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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 070214Approved 9/3/14 1 MINUTES 1 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 JULY 2, 2014 3 REGULAR MEETING 4 5 MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Hallenbeck (Chair), Cheeks Township Representative; Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill 6 Township Representative; Maxecine Mitchell, At-Large Bingham Township; Tony Blake, Bingham Township 7 Representative; Laura Nicholson, Eno Township Representative; Bryant Warren, Hillsborough Township 8 Representative; Paul Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Vacant-At-Large; 9 10 MEMBERS ABSENT: James Lea, Cedar Grove Township Representative; Herman Staats, At-Large, Cedar Grove 11 Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; 12 13 STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Perdita Holtz, Special Projects Coordinator; Tina Love, 14 Administrative Assistant II 15 16 OTHERS PRESENT: Marabeth Carr, DEAPR; Ardra Webster, DEAPR 17 18 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 19 20 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 21 a) Planning Calendar for July and August 22 23 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 24 JUNE 4, 2014 REGULAR MEETING 25 26 MOTION by Lisa Stuckey to approve the June 4, 2014 Planning Board minutes. Seconded by Tony Blake. 27 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 28 29 AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 30 31 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 32 33 Introduction to the Public Charge 34 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 35 appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development 36 laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and 37 harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner which considers the present and 38 future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive process that 39 contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB 40 will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services 41 during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 42 43 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 44 45 Pete Hallenbeck: Part of being on the Planning Board is coming to the Quarterly Public Hearing. 46 AGENDA ITEM 7: PARKS & RECREATION MASTER PLAN: To review and comment on Orange County’s draft Parks 47 & Recreation Master Plan. At the June 3, 2014 Board of County Commissioners meeting, the 48 BOCC referred the draft plan to several advisory boards for review and comment. Comments 49 are due no later than August 31, 2014. 50 51 Presenter: Perdita Holtz, Planning Systems Coordinator and Department of Environment, 52 Agricultural, and Parks & Recreation (DEAPR) staff. 53 54 Approved 9/3/14 2 Perdita Holtz introduced DEAPR staff members and gave a brief overview of the purpose of tonight’s item. 55 56 Marabeth Carr: We didn’t hire a consultant to do this report; it was done by DEAPR staff and other Orange County 57 agencies. We had $30,000 and we have money left for printing. Reviewed plan differences. 58 59 Paul Guthrie: You should be congratulated for doing this yourself and not hiring a consultant. You may need to talk 60 a little more about trails and acquisition and the question is have you got a working concept of how you would go 61 about acquisition of trails. One problem is you are doing a large trail from a good distance and one land owner won’t 62 play then you don’t have a trail. The second is how you maintain what you have and keep the quality up. Have you 63 got the budget base in place of how you will do that? 64 65 Marabeth Carr: This coming year, we have a new budget line item for maintenance. In developing what I call 66 Chapter 3, park facilities, we took that chapter and in the appendix we are outlining all the maintenance needs for the 67 next five years and put numbers with them. We are trying to have a chunk of money in this budget line item to 68 address these items at each park. 69 70 Paul Guthrie: I would strongly encourage you to talk to your general county budget people so they are aware there is 71 a strategy involved. A couple of things; one is coordination with school facilities. 72 73 Marabeth Carr: Just recently, we introduced a resolution which is called the Community Use of School Facilities for 74 Recreation. I am in charge of the Intergovernmental Parks Work Group which is a group that meets quarterly, all the 75 recreation directors, and we have other representatives. We address different issues and make sure we don’t 76 overlap with other counties. We wrote this resolution for using school facilities. It been adopted by all the 77 jurisdictions, school boards, etc. but has not been adopted by our BOCC yet. 78 79 Paul Guthrie: A subset of the school coordination is year round use and the school systems are offered a seven to 80 eight month use and when schools are not in session, there is more of a need for their outdoor facilities. Another 81 thing is the integration with the municipal and state facilities similar to the school focusing on how you get a long term 82 relationship with municipalities that have separate recreation departments. Another point is the Mountains to the Sea 83 Trail needs a lot of emphasis but that gives you something physical in place you can use to spring off side trails. 84 That interest the state has in that trail may help. 85 86 Marabeth Carr: The reasons those connections show up is because of the IP Work Group. The municipalities 87 wanted to make sure they were connected to it. 88 89 Bryant Warren: There was lot of discussions at the meetings about whichever route the Mountain to the Sea Trail did 90 take that all those municipalities had access to it. 91 92 Paul Guthrie: How much discussion was on what the uses on the trail would be permitted? 93 94 Marabeth Carr: Since it is a state trail, they will go by their guidelines. 95 96 Paul Guthrie: How far have you gone in organizing your thoughts identifying the options for the trail and beginning to 97 start the dialogue about possible options because sooner or later, you will generate both generate people who think 98 is a good idea and those who think it’s a bad idea? 99 100 Marabeth Carr: Rich Shaw is directing that effort. 101 102 Paul Guthrie: You have a lot of terrific data but in terms of your public report you may have too much. 103 104 Tony Blake: A lot of the comments I have had is the county has taken a lot of land off the tax rolls and there is a 105 great deal of consternation there from my people. I am personally not that opposed. It would seem that some of 106 these places are natural venues. One thing missing is the ability to organize community events (i.e. Southern Village 107 Outdoor Theater). 