HomeMy WebLinkAbout11.1.23 Planning Board Minutes Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
1 MEETING MINUTES
2 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
3 NOVEMBER 1,2023
4 REGULAR MEETING
5
6 MEMBERS PRESENT:Adam Beeman (Chair), Cedar Grove Township Representative; Lamar Proctor(Vice-Chair),
7 Cheeks Township Representative; Steve Kaufmann, Bingham Township Representative; Statler Gilfillen, Eno
8 Township Representative; Charity Kirk,At-Large Representative; Beth Bronson,At-Large Representative; Chris
9 Johnston, Hillsborough Township Representative; Liz Kalies, Chapel Hill Township Representative; Marilyn
10 Carter, At-Large Representative.
11
12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Melissa Poole, Little River Township Representative; Whitney Watson, At-Large
13 Representative; Delores Bailey, At-Large Representative;.
14
15 STAFF PRESENT: Cy Stober, Planning & Inspections Director; Perdita Holtz, Deputy Director—Long Range
16 Planning &Administration; Tom Altieri, Senior Planner—Long Range Planning &Administration; Lauren Coffey,
17 Planning Technician.
18
19 OTHERS PRESENT: None.
20
21
22 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER
23 Chair Beeman called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.
24
25 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATION ITEMS
26 Chair Beeman discussed the meeting calendar for November and December.
27
28 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES
29
30 August 2, 2023 Regular Meeting Minutes
31 August 2, 2023 Special Presentation Notes
32 August 2, 2023 Training Session Notes
33 September 6, 2023 Training Session Notes
34
35 MOTION BY Lamar Proctor to approve the Meeting Minutes and Notes. Seconded by Beth Bronson.
36 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
37
38 AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA
39 No additions.
40
41 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE
42 Public Charge was not read.
43
44 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS
45 No comments.
46
47 AGENDA ITEM 7: UPDATE ON COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN(CLOP)—To receive a presentation on the on-going
48 CLUP process, including a recent public engagement event.
49 This update was presented by Tom Altieri, Senior Planner—Long Range Planning &Administration.
50
51 Tom Altieri presented an update on the Land Use Plan 2050 process. The update included discussion of consultant
52 deliverables,what has been completed thus far, current work, and what is coming next in the process, as well as a
53 high-level overview of the first public workshop that was held last Thursday night. Mr.Altieri informed the Planning Board
54 that the Board of County Commissioners has approved a contract amendment adding additional meetings between the
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
55 consultant and the Board of County Commissioners and have chosen the project name of Orange County Land Use Plan
56 2050, the tagline"Guiding Our Future,"and a logo. Mr.Altieri also described the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
57 database which includes organizations, businesses and other groups and individual contacts that are representative of the
58 County's DEI communities to support promotions throughout the process and to help in our outreach efforts. The project
59 team will continue to work with Clarion on targeting notification and where future meetings will be held.
60
61 Lamar Proctor: Can you give me an example of groups and how you obtain information about which groups?
62
63 Tom Altieri: So, I certainly can. That database includes 244 organizations in it. Representing these various groups are
64 Black, Indigenous and People of Color,the DEI-focused organizations I mentioned,women and veteran-owned
65 businesses, as well as additional non-profit volunteer organizations. So,there are quite a few there, and the concept is
66 hopefully these organizations can help us get the word out. You know, they all maintain their own distribution lists and so
67 forth so that we can garner some good participation throughout the process, not just in person but our online engagement
68 as well.
69
70 Chris Johnson asked whether the member organizations know they are on the list. Mr.Altieri clarified that most do.
71
72 Tom Altieri continued to update the Planning Board on efforts by the consultant team including community engagement in
73 the Plan. This included presenting photographs from the workshop, how engagement is tracked, and further efforts to
74 improve engagement, specifically targeting members of identified marginalized communities. Mr.Altieri discussed the
75 workshop on October 261", including the format, type of activities held,turnout, and feedback. Mr.Altieri explained digital
76 engagement with the Plan and features on the Plan's website. The project team is planning future engagement,with a
77 focus on making use of community events.
