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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20080331 APPROVED 6/24/2008 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ASSEMBLY OF GOVERNMENTS March 31, 2008 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session for an Assembly of Governments meeting on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, and Alice M. Gordon COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Mike Nelson COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Laura Blackmon and Assistant County Managers Gwen Harvey and Willie Best 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 Council Members Sally Greene, Mark Kleinschmidt, Jim Ward, Bill Strom, Bill Thorpe, and Ed Harrison and Laurin Easthom, Matt Czajkowski CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Mark Chilton and Aldermen Joal Hall Broun, Dan Coleman, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, and Jacquelyn Gist, Lydia Lavelle and John Herrera CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS ABSENT: HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens and Council Members Frances Dancey, Brian Lowen, Michael Gering, and Eric Hallman HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Evelyn Lloyd CHATHAM COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair George Lucier and Vice Chair Mike Cross OWASA REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: Chair Randy Kabrick and Executive Director Ed Kerwin MEBANE CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE: Everette Green DURHAM CITY REPRESENTATIVE: Mayor Bill Bell 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. Call to Order/Introductions/Opening Comments Introductions were made. The pink sheets were meeting agendas from three joint meetings of Orange County and Chatham CountyIOWASAIUNC/Chapel Hill/Carrboro. There was also a map envisioning cooperative planning between Chatham and Orange Counties, as well as a simple Buckhorn Village map. 11 Orange/Chatham County Regional Planning Collaboration Report Chair Jacobs said that the topic of Orange/Chatham regional planning was raised at the last AOG meeting. Those present wished to know what was discussed at the joint meetings and they asked for a more formal structure. It was promised that a more full report would be brought back at the next AOG meeting. Staff will make initial presentations and then the elected officials present at the joint meetings could speak on these items, if they wish. Planning Director Craig Benedict said that, based on some previous meetings, staffs were asked to meet and discuss regional planning with Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, UNC, OWASA, Chatham County, and Pittsboro. During the discussions, it was realized that this regional perspective could also include such entities as the City of Durham, Durham County, and Cary. The areas of interest include land use planning, transportation, parks, open space, environment, and GIS information and mapping. Some of the areas of joint interest include Jordan Lake Watershed, Haw River Watershed, 15-501 Transportation Corridor, development of regional impact, and the regional value-added shared-use food and agricultural processing center. There was discussion about how best to share this information among staffs, elected officials, etc., as new information becomes available. He made reference to Attachment 1-a. Chair Jacobs said that the three main topics were regional watershed protection issues, transportation planning and public transportation issues, and joint planning. He said that part of that discussion will include joint use of Jordan Lake water supply. There were also discussions about trying to get a compilation of the similarities and differences between the comments made on the Jordan Lake rules proposed. George Lucier said that the group talked about selecting specific projects rather than going too global in terms of the joint planning exercise. These could include the Haw River Watershed, Jordan Lake Watershed, 15-501 corridor, and planning for local parks - Southern Park would be an example. Chair Jacobs said that there was discussion about the interest of working together on some of these issues, and Chatham's Board was interested in the same things as Chapel Hill and Orange County, and this has not been the case in the past. Some of the discussions involved Carolyn Elfland from UNC, and public transportation was a major topic. George Lucier said that there are 12,000 houses that have been approved but not yet built in Chatham County, and many of them would use the 15-501 corridor. Jim Ward asked if there was interest in talking about a possible bypass around Chapel Hill coming from the south. He said that 15-501 is already a parking lot at times and there needs to be relief, and public transit cannot take all of these trips. George Lucier said that there is not enough financial capital, and this would have to get on the Transportation Improvement Plan with DOT. He said that DOT is deeply over committed and it is starting to delay projects. Jim Ward said to try and at least get it on the DOT's agenda. Commissioner Gordon said that she is a member of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), and in the next two meetings, the results of the transportation study will be available, which will address some of this area. She said that it would be timely to bring up the issue of a bypass when