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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3_6_24 Planning Board Minutes APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 1 MEETING MINUTES 2 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 3 MARCH 6,2024 4 REGULAR MEETING 5 6 MEMBERS PRESENT:Adam Beeman (Chair), Cedar Grove Township Representative; Lamar Proctor(Vice-Chair), 7 Cheeks Township Representative; Delores Bailey, At-Large Representative; Marilyn Carter, At-Large 8 Representative; Statler Gilfillen, Eno Township Representative; Chris Johnston, Hillsborough Township 9 Representative; Steve Kaufmann, Bingham Township Representative; Melissa Poole, Little River Township 10 Representative; Whitney Watson, At-Large Representative. 11 12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Charity Kirk, At-Large Representative; Beth Bronson, At-Large Representative; Liz Kalies, 13 Chapel Hill Township Representative. 14 15 STAFF PRESENT: Cy Stober, Planning & Inspections Director; Perdita Holtz, Deputy Director— Long Range 16 Planning &Administration. 17 18 OTHERS PRESENT: Amy Eckberg, Sustainability Projects Manager 19 20 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 21 The meeting began at 7:01 PM. 22 23 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATION ITEMS 24 Chair Beeman reviewed the upcoming calendars for March and April. 25 26 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 27 February 7, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes. 28 29 MOTION BY Melissa Poole to approve the Meeting Minutes. Seconded by Lamar Proctor. 30 31 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 32 33 AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 34 None. 35 36 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 37 38 INTRODUCTION TO THE PUBLIC CHARGE 39 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General 40 Statute, appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land 41 development law of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish 42 coordinated and harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner, which 43 considers the present and future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and 44 responsive process that contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the 45 overall County. The OCPB will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive 46 governance and quality public services during our deliberations, decisions, and 47 recommendations. 48 49 PUBLIC CHARGE APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 50 The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks 51 its citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board 52 and with fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to 53 observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting 54 until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair 55 will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is 56 observed. 57 58 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 59 Chair Beeman asked about last month's presentation on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan update and the 60 Board had a short discussion on the take-ways from the presentation. 61 62 AGENDA ITEM 7: ORANGE COUNTY CLIMATE ACTION PLAN 63 64 Amy Eckberg, the County's Sustainability Projects Manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the adopted 65 Climate Action Plan. She stated that locally in Orange County, we're experiencing more and more periods of 66 drought. In fact,we've been a drought situation approximately 50 percent of the time for the past 20 or so years. 67 In terms of extreme heat,we're experiencing more and more days of that where temperatures are at or above 95 68 degrees Fahrenheit. And those days are anticipated to increase by up to 30 days by the middle of the century. 69 We're also experiencing more and more intense storms, more hurricanes, more tornadoes, which are leaving us 70 with wind damage and flooding issues here in our communities. So the next few years are absolutely critical in 71 terms of limited our temperatures to a 1'/2 degree Celsius increase and mitigating the most severe impacts of 72 climate change. And this is why, last year, Orange County underwent the climate action planning process. 73 We've been doing a lot of really great work over the years. We've been installing solar. We've been putting in EV 74 chargers. We've been installing geothermal wells. Been doing a lot of great work. But what was lacking was a 75 comprehensive road map or a systemic plan that would really lay out all the strategies and actions along with an 76 associated timeline that would help us to meet our overarching climate action goals, which are to get to 100 77 percent renewable energy by 2050, to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and 100 percent by 78 2050. 79 80 Development of the plan was a year-long effort. Very much like the comprehensive land-use plan is being 81 developed now, it involved a lot of community engagement. We held a variety of different focus groups 82 throughout the community throughout the year, speaking to members from our business community, the 83 nonprofit sector, student groups. We had one-on-one phone calls. We had a big survey that went out 84 community wide. We had over 500 responses to that survey. And then we also looked internally at helping us 85 put together this climate action plan. We developed a climate action team which was made up of mostly 86 department directors from a variety of different departments, including our own Cy Stober, so he was able to 87 provide a lot of input into the plan, along with other department directors. 