78
79 Beth Bronson: So,this equity database is an Excel spreadsheet at the moment?
80
81 Tom Altieri: It is.
82
83 Beth Bronson: And are there plans to actually turn it into a database are part of the budget or part of the plan?
84
85 Tom Altieri: I think the spreadsheet is the product, and the plan is to continue to add organizations if we're able to
86 research, and instead of a generic email address, obtain a name of a person and a direct email address. And so we'll
87 continue to work on that with the consultant team. But it will be used to both target groups as well as to help us advertise.
88
89 Beth Bronson: Absolutely. It's an opportunity, I think. This would just, I guess, be a comment. We have an opportunity
90 to expand in a database of businesses, stakeholders, and community members and leaders who are involved in the DEI
91 process but also are looking for more exposure, either within the county or within the state, or looking for more inclusion.
92 So, in more of these types of conversations, it would be something to see if, turning this into an actually searchable
93 database either internally for the county or publicly for other departments to use for future efforts in the Chamber of
94 Commerce, Economic Development, Planning, Inspections, Board of Commissioners. I can see a lot of opportunities for
95 the Commissioners to be able to use that in other areas. It would just be a good note.
96
97 Cy Stober: So the Director of our Office of Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Shamika Fairbanks, has expressed a keen interest in
98 this database and speaking with Tate Consultants. So, any engagement with the Commissioners or the Boards will be
99 something she works with our contractor consultant on as a byproduct of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. It's kind of a
100 happy accident, I guess. I don't know if accident's the right word, but it was not necessarily the intention of the
101 Comprehensive Land Use Plan to get a robust database for equity and inclusion as a product to this level, but frankly, she
102 shared with Tom and myself that we don't have anything like this at our fingertips to date, so it would be an asset for her
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
103 office and department and for the county at large. So that's a continued conversation we'll be having with Dr. Fairbanks,
104 and I think TBD on what that exactly looks like.
105 Beth Bronson clarified the selection approach for the interviews. Tom Altieri clarified that they targeted hard to reach
106 communities.
107
108 Beth Bronson and Tom Altieri discussed the naming of the Land Use Plan and the history of planning processes in Orange
109 County.
110
111 Marilyn Carter:Thank you,Beth. So, I had the opportunity to attend the session at the Bonnie B. Davis facility last weekand
112 it was certainly fun. I will say that. And it was certainly informative. There was a lot of great information that was presented
113 to the participants. One of the things that I did observe was, and of course I'm very happy to hear that the asynchronous
114 online engagement is coming up, it's going to be a great opportunity to reach out through that DEI resource to identify
115 participants. And one of the questions that I had was as we look at bringing that engagement in, is some of the way that
116 we're going to be bringing people together going to be in the community in addition to being in some of these very
117 accessible places like the Bonnie B. Davis facility? Perhaps like the Social Services Building in Chapel Hill. Are there
118 going to be some activities planned,for example, in churches and in Latino communities? Perhaps some of the less easily
119 thought of areas where people feel comfortable engaging and being open because they're surrounded by people that look
120 like them, that are in their community that they live with?
121
122 Tom Altieri: I did mention the Agricultural Summit,and so that is one example that we have discussed with the consultant
123 team thus far. And we'll be discussing other opportunities with them on locations and we expect a mixed group to come to
124 us, or do we go to them. I can tell you what the contract includes. And so, there are three public workshops, each one
125 opening up an engagement window, and then approximately six meetings in addition to that that could be floating. So,we
126 could have more upfront,more at the end. But two of those six are the ones that we're looking at targeting for January. And
127 so those would be community meetings different from the meetings with the Planning Board,the Board of County
128 Commissioners, and then the public hearings. So that's what's in the contract.
129
130 Beth Bronson and Marilyn Carter discussed meeting timing,workshop format,and potential outreach efforts by the project
131 team and by the Planning Board with Tom Altieri.