108 Approved 9/3/14 3 109 Marabeth Carr: We do offer movie in the park. It is popular. 110 111 Tony Blake: A place where a small group in the community could organize something like that and possibly do 112 fundraising. 113 114 Paul Guthrie: Let me give you an example, what you don’t want national parks services that says you can only do 115 what we tell you in our park. You have a community park and community interest that can go beyond the community 116 but at the same time there are port to that locality. 117 118 Tony Blake: A lot of people have expressed interest in a park, something that is already existing, and I thought that 119 Cane Creek was attractive to people because it is already there. The problem is access. 120 121 Marabeth Carr: It is hard for OWASA to provide recreation. 122 123 Maxecine Mitchell: I am in the Bingham Township area, I feel like we don’t have any park and recreation so we take 124 advantage of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro parks. I see you have a future Rogers Road community center. Will that also 125 be in connection with the St. Paul’s Church and what they are doing? 126 127 Marabeth Carr: I am not involved in that project so I don’t know. 128 129 Maxecine Mitchell: We had the parks and recreation center on Homestead Road and now the Hargrave Center is 130 covering that part of the area, are you getting away from that? 131 132 Marabeth Carr: That is one of the hanging questions is community centers. It is a huge issue because it involves so 133 many other aspects. 134 135 Andrea Rohrbacher: Chapel Hill has been moving to get the community more available time in the community 136 centers they do have. 137 138 Marabeth Carr: Northern Human Services Center tried to do a community center and it did not get the numbers. 139 Some of the centers are in rural areas; it is hard to get people to them. Efland Cheeks is coming along and is heavily 140 used on odd hours. 141 142 Maxecine Mitchell: You also have the White Cross area, is that the future Bingham District Park? 143 144 Marabeth Carr: The Bingham District never secured a property. 145 146 Maxecine Mitchell: Is that still on the table? 147 148 Marabeth Carr: It is still in the plan. 149 150 Craig Benedict: I have a follow up to what Marabeth was saying about the progression of activity in Orange County 151 and how it interfaces with the Unified Development Ordinance. We collect parks and recreation fees for projects. 152 They can dedicate land (one fifty seventh of an acre for every lot) or flood plain (one twentieth of an acre). When we 153 examined the 1988 plan in year 2000 about how much was collected per lot and if that does pay for the parks and 154 recreation for that park, we found we needed more of a track record of building parks over the last 10 years. On 155 page 125 through 127 it says areas for further study and that is one of them. We need to reexamine what our future 156 park inventory will be with what type of activity. We still have work ahead. There is no master trail plan. 157 158 Paul Guthrie: I also work on a transportation committee; you mentioned one place the transportation issue. I think it 159 would be helpful to accelerate the communications with the evolving transportation organizing in Orange County for 160 the long haul (15 year period) so the transportation managing organization, planning, parks and recreations can have 161 a common dialogue because transportation will be a growing problem. 162 Approved 9/3/14 4 163 Craig Benedict: We are trying to get our emergency service units out in the community. We are trying to use those 164 community nodes as possible park and ride lots. 165 166 Marabeth Carr: We have our future Northeast District Park that has been set aside for a fire and EMS station. 167 168 Pete Hallenbeck: The trails are a very popular item. When the Mountain to the Sea Trail came along, there was talk 169 about trying to get connections on McGowan Creek. Some of the issues will have to be waited on until some of 170 these people go away. If you look at other parts of the country, if you have a property that is close to a trail, its value 171 goes up. This was something that I could not convince people that this was the case. There is a huge difference in 172 the attitude of rural verses urban and most of my observations are from the rural perspective. If you have a local 173 group running something it gets more acceptance. 174 175 Pete Hallenbeck: If you live in rural areas, you have to have a car to get there. Part of this rural versus urban, if you 176 were to tell someone from Chapel Hill that we are going to make this great park with 700 or 1,000 parking spaces, 177 people would say, “what”. 178 179 Tony Blake: I noticed a mention in this plan about some Duke land toward Bingham Township. 180 181 Marabeth Carr: We work with Duke and we have first refusal on anything they are willing to sell. We are in the 182 process of developing the Hollow Rock access area. We have just received at $250,000 grant to build a park area. 183 Duke Forest was involved in the planning but they didn’t want us to tie directly to them because officially they are not 184 in the trail business. 185 186 Paul Guthrie: On page 69, your survey results strongly agree, strongly disagree, and don’t know, I think you should 187 pay a lot of attention to the “don’t know” column. They may point a location where there is a lack of knowledge in the 188 community. 189 190 Maxecine Mitchell: I can see people saying that I don’t know what a county facility is. 191 192 Bryant Warren: There is one community center I have talked to is the one in Mebane. I ask them how they got it. 193 They have a lot of support from the businesses. The Efland Ruritan Club is doing a great job. 194 195 Marabeth Carr: Riverwalk was able to get part of grant money. Part recreation/trust fund money that the state gives 196 out has gone to facilities promoting the Mountains to Sea Trail. 197 198 Marabeth Carr: Please email us if you have any additional comments. 199 200 AGENDA ITEM 8: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS: 201 a. Board of Adjustment 202 203 AGENDA ITEM 9: ADJOURNMENT: 204 205 MOTION by Bryant Warren to adjourn. Seconded by Tony Blake. 206 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 207 208 209 ___________________________________ Pete Hallenbeck, Chair