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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 03-07-2013 - 8aORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: March 7, 2013 Action Agenda Item No. 8 -a SUBJECT: Update on Status /Implementation of Addressing and Road - Naming Ordinance DEPARTMENT: Tax Administration PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance Dwane Brinson, Tax Administrator, Memorandum and Addressing and (919) 245 -2726 Road Naming Ordinance Status PURPOSE: To receive an update report on the status /implementation of the Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance. BACKGROUND: In December 2011 the Board of County Commissioners adopted a Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance. Affected areas include those outside municipal jurisdictions. In November 2012 the County's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) operations were delegated under the direction of the Tax Administrator. Additionally, the Land Records /GIS Division Manager became the Address Administrator as outlined in the Ordinance. The Ordinance took effect January 1, 2013, and the Tax Administrator, Address Administrator and County Attorney's Office have been working diligently to create an implementation and enforcement plan. A foremost goal of implementation is meeting with community partners and educating and empowering the public with a soft implementation throughout 2013. This informational presentation is provided as a means to garner BOCC feedback and suggestions that may augment and improve the current implementation and enforcement plan. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with receiving the update report. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the BOCC receive the update report as information and provide any comments and questions. ORANGE COUNTY TAX ADMINISTRATION 228 S CHURTON STREET, SUITE 200, PO BOX 8181 HILLSBOROUGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27278 Telephone (919) 245 -2725 Fax (919) 644 -3332 T. Dwane Brinson, Director Memorandum To: Orange County Board of Commissioners Cc: Frank Clifton, County Manager From: Dwane Brinson, Tax Administr tea Date: February 22, 2013 Re: Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance At the March 7, 2013 meeting of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), the Orange County Tax Administrator and Orange County Land Records /GIS Manager /Address Administrator will provide an update on the adopted Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance. The verbal report will be provided in an effort to communicate our plan to the BOCC for conformity to the goals behind adopting this ordinance. This memorandum is provided in an effort to provide a written plan of action prior to the BOCC meeting for discussion. BACKGROUND In December, 2011 the BOCC formally adopted a Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance. The Ordinance was crafted, vetted and adopted in an effort to resolve and preempt safety issues that had manifest in the operations of our county public safety departments. Public safety responders were unable to locate structures. A letter was mailed to all affected residents on August 29, 2012. This letter was generic in nature providing general information about the Ordinance and where residents could find more information. It did not cite non - compliance of properties. The Ordinance was to be enforced through county addressing, which was a responsibility of Orange County Geographic Information Systems. When this Ordinance was adopted, GIS was under the direction of Orange County Information Technologies. In November, 2012, the entire GIS department, was placed under the direction of the Orange County Tax Administrator and, more specifically, the Land Records Division of the Tax Office. 2 ISSUES Providing efficient and effective public safety services to residents was a top priority in adoption of the Ordinance. Public safety responders were having a plethora of complications when attempting to locate and respond to calls from residents in need. Many addressable structures could not be located without considerable time and effort, neither of which can be spared in a time of emergency. The Tax Office and its Land Records /GIS Division have been working to enumerate broad categories of issues to be resolved. Prior to the Ordinance, and continuing to present day, the following issues have been identified: • Most mobile home parks have no street names. Once an emergency responder arrives at a mobile home park, she or he may not be able to locate a specific mobile home unless there is a central office with available staff. The mobile home parks host mailboxes at the main road with no identification on the structures themselves. • Years ago Orange County addresses were route numbers. The route numbers were then proposed to convert to house numbers and compliance with the new system at that time was voluntary. Therefore, current manifestations of both systems are throughout the county. This has resulted in addresses being out of sequence and difficult to locate. • All new roads in the county should be recorded through the Register of Deeds. Some road names identified as problematic will involve a full title search whereby all road maintenance agreements, surveys and other public records are reviewed for compliance with the Ordinance. • Some areas of the county have roads with a main driveway where mailboxes are hosted at the main road, then the main driveway branches into multiple different driveways with several structures down each corollary. The structures have no