132
133 Marilyn Carter: One follow-on question I'll be most interested in is to hear,once we have the DEI and we're exercising that
134 to reach out to the community, is the multimodal—how are we reaching them? Are we reaching folks through email? Are
135 we reaching folks, of course, on social media? Are we reaching folks through telephone calls? I'll be very interested in
136 hearing how that is going in that element of the plan.
137
138 Tom Altieri: I could give you a quick rundown of how we notified for the workshop. So,we have our list of advisory board
139 members. These would be the ones that were identified as really land use stakeholders, there's seven or eight of those.
140 So,their memberships were emailed. A little over 50 organizations that our consultant identified through the database
141 where we had existing contacts. So,they were sent emails as well. These would be with flyers included in English and in
142 Spanish. With the help of our Community Relations department,they pushed out in both English and Spanish notices on
143 Facebook,X, Instagram, and Nextdoor,which reaches, they say, 53,000 people. We had notices in the weekly Orange
144 County newsletter, I'm sure you probably received those,as well as our department monthly newsletter. There is a banner
145 with a link to additional information on the County's main home page. So,if you go to the home page,there's a link there on
146 where you can get more information. I think it's our nice new logo that's there. We have that project-specific website that
147 is linked from our department website. And then finally,throughout the various monitors and County buildings,there was a
148 newsflash there advertising for that meeting. So that's how we did it the first time around. Again, not targeted but, you
149 know, a pretty good blast out there. And so,as an initial meeting,we were pleased with the turnout. But we do need more
150 diversity.
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
151 Beth Bronson clarified that Tate Consulting is a sub-consultant for Clarion.
152
153 Chris Johnson asked if childcare was provided at the workshop meeting. Mr.Altieri stated that there was not. Mr.Johnson
154 explained that he felt this was successful when offered for a meeting for the Town of Hillsborough.
155
156 Chris Johnson asked if a translator was present at the workshop.Mr.Altieri confirmed that there was and the services were
157 not needed.
158
159 Chris Johnson: That kind of goes into my next question. So,we're having these workshops and this outreach and that sort
160 of thing. The methods of communication that you listed,the newsletter and so on and so forth feels a lot like the kind of
161 thing where the kind of people who are plugged into that are the people who are already plugged into that. And I guess my
162 question is:what happens if we get to the end of this process and the workshops continue to be of the makeup that they
163 are? Like,what does failure look like,and what do we do? Is there going to be an opportunity during the process where we
164 say, "hey,this isn't working and let's try something else,"or do we continue on and, you know, say, "hey,we did our best
165 and that's that?"
166
167 Tom Altieri: So our consultant did ask us,you know, is there another project that we can use as a benchmark to gauge
168 success and the Climate Action Plan,which is coming across the finish line here,was identified as a benchmark,as a goal
169 to exceed. And of course,you know, above and beyond is great, but that's how, at least for now, they're going to be
170 measuring success. And, if I may add,we're already having that conversation. We were already disappointed by, not
171 necessarily the number of people who turned out, I think it was a great turnout for our first event, but I suppose we were
172 disappointed that it was exactly who we expected to turn out. So we're already having an internal conversation. We'll be
173 speaking with both of our consultants about the need to make a concerted effort to meet with underrepresented
174 communities on their terms and in locations that they feel comfortable meeting in. So that's a work in progress, but we've
175 already had that conversation, and we'll be having that conversation to up our game for the next round of engagement.
176
177 Chris Johnson and Tom Altieri discussed the website for the Plan,including translation options. Board members discussed
178 the website and possible issues in navigation. Chris Johnson requested more readily apparent access to translation
179 options. Mr.Altieri encouraged Board members to email him with any comments on user-interface changes.
180
181 Lamar Proctor inquired about using news or print media to promote the Plan. Mr.Altieri discussed Community's Relations
182 approaches for promotion,including a press release that was not picked up by the media. Mr. Proctor proposed the idea of
183 a mailer to be sent to residents, potentially with the tax bill.