88 89 Our plan is going to need to be updated regularly, at least every 5 years as new technologies come online, new 90 ways of tackling climate change are discovered, new funding sources come to light. We definitely want to keep 91 our plan current. A really unique feature of our climate action plan is the dashboard that we created which is on 92 our website for anybody to go to at any time. It's like the Cliff Notes version of the climate action plan, it gives you 93 the nuts and bolts versus skimming through all 160-plus pages of the climate action plan. (Demonstrated 94 dashboard). 95 96 Another nice feature of our dashboard is our resources tab, and here we have a variety of different plans that are 97 listed. We definitely want all of our plans talking to one another,and we incorporated many of the current Orange 98 County plans in the development of the climate action plan, so you'll see us calling out the comprehensive land 99 use plan in our plan, as well as New Hope landscape-conservation plan, the Orange County transit plan, and of APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 100 course we'll have the brand-new strategic plan on this page as well. And then under the programs side of things, 101 if you clicked on that, you can see all the programs that we have currently in Orange County that are helping to 102 fight climate change. 103 104 As part of our climate action planning process, we developed an updated greenhouse gas inventory, and no 105 surprise here, but it tells us that transportation and energy use continue to be our two biggest greenhouse gas 106 emission producers. So to be able to lower those greenhouse gases, we developed the top foundational things 107 that we should be doing in the county. And some of those things include reducing the vehicle miles that we're 108 traveling by 30 percent. We want to do that by 2050. And we also want to increase our community EV adoption 109 rates. We want to do that by 50 percent by 2035 and 100 percent by 2050. We also want to establish an 110 electrification plan in order to help us transition off of fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, so that's something 111 that I'll be working on this year. And then we want to increase our community-wide solar 25 percent by 2035. 112 113 Underpinning all of our foundational strategies is an emphasis on equity and ensuring that our climate actions 114 are being prioritized first and foremost to our vulnerable populations in Orange County. We also want to create 115 a culture of sustainability in Orange County and integrate sustainability in all the work that we do. When it comes 116 to planning,when it comes to budget development,when it comes to rolling out new programs and initiatives,we 117 always want to have that lense of sustainability in our thought process. 118 119 Our plan is broken up into 70 different strategies and 188 associated actions, and we have five different focus 120 areas. Transportation-we're really looking at ways that we can encourage more public transportation and more 121 ridership in our public transportation options. We also want to create walkable streets, bikeable streets, and 122 obviously we want to increase our EV adoption rates. Under the built environment and energy category, we're 123 really looking at ways that we can become as energy efficient as we possibly can within our buildings, and so 124 looking at deploying LED lights and things like energy-efficient heating and cooling systems would fall under that 125 category. And then, obviously, adding as much solar as we can to our buildings. 126 127 Under resource conservation, we're really looking at ways that we can reduce our overall waste in Orange 128 County,figuring out strategies to reduce our waste when it comes to single-use items, so putting things in reuse 129 longer. And then really hoping to promote composting as much as we can as a really great way to reduce our 130 waste in Orange County. 131 132 Under green community,there's so many items here. We want to continue to promote our policies and programs 133 that continue to preserve our open space in Orange County. We want to promote our nature-based solutions in 134 order to mitigate things like flooding that we experience from storm events, and we have a goal of planting trees, 135 a lot of trees; in fact, 10,000 trees in 10 years, so those are some of the strategies that you'll find under our green 136 community. 