identification nor do the driveways, which makes emergency responses incredibly difficult. CURRENT STATUS Implementation of the Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance will be an enormous undertaking. At this point, reports of non - compliance are a result of citizen actions or emergency responder insight. Considering the reorganization of GIS and county addressing from IT to the Tax Office, and the need for myself and the Land Records /GIS Manager /Address Administrator to learn the Ordinance and develop implementation plan, the Tax Office has conducted very few field visits. Staffing demands are being evaluated for the 2013 -2014 budget. We held multiple meetings with Ms. Annette Moore in the County Attorney's Office and Orange County Planning, and will be meeting with the local fire chiefs in March to discuss our implementation plan accepting constructive feedback. We would like to solicit feedback on our plan of action to ensure we have a clear understanding of the impetus, goals and outcomes needed of this Ordinance. ' IMPLEMENTATION PLAN OVERVIEW Considering the Ordinance was formally adopted by the BOCC in December, 2011, and the large response received from residents pursuant to the August 29, 2012 letter, we must move forward with implementation. This project will take a significant amount of time for staff to work through the county and isolate non - compliance issues, determine corrective action, and work with residents toward correction. Residents must be notified of non - compliance before any action can be taken. It should not be assumed that Orange County will fine residents beginning January 1, 2013 if they have received no notification of non - compliance. The Tax Office plans to use 2013 as an educational opportunity. The goal of the Ordinance is to resolve and preempt safety issues, and the more we are able to educate the public on requirements of the ordinance the more efficient and effective the process will be. Our community partners and residents will be empowered to help us work through this implementation plan. Logistics For consistency, accuracy and ease of awareness, we intend to work through properties within Orange County's jurisdiction by fire district. Such an approach will allow staff to focus on a specific area one at a time, and this can be done in collaboration with the fire chief of the area. We must work with the Orange County Public Information Officer, Carla Banks, local news outlets, fire chiefs, EMS and Tax Office public relations channel to make the public aware of the area under review. This should help relieve stress for those in fear of non - compliance. Priorities /Implementation The top priority of implementation is to resolve 911 issues as identified by EMS and fire chiefs. Once we begin working through a fire district, correcting /assigning road names are the top priority. A second priority is identification of structures once the correct road name is verified or assigned. Residents should place identifying address numbers of three inches or greater with contrasting background at the road and the structure. This would happen after the Tax Office notifies affected residents of a new road name or an address out of sequence. Once residents have the correct information, proper signage should be placed in accordance with the Ordinance. For those that have a permissible road name and do not have an address out of sequence, it is just as important that we notify them of such as this will help relieve anxiety on their part. We plan to communicate in some form with every single resident under the jurisdiction of this Ordinance, whether it be to confirm their compliance to help them work through non - compliance issues. Since we plan to use 2013 as an opportunity to educate and empower the residents and our community partners, we will begin notifying residents of non - compliance in January, 2014. This will permit time for us to work with emergency responders to pinpoint the most troubled fire districts and begin reviewing the first fire district for non - compliance and safety issues. Only after January, 2014 will residents be notified of a non - compliance issue. M After January, 2014, and after we have determined that a property is not in compliance, the 5 foremost goal is to bring said property into compliance without having to levy a fine. I hope our approach outlined below is found to be friendly and supportive of the BOCC's goals in adopting the Ordinance: 1. Non - compliance discovered. 2. Tax Office will send a notification of corrective action affording the resident 60 days to follow through with needed corrective action. Said letter will contain all necessary information for the resident to bring property into compliance. The Tax Office, within these 60 days, will communicate further with the affected resident through field visits and phone calls. As long as the resident is continuing to work with the Tax Office on needed corrective action, a letter of non - compliance will not be sent. Only in the event that a resident disregards our initial communication or is uncooperative will the Tax Office send a letter of non - compliance, and this will occur only after the initial 60 days has elapsed from the initial communication. 