184
185 Charity Kirk: [On attending the workshop] I didn't feel like I actually provided much feedback. I put a lot of dots on things,
186 and I got told things. And if I was someone that was less involved, I don't think I would feel satisfied with that. Like, I don't
187 know why anyone else came to the meeting. Like,we had, I had no conversations with anyone else in these areas,which
188 people had to define what these areas were, like the kitchen and things, and then they had to explain it. But the people in
189 my group, I don't know why,what brought them there or why they came. And this is not the first time I've been to one of
190 these sessions where I feel like I'm being talked at and my feedback.There's not an open interview type of question of why
191 did you come,what was your interest in this. It's just,there's sort of a very open-ended aside. It feels like an aside. But this
192 is not the first time I've been there where it wasn't super satisfying with just the dots and just sort of the lists of things going
193 on and being told what's going on. Now,that's just my personal opinion. So I would suggest as you're moving forward with
194 these other groups—which I might have suggestions for your database, I'm not sure, I would have to see your database.
195 But how do you engage people in what they value without, like being told—I mean, it's an interesting balance, and I don't
196 think that any of the projects I've been involved with have gotten it. They are very much more"do you want A, B or C,"
197 rather than, "why are you interested in this, why did you come here,what do you think you can provide?" And maybe I'm
198 thinking more of people than not, and maybe this isn't helpful to you, but that's the feeling that I've gotten from some of my
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
199 participation in these activities. So, I would suggest trying to do more open interview style questions or less structured. At
200 least have something where there's a conversation allowed that's less structured where a moderator is sort of listening, but
201 it's not too long because if it gets too long, then people can go off. It's just an interesting balance.
202
203 Tom Altieri: Okay. So that's good feedback, and we'll share that with our professional consulting team to help us plan for
204 the subsequent meetings.
205
206 Steve Kaufman provided the idea of having a large hall with diagrams and a floating style,which was used by the
207 Department of Transportation (DOT)for other projects.
208
209 Adam Beeman emphasized that there is a need to educate the public on legislative changes that have impacted Orange
210 County, specifically 160D.
211
212 The Planning Board discussed the difficulties of achieving public attendance for meetings in the evening.
213
214 Planning Board members discussed other engagement ideas for the Plan, including attending Hillsborough's Last Friday
215 and the Farmer's Market and potentially having the Planning Board table at some of these events.Beth Bronson discussed
216 having board members from other jurisdictions' advisory boards promote the event.
217
218 Tom Altieri: That is actually an ongoing organic conversation with Clarion actually, because they've done it a number of
219 different ways in engaging with municipalities. But it needs to be crystal clear to the public that we will not be looking at the
220 towns,the municipalities'zoning or land use practices, and really having minor commentary on that and partnerships with
221 them. But we won't be looking at their land use or their zoning as part of this effort other than where the overlap is.
222
223 Cy Stober: Well,and this is Tom's project, I do want to identify that he worked very closely with Clarion. We interviewed all
224 the planning directors of the municipalities, and we made sure that their mayors and their managers are aware of this, or
225 our manager has made sure that their managers are aware of our comprehensive planning efforts. So, there are things
226 that are less visible that are happening, but all those planning directors were interviewed as part of the stakeholder
227 interviews for our comp plan.
228
229 Chris Johnson: But that's a fair point. If this isn't in touching the incorporated areas,the Hillsboroughs and the Chapel Hills
230 or whatever, it may be confusing to the public if we set up shop in the municipalities and then are handing out information
231 that doesn't affect them in the slightest.
232
233 Cy Stober: Yes, and again,we've had long conversations with Clarion about this. Wake County, they had a very robust
234 engagement effort,and that was with all the municipalities in Wake County. Clarion did the work there. They had to make
235 that distinction very clear and just basically,you can never say it enough times. This is not for Cary. This is not for Raleigh.
236 This is, you know, not for Morrisville. This is for the County.
237
238 Statler Gilfillen proposed the idea of holding the meetings with simultaneous virtual participation.
239
240 Cy Stober: What we've heard both at the planning conference this past year and prior kind of professional discussions is
241 that no,the folks who are attending virtually are disadvantaged inherently because you have to have a very concerted effort
242 to make sure that they essentially have an advocate watching the screen who can intervene and disrupt the more organic
243 conversation happening with the in-person meeting and say"we have comments from online." It's not impossible, but it
244 takes a lot of effort to create a sense of fairness.