this study comes out. George Lucier said to bring it up at the next meeting of the MPO and Commissioner Gordon said that it would probably be in May. Bill Strom asked about an interlocal agreement. Craig Benedict said that in 1989 there was a proposed courtesy review agreement and he said with the boards' approvals, they could implement something like this and he said they could work towards a joint planning agreement. Bill Strom said that there should really be a joint planning agreement discussion on the table because there are joint interests. George Lucier suggested working towards a Memorandum of Understanding, or several MOAs. There could be one overarching agreement that would identify specific areas and then have subheadings. Chair Jacobs said that the AOG could direct staff to do this, but the subgroup did not feel that it was within its purview to do this. Dan Coleman said that the first step is to specify the details. Jacqueline Gist said that the horse is out of the barn and Carrboro's issue is how it is going to deal with the water and transportation issues. She is concerned about the commercial development along the 15-501 corridor, because it will impact Carrboro in many ways. George Lucier said that the Triangle J Council of Governments did a study that estimates that eastern Chatham County's population will grow by three to four fold over the next 25 years. There is a building moratorium right now on large residential developments that is scheduled to be lifted in June. During the year of moratorium, Chatham County has established a Major Corridor Ordinance, zoned all major corridors, completed four lanes on some highways, modified some subdivision ordinances and watershed ordinances, etc. Commissioner Gordon urged the AOG to implement a more formal process for these joint meetings than has been done in the past few months. She would like to see the meetings rotate among the various jurisdictions with a more formalized structure that allows more people to come and participate. Bill Strom said that if transportation is being discussed, then Triangle Transit should be brought to the table. Commissioner Gordon said that the Special Transit Advisory Commission is coming out with a new report about proposed transit routes. Regarding the joint meetings, she suggested that the elected officials who wished to attend should be able to attend. Chair Jacobs said that when staff comes back with a proposed Memorandum of Understanding, then it could include how to involve elected officials. 21 Potential Joint Use of the Jordan Lake Water Supply Executive Director of OWASA Ed Kerwin said that Jordan Lake has been in OWASA's contingency planning efforts for about 20 years. In 2005, the OWASA Board adopted a goal, which said that it would work hard to maximize the local water resources. Key elements of that would be more proactive conservation and alternative supplies such as reclaimed water, which is a system that is now under construction and being funded by UNC. He said that they have also learned with the droughts that maximizing the existing resources will be a challenge. He said that the drought has continued since this group met last fall. Another key element is that the City of Durham on March 3rd passed a resolution, which is incorporated in the package, authorizing the staff to proceed with discussions with Orange County, Chatham County, and OWASA staff to explore the possible costs and benefits of a regional approach to Jordan Lake. Chair Jacobs said that this issue was raised originally at the first joint meeting to see if Chatham wanted to access water at Jordan Lake as opposed to going through Cary. Over the course of the conversations, at the last meeting it was learned that there was a discussion about Durham and Chatham working with OWASA to try and develop a regional intake because it is the best way for planning. Mark Chilton arrived at 8:06 pm. Dan Coleman asked to hear from former OWASA Chair, Mark Marcoplos, on the strategic plan that was adopted in 2005 when he was chair. Joal Hall Broun said that she understood that the state had begun a procedure of reallocation of water in Jordan Lake, and she asked if this allocation process has been completed. Ed Kerwin said that there is not an open allocation process at this time, but there may be in the near future. George Lucier said that there are about 38 million gallons per day that have not been allocated out of Jordan Lake. He thinks that the allocation from Jordan Lake will only happen if it is a regional intake with agreement among the major parties. Mayor Foy asked what happens if Greensboro gets an allocation. Ed Kerwin said that he does not believe that Jordan Lake is in Greensboro's plans. The key players are the City of Durham, Chatham County, and OWASA or Orange County. Kevin Foy said that he keeps hearing of conflicting verbiage about Greensboro and Raleigh wanting the water, but there are only two sites. He does not know how this will work. George Lucier said that having an intake and plan on the west side of the lake would simplify things for Chatham County. There will have to be decisions about this soon. Chair Jacobs said that some concerns were raised about Durham's participation and Mayor Bill Bell was in attendance for that reason. Bill Strom said that he has heard different scenarios with OWASA's allocation. He asked if OWASA does not use its 5 million gallon allocation, would it lose the allocation. Ed