3. Letter of non - compliance will be mailed after no response or no cooperation comes of the friendly letter. A resident would have 60 days from date on letter of non - compliance to provide noted corrective action. Should no response come from the resident within the additional 60 days, a fine of $50 would be levied and collected by the Tax Office. It should be noted that the Tax Office has a software application to track properties and their notification dates, which means the system can be queried to pull records of those whose initial 60 days has elapsed, are in non - compliance, etc. 2013 SOFT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Throughout 2013 the Tax Office is preparing a strong public relations and education campaign, preparing notification letters and setting up collection procedures. Leveraging resources available to us through our community partners is essential, too. We hope to accurately communicate the need for complying with the Ordinance to all those potentially affected. Tasks to be completed this year include: • Present Ordinance overview to local Realtors • Work with Orange County Homeowners Associations to help them determine if their policies should be modified to comply with the new Ordinance • Routinely meet with the Sheriff's Department, EMS and fire chiefs to pinpoint issues of potential non - compliance • Take advantage of any presentation already planned by the Tax Office, and include an overview of the new Ordinance into those • Capitalize on the power of Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets for news, information and announcements • Work with the Orange County Public Information Office to prepare and disseminate press releases to news outlets and residents • Develop standard notification letters to be used in communications with residents • Work out collection procedures for a case where a resident were levied a fine for non- 6 compliance with the Ordinance • Consult with the Finance Department to determine if said fines should be handled through a separate fund, and setup appropriate fund as needed CLOSING At this point, we would like to thank the residents and other county departments that have discussed with us potential problems areas that may be in non - compliance. This will help move the project forward as efficiently as possible. Constructive feedback received thus far and yet to be received will help ensure the intended goals of the Ordinance are met. Throughout this project, and its continued maintenance, we will work closely with residents to ensure expectations are clear. We will be here to assist and inform while ensuring affected properties come into and stay in compliance. Rather than enforcers, we see fit to initially serve as educators and facilitators to help get willing residents into compliance with the Ordinance. 7 Addressing and Road Naming Ordinance Status Compiled by the Orange County Tax Office Land Records /GIS Division MAJOR TASKS COMPLETED: • Notification of Address Ordinance mailed to all property owners with addressable structures in Orange County's addressing jurisdiction (August, 2012) • Informational website for updates regarding the Address Ordinance created and made available to the public • Completed hundreds of addressing tickets as requested by Planning, Environmental Health, School Board, ES, Public Works, and Board of Elections (see table below): • Development of Address Violations software application nearly completed (should be in production by March, 2013) • GIS and county addressing successfully reorganized to fall under the direction of the Orange County Tax Office Provided below is a table that illuminates addressing tickets and their time demands. These usually are a result of other county departments requesting a correction of a current address or assignment of a new address. This most frequently occurs when a resident applies for a permit through a county department, and that county department finds an error in how the address is reporting in GIS. Table 1: Analysis of Address Corrections Pursuant to the August 29, 2012 letter mailed to residents in Orange County's jurisdiction, a plethora of communications resulted. Through these correspondences, Orange County staff was able to assist and elucidate general requirements of the Ordinance and to further clarify information in the letter. Many of the issues resulting from this mailing are in abeyance until January, 2014. Table 2: Letter Response Statistics 1 ®- 1 ®• 1 1 157 149 306 # OF TICKETS APPROX 442 ADDRESSES (some tickets have multiple 149 address issues) AVG TIME 248 MINS 34 MINS PER TICKET TOTALTIME 649 HRS 84HRS 733 HRS AVG TIME 54.1 7 61.1 HRS PER MONTH AVG TIME PER 88 MINS 34 INS ADDRESS Pursuant to the August 29, 2012 letter mailed to residents in Orange County's jurisdiction, a plethora of communications resulted. Through these correspondences, Orange County staff was able to assist and elucidate general requirements of the Ordinance and to further clarify information in the letter. Many of the issues resulting from this mailing are in abeyance until January, 2014. Table 2: Letter Response Statistics 9 Table 3 below shows corrective actions taken by staff. These issues related specifically to the phone calls and emails generated by the August 29, 2012 letter. Proper notification was provided to these residents, and these changes have been made. Once GIS and county addressing was officially placed under the direction of the Tax Office, implementation was ceased in an effort to develop a more synchronized and efficient approach moving forward. Through collaboration with other county departments and local fire chiefs, mobile home parks have been the focus of implementing the Ordinance. As illustrated below in Table 4, helping to bring Orange County mobile home parks into compliance will involve a lot of coordination of different parties. Table 4 also shows issues related to readdressing single - family housing through needed road name corrections or address sequence reviews. 10