137 138 And then,finally, under resilient community, here we're really looking at ways that we can become more resilient 139 against the storms that we know are coming our way. So looking at ways that we can help mitigate flooding and 140 looking at ways that we can help mitigate the extreme effects of heat. And so here is an example of built 141 environment and energy focus area and the strategy and associated action under this category. And one thing 142 that I like to highlight in one of our actions here is to advocate for energy-efficient building codes with the North 143 Carolina Building Code Council. I know there has been some challenges with that. What we're trying to do is to 144 really look at ways that we can incentivize developers to build sustainably. And some things that some other 145 local jurisdictions have been deploying as strategies to do that include things like bonus density in exchange for 146 a green building, offering tax incentives,fast tracking permitting for green building, and even offering a rebate for 147 the portion of the construction permit fees that promote energy efficiencies. So, looking forward to having some 148 conversations with planning staff to see what makes sense for Orange County to do, how we can learn what 149 other communities are doing, and seeing if we can deploy some of those strategies here. APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 150 151 And then also under built environment and energy, I mentioned we have a goal of expanding our renewable 152 energy usage. And one action item under this category is to work with our planning department to expedite the 153 permitting process for all new solar projects. I've already had some preliminary conversations with planning staff 154 just to talk through how we can modernize and simplify the standards for public and private solar installations to 155 really make it as user friendly and expeditious as possible. We've got a meeting on the books later this month to 156 talk through that and to draft some potential language for an amendment to the UDO. 157 158 And then a couple of strategies that I'd like to call out that are in the climate action plan as they relate to 159 renewable energy generation are our really popular and productive Solarize the Triangle program. This has 160 been a 2-year initiative—it's actually getting ready to wrap up the end of this month—that was designed with 12 161 local governments, including Orange County. And the idea was to provide a bulk-purchasing program, so the 162 more solar that is purchased, the lower the overall cost, so we were able to do that in partnership with an 163 organization called Solar Crowd Source. We also collaborated with Central Pines Regional Council to help us 164 administer the program, and Yes Solar Solutions from Cary was the contractor that was selected to do the solar 165 installations. So here you can see a nice little recap of some of our accomplishments related to that program. 166 We were able to get 143 new contracts signed to install solar on both residential and commercial buildings. And 167 all combined that totals almost$250,000.00 in annual utility bill savings,which is very significant, and 2'Y2 million 168 pounds of carbon dioxide are avoided annually as a result of this program, so this is definitely a program that we 169 want to continue. A really nice feature of this program that we were able to push forward was to procure some 170 funding from Orange County to apply to low-to moderate-income households so that we could make sure that 171 we were able to provide solar for those folks who didn't have the resources to do that. And I'm happy to say we 172 had our first installation done recently on an LMI home in the town of Carrboro, and they are just over the moon 173 about it, and we've got several more in the queue, so we're excited about pushing that forward in the coming 174 months. 175 176 Another project that we're also very excited about is our agrivoltaic pilot project. If you're not familiar with the 177 term agrivoltaics, it basically means putting solar up above crops that are growing below. The idea is we're trying 178 to harvest the sun twice, once for solar energy generation and once to grow the crops underneath. We're 179 partnering up with County Extension, and we're looking to implement this pilot project at Breeze Farm, which is 180 located in Hurdle Mills. Breeze Farm currently serves as an incubator farm for farmers who want to learn if this is 181 the right field for them to go into. It was designed to be a sustainable farm,and so it's a teaching farm, and so this 182 just plays perfectly into the overall mission of what the farm is all about. 183 184 Under the transportation focus area, we have an action of increasing the number of EV charging stations 185 throughout our community. And one thing that we've been looking at is seeing what our other local jurisdictions 186 are doing. I know that the City of Raleigh has recently put in some language to amend their UDO to require EV 187 charging infrastructure in new development for multifamily residential, for hotels, for standalone parking, and for 188 vehicle fuel stations. So I'm planning on—well, I actually already, I met with Cy a few weeks ago, and we talked 189 about this, and we're looking forward to drafting some initial language for circulation to see if we can do 190 something similar here in Orange County in that regard. 