Kerwin said that he does not know. He said that the State was clear that there will only be one west intake on the lake and it needs to be through joint arrangement. He said that he does not believe that OWASA needs Jordan Lake for daily demands, but more as a backup supply. Bill Strom said that it is ironic and disturbing that, as good conservers, it puts OWASA at risk of losing its 5 million gallon allocation. He said that something is wrong if their conservation and land use planning is causing them to lose their "insurance policy" of the 5 million gallon allocation. Chair Jacobs said that when this issue was first raised, he understood that as long as Orange County was a part of this facilitation, it was perceived that they would have access to this allocation. The idea is that there is a continuum of possibilities. He agreed with Bill Strom that there should be some type of strategy so that Orange County is not totally excluded from yet another water supply and it is protecting it for the benefit of others. Mayor Chilton said that his concern about all of this is that OWASA has taken a good look at its future water usage. He asked if anyone knew how long Jordan Lake would sustain the demands of the Triangle municipal governments in meeting the water supply demands in the future. He said that it does not seem likely to him that the additional water supply in Jordan Lake will sustain the Triangle's demand for water for anything like the length of time for which OWASA has planned for water in the future. He said that once local governments have tapped into Jordan Lake and are drawing water out daily, there will not be any additional options for more water in the future. He does not want to mistake Jordan Lake in the region for a long-term solution to the water supply. He thinks that there is a water consumption problem and not a water supply problem. He said that, in looking at OWASA's own projections, there will not be a serious water problem for about 20 years, and this only depends on how fast the service area grows. If the area grows less rapidly and conserves more, then OWASA might not have to tap into Jordan Lake at all. He wants to commit to avoid having to go to Jordan Lake except for an extreme emergency. Dan Coleman said that he is hearing that Jordan Lake should not be a permanent part of the regular water diet. He said that he would like to suggest the possibility to be clearer in the intentions to not have even the emergency access to the lake. He said that the middle of a drought might be a really good time to do growth planning. Jim Ward asked Ed Kerwin about OWASA's confidence level and Ed Kerwin said that a lot of experts believe that the climate change in the southeast is that there will be more precipitation, but there have been two record droughts in the last five years. He said that he is a bit uneasy about these predictions and OWASA will be revisiting its water planning and will align its tools with the government entity tools. Jacqueline Gist said that Mayor Chilton's comments were very well thought out and on target. She wants to know how these comments interface with what OWASA is doing. Ed Kerwin said that a key theme was conservation and management and this will remain a key element in OWASA's plans. Chair Jacobs said that there was discussion at the school collaboration meeting that both school districts are looking at xeriscaping and reexamining the policy on watering lawns at schools. Bill Strom said that he wants to hear from Mark Marcoplos. He said that OWASA's plans are in response to Chapel Hill's land use plans. He said that if they want to take these steps to close that period of time where they are vulnerable to having a water shortage, etc., then they need to look at their land use plans, growth patterns, and ordinances and see how to adjust them in a sustainable way. Joal Hall Broun suggested that if boards want to participate, then each should go back and discuss this issue as to what they would or would not agree to and then determine whether or not they would like to come back and discuss it as a group. She does not have an opposition for staff to continue to talk about this, but she does not think that the issue of the positions of all five jurisdictions will be solved in this discussion. Chair Jacobs said that there seems to be general agreement that no one is proposing changing any policies within Orange County governments in relation to how supply is used. What has been raised is looking at use. He made reference to Resolution 9532 in the packet that proposes the idea that there continue to be work on some kind of intake on the west side, and whether or not OWASA is a party to the discussion. George Lucier said that the water conservation issue is essential, but in Chatham County there is an immediate issue of water use. Chatham County has to put out $15 million to upgrade the plant to use the current allocation out of Jordan Lake and then up to another$15 million to upgrade the distribution lines so that it can deliver the water. This will increase Chatham's water supply by about 2 % fold. This decision has to be made this summer and cannot be made any later than this. Mayor Bell said that he understands Mark Chilton's concerns. He said that Durham has no interest in using Jordan Lake except on an extreme emergency basis. He said that each entity needs to start planning, and the proposed resolution addresses this. He said that he