waste Management Plan Mayor Chilton made reference to the Solid Waste Management Plan that the County is working on and said that he thinks that a key issue is how they will dispose of the solid waste after the closing of the landfill. To his knowledge, there are only two options under consideration and neither of them is very desirable. One possibility is to work with a solid waste transfer station in Durham County. He has a reservation about this because the station is on the other side of Durham. He said that for the Town of Carrboro to take its trash to that distant location would involve them to have more trucks and would require a different design of truck because the existing trucks are not designed for highway speeds. This would present a great expense to the taxpayers. The other alternative is to locate a transfer site somewhere in Orange County. Chair Jacobs clarified that the County Commissioners asked the staff to look at a Durham partnership because the other alternative was on Eubanks Road, which is the same community that has been beset by solid waste operations for 30 years. It would be more convenient on Eubanks Road, but it does not make it the right thing to do. The County Commissioners have still not received a report. Joal Hall Broun said that if a transfer station would be put on Eubanks Road, there should be an investment in the community. Any money that would be saved should be put back into the community. She said that a feasibility study should also be done there. She said that there has to be some equity in this situation. Jim Ward said that he personally feels that they need to deal with their own trash in- house. He is troubled by the memo from a member of the SWAB talking about economics related to key decisions. He thinks that the decision has to include the three elements of sustainability -social equity, environmental equity, and economic issues. He does not think that shipping trash to someone else's backyard is the answer. He wants to have this conversation really soon. Rod Visser said that the Board of County Commissioners received a resolution from the Solid Waste Advisory Board unanimously recommending that a transfer station be sited at the location on Eubanks Road. He noted that it is not just the staff's idea. Chair Jacobs said that he attended a SWAB meeting and told them that it was premature for them to be making a recommendation before the County Commissioners gat a report. He also painted out that this conversation brings them back to the Greene Tract reimbursement, because if they are going to do mitigation or anything else in relation to solid waste operations, they are going to need money from all parties. Randee Haven-O'Donnell agreed that they should give back to the community if a transfer station is sited on Eubanks Road. Chair Jacobs said that the County Commissioners are going to consider this at a work session in October and all parties will be kept informed. Mayor Chilton asked everyone to join him in thanking Commissioner Halkiotis for his many years of service to Orange County, and for his leadership on education, affordable housing, protecting the environment, and promoting political economic development. With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM. Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna 5. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board