191 192 Also under transportation, we have another action of to develop our greenways and other trails between the 193 towns for recreation and commuting purposes. We really want to promote that connectivity, promote safety, and 194 sustainable modes of travel. So, again, going back to City of Raleigh, they also recently put in an amendment to 195 their UDO that states for sites with greenway trails, pedestrian connections from the building or parking area to 196 the trail are required if their project is above a certain size or residential density. So, looking to adopt some 197 similar language that the City of Raleigh has done here in Orange County and seeing if we can help facilitate 198 those connections as well. 199 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 200 Under our green community focus area, as you can imagine, there is a lot of associated actions here. The 201 climate action plan places great emphasis on preserving our natural spaces for the role that they can play in 202 mitigating climate impacts, for the role that they can play in sequestering carbon and how our natural spaces 203 provide us with a lot of resiliency. Some action items here are to prioritize the rural buffer and anti-sprawl zoning 204 in the comprehensive land use plan and then to examine current development within the rural buffer and rewrite 205 regulations to prevent further suburban developments. And we definitely want to have a focus on connectivity of 206 natural spaces, as recommended in the Eno New Hope land conservation plan, so making sure that we have 207 those important wildlife corridors. We also want to develop some guidelines and incentives for developers to 208 really start utilizing a lot of green infrastructure in their development, as well as planting native plant landscaping. 209 210 In terms of next steps, we're looking to find those areas of collaboration and talk through the intersections 211 between the actions that are in the climate action plan and what's going into the comprehensive land use plan. 212 I'm on the strategic planning committee for the CLUP, and I've been engaged in the planning process, and so I'm 213 looking forward to being able to continue to promote what we have going on in the CAP in the overall planning of 214 the comprehensive land use plan. And then I'm also just really looking forward to having continued 215 conversations with planning staff. We're starting to do that already to be able to start drafting some proposed 216 language for some possible UDO amendments that may be coming your way in the foreseeable future. 217 218 1 want to encourage you to check out our climate action plan. It is available on our website, as well as our 219 dashboard. I have this QR code that will link directly to it,or you can visit it through the link. And I encourage you 220 to reach out to me if you have any questions. And, finally, I just want to make a shameless promotion for an 221 upcoming event that we have going on in collaboration with the Arts Commission. It is a climate and 222 sustainability event happening on opening night,April 5,from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Eno River Arts Mill. We have put 223 a call out to artists within our community and surrounding community to submit artwork that represents their 224 interpretation of climate change and what our changing climate means to them, so I've been able to actually 225 serve on the jury to review all of the submitted artwork, and we have some amazing pieces, so I'm excited about 226 this event, and I hope you can come out and enjoy it. So that's all I have for you this evening. Happy to take any 227 questions that you have. 228 229 Adam Beeman: In regards to prioritizing the rural buffer and anti sprawl, in your discussions,do you discuss how 230 to pay for all these things, because the community is going to be voting on a $300 million bond for the schools. 231 We have$78 million of needs for the county. And so the only way I see that we continue to pay the bills and not 232 on the real estate taxes is to grow. We need growth. Strategic growth. But we need growth. I completely 233 understand preserving and everything else, but I just don't understand how the community cannot grow and 234 continue to pay the bills without forcing us all out. So that's one thing. And I'm not really looking for an answer; 235 just something to think about. But what I do want an answer: on the solar panels,was that private and public or 236 all public places or private places, like residents that put them up? 237 238 Amy Eckberg: Both. 239 240 Adam Beeman: And so knowing what little I know about how the utility company likes to take it, what happens 241 with the homeowners that are producing more than they actually use? Where is that extra credit going, and is 242 there a way that the county can capture that rather than let the utility company keep it for free? 243 244 Speaker 1: Unfortunately, no. Duke Energy, through the net metering process, is getting the extra energy 245 that's being generated, and the residents or commercial businesses that are producing that extra are getting the 246 additional back on their utility bills, so it's not a system that we can work out to have the county capture that. It's 247 directed through Duke Energy. They have a whole program set up for net metering. 248 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 249 Adam Beeman: It seems like it benefits the utility company extremely well, so I would just say I would try to figure 250 out a way that we can get—because all these folks are producing more than they're ever going to consume. It'd 251 be nice if we could offset some of the county's utility bills with that— I mean, we're promoting this growth. Why 252 shouldn't we benefit from the excess? The utility company's just putting it in their pocket and saying thank you, 253 so I would say I understand it's difficult, but that would be something that I'd like to figure out. Even if it's a 254 contract that the county actually owns the panels and you guys get the benefit of it and something, somehow, 255 some way, but it's not fair that the utility company is getting all that for free because I guarantee you most of those 256 people are producing more than they're actually consuming, and they're leaving money on the table, and the 257 county can use every single penny. So that's just my two cents, and I'm going to leave it there. I'll start over on 258 this end. Steve, do you have any questions or comments? 