would hope that the boards would agree to allow the discussions to continue. Randy Kabrick, Chair of OWASA Board, said that the board approved unanimously to cooperate with Chatham and Durham to look at a regional intake from Jordan Lake strictly as part of the water planning. There is no intention by the board to take allocations as part of a base load. He said that this is a long-term process. He encouraged all participants to support long-range planning, even if it involves a portion of Jordan Lake for emergency purposes. Mark Marcoplos said that he was on the OWASA board from 1999 to 2006 and went through the first drought and helped to craft the new conservation measures. He said that, after the drought of 2001-2002, he looked around astounded that OWASA was the only utility that was treating this as a very serious, highly changing event. As soon as possible after the drought, OWASA instituted year-round conservation and no other jurisdiction did this and it also began the discussions that led to tiered rates to encourage conservation. He said that the entities need to get the conservation and sustainability issues out there. He firmly believes that OWASA has the know-how to get through to when the quarry is available in 2030 with conservation, efficiency, use of storm water, sealing leaks in the system, etc. He does not think that Jordan Lake will be needed from OWASA's standpoint. Mark Kleinschmidt said that it is not in the AOG's interest to not participate in these discussions. He said that he would like to see them at the table discussing what efforts are being made in the neighboring counties and cities for water conservation and efforts. He would like to hear more about the water reuse plans and other plans. Bill Strom said that all understand that this conversation is going to take awhile to sift through and the Chapel Hill Town Council needs the opportunity to put its thoughts in a resolution. There should be no action tonight. He wants to be able to give OWASA clear direction. Mayor Foy said that there should be acknowledgement and everything should be written down so that OWASA has a clear understanding of each entity's intentions. Mark Chilton said that if you read through all of the resolution there is only a passing mention of land usage and conservation. He said that he does not see the local government entities passing a resolution that speaks to the question of water supply without addressing conservation and efficiency as a simple part of the water supply plan. Chair Jacobs listed the elements that he has heard: whatever direction that is given to OWASA be written; address the issue of emergency access to Jordan Lake; compilation/discussion of current conservation efforts; and Chatham County would like some kind of answer this summer in order to move forward. He said that, in listening to the last part of the conversation, it might be useful for the boards in Orange County to draft an alternative resolution that addresses the same partnership, but in terms that make people feel more comfortable about a partnership. Ted Voorhees, Deputy City Manager of Durham, said that he was the author of the resolution. He said that it was Durham's intention to call out the fact that responsible land use planning will be an integral part. He apologized for not saying this well. He thinks that the City Council fully understood the relationship between land use planning and water demand. He said that Durham has been doing water conservation for a long time. Clarifying questions of various board members were answered by Ted Voorhees. Buckhorn Village Craig Benedict said that Buckhorn Village is a planned development zoning proposal that was submitted to Orange County for a 130-acre parcel located on 1-85/1-40. He showed this area on a map. It is located within a land use designation of an Economic Development District. There is a public information process tomorrow night. Dan Coleman asked when action would be taken and Chair Jacobs said not tomorrow night. There is no deadline yet because neither the County Commissioners nor the Planning Board has had a chance to ask questions or make comments. Dan Coleman asked if transportation improvements had been identified yet and if the developer would pay for those and Chair Jacobs said that this has not been discussed yet. Chair Jacobs said that on April 29th the JPA public hearing is scheduled, and there is almost always no item for this, and he would like to talk about the Greene Tract within the AOG. He suggested scheduling an AOG meeting on this date. All must bring forward some funding to the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund if they are going to access this property. Commissioner Carey suggested that staff make a list of issues that need to be discussed at this next meeting so that there is a clear focus of discussion. Commissioner Gordon suggested that each jurisdiction may want to discuss the Greene Tract ahead of time. The next meeting will be hosted by the Town of Hillsborough. 41 Greene Tract Update DEFERRED El Update on the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) DEFERRED 61 Written Updates (No Staff Presentations) a. County Comprehensive Plan b. Solid Waste Transfer Station Siting Process c. Land Trust Affordable Housing Maintenance Task Force d. County Capital Projects fl Adiournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 pm. Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board