245
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
246 Charity Kirk asked if an online only meeting gets better involvement and it was discussed that while a virtual meeting can
247 be done, staff has been informed by the consultants of the difficulty.
248
249 Beth Bronson discussed having a presentation by the consultant team at a public meeting to allow residents to come hear
250 the presentation and offer public comment.
251
252 Adam Beeman suggested making a YouTube video of the presentation. Charity Kirk suggested using Facebook video
253 advertising. Mr. Beeman also suggested using a QR code at local store registers.
254
255 Online versus in person participation was discussed. Mr.Altieri stated that with the Climate Action Plan and the
256 Countywide Strategic Plan, there was more robust engagement with an online format.
257
258 Statler Gilfillen proposed the idea of having local students create a video to promote and inform the public of the
259 Comprehensive Plan.
260
261 Adam Beeman proposed to include information on the Plan in a school newsletter, using the example that he gets a
262 newsletter from Orange High School weekly.
263
264 Marilyn Carter stated that our listening events need to take place within those communities whose members we don't
265 always hear from.
266
267 Chris Johnson acknowledged that the current Planning Board makeup does not exemplify diversity.
268
269 Beth Bronson: I would like to make a motion that we add a presentation,the same presentation that's given to the BOCC.
270 Is there any way we could duplicate that to the public, or to the Planning Department? Whatever they present to the
271 Planning Department or to the BOCC,they just do a repeat presentation to the Planning Board?
272
273 Cy Stober: You could recommend it,it would have to be a budget amendment and a scope amendment to our contract with
274 Clarion. So, it would probably cost about, somewhere in the neighborhood of$7,000 or more dollars to do that.
275
276 Beth Bronson retracted her motion and discussed attendance of Planning Board members to the BOCC work session. Ms.
277 Bronson stated that the Planning Board needs to think of a way to involve the public in a public hearing format to gain more
278 feedback.
279
280 Beth Bronson: We could add this to our agenda. Any time we meet, there could be an agenda item that addresses us
281 holding ourselves accountable for public outreach.
282
283 Charity Kirk: I think an agenda item would be beneficial if there's something that the public is coming to already, but we
284 don't have that much stuff going on right now. I don't I feel like a 20-minute report at the beginning of a meeting before
285 something else to just inform anybody who's here.
286
287 The Board and staff discussed having a brief debrief of the Plan at next meeting of the Planning Board that would have an
288 item likely to generate public turnout.
289
290 Beth Bronson: What about a regular agenda item to address any status change or updates to the Comp Plan that will be
291 going along with any upcoming agenda items that will go in that meeting. So, if we just left it at the item of: "Is there an
292 update?" "No." "Is there an update?" "Yes."
Approved with Amendment 12.6.23
293
294 Charity Kirk: Well, your point is you don't want to use that time to update us. You want to use that time to educate the
295 audience.
296
297 Beth Bronson: By updating us,you are making it public record. So, it's just a thought. And I think that if it was to continue
298 and to be something that's consistent, one, it would be a way to garner involvement of the public on things that aren't so
299 contentious, and two, it would be a way for us to say, "here's a solution,"other than what you should do.
300
301 Charity Kirk: Can staff consider it and come back to us with a suggestion of its value towards the process of the land use
302 planning?
303
304 Cy Stober: I think it's worthwhile looking at what Clarion scheduled for presentation to the Commissioners already is to be
305 and coordinating with that as well as some of the other land use matters that are likely to come to the Planning Board over
306 the next 18 months.
307
308 The Planning Board discussed the budget amendment that has already occurred with the contract with Clarion.
309
310 The Planning Board had no further questions.
311
312 AGENDA ITEM 8: ADJOURNMENT
313 MOTION BY Lamar Proctor to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Chris Johnson.
314 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
315 The meeting adjourned at 8:23 PM.
316
317
318 Adam Beeman, Chair