259 260 Steve Kaufmann: Well, transportation's an interesting one because we want to reduce the amount of miles 261 people travel, yet I just read as survey in the, I think it was the New York Times just a couple days ago, how the 262 percentage of travel distances is much greater now than it ever has, because since the pandemic people have 263 moved farther away from their work. How can you— I know that Hillsborough wanted to have a plan in which 264 people could have their homes near where they worked and everyone could just walk around casually, and 265 meanwhile, you know, that was a few years ago,traffic is just mounting and building, and the town doesn't seem 266 able to really have a plan of what to do with all this traffic, so I'm kind of curious about the transportation part, 267 actually. 268 269 Amy Eckberg: That's a tough one. There's no silver bullet when it comes to any of these things, and so we 270 have to attack it from multiple fronts. I think our plan does a pretty decent job of laying out a lot of different 271 strategies that we can deploy, and, you know, a lot of people are working from home nowadays, and so really 272 promoting telecommuting as best that we can, promoting our public transportation options, promoting what the 273 towns are doing with their public transportation as well as the county promoting mobility on demand, promoting 274 micro-mobility options. We're looking at doing an EV bike pilot program,too,to encourage folks to get out of their 275 cars and just get on bikes instead. And so just really trying to look at so many different strategies to tackle what 276 is a huge problem. 277 278 Steve Kaufmann: Right. It just seems like it's a larger problem than all the things you mentioned can really tackle 279 with what resources we have. You know, especially like the bicycle. I mean, I'm a biker, but I refuse to go on 280 roads like Old 86 or Orange Grove because I don't want to get killed. And there's no incentive for DOT to 281 increase the lanes at all, and I know the county can't do that. It's actually out of their realm, so it's very confusing. 282 283 Amy Eckberg: Yeah, it's a tricky problem with no easy solutions, and safety, I know, is a huge aspect of it, and 284 1 know that's why a lot of folks are hesitant to get out there on their bikes. But we're just going to do the best we 285 can and work with our partners to be able to learn from them and what's working with folks in the towns and our 286 regional partners and try to incorporate some of those successful measures into what Orange County can do. 287 288 Marilyn Carter: Thank you for the presentation. I took a look at the climate action plan when it was passed late 289 last year, and it has a lot in it. I was so impressed to how many different areas of action have been identified. 290 Two questions. One has to do with green building incentives -do we have a sense of when some of those 291 incentives would come online, knowing the urgency of the problem. Is there a sense of when some of those 292 actions would come online, those incentives for builders? 293 294 Amy Eckberg: I think in my conversation with Cy, it sounds like 4 months is probably the average period of time 295 in order to push things forward, thereabouts. So it's not something that can happen immediately. It's going to 296 take some time, and it's going to take some really good thought and planning, but probably within a year, I would 297 hope that we start seeing some of this come forward. 298 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 299 Marilyn Carter: That's great. 300 301 Amy Eckberg: That might be too ambitious, but I'd love to be able to get it done within that time period. 302 303 Statler Gilfillen: When you're dealing with the building code,the commercial code is a lot more stringent than the 304 residential code because the residential developers—this is an architect speaking - 305 306 Marilyn Carter: Excuse me, Statler. I had another question before— 307 308 Statler Gilfillen: Okay, I'm sorry. 309 310 Marilyn Carter: My second question just had to do with the list of the green areas that you had on the prior slide, 311 the green community focus areas. For those items that have been identified, I know that likely these will be 312 coming under the purview of the 2050 land use planning timeline as well. And just a generic question of when we 313 might see some of these come online in terms of the work of the planning board and changes to the land use plan 314 and the codes that govern some of those areas. There's guidelines and incentives for native plant landscaping 315 and some of the other items. 316 317 Cy Stober: Happy to answer this one, and I want to get back to one of your questions, Chair Beeman, as well, as 318 long as I have the mic. So let's go through these from bottom to top. Bottom will be a constant, perpetual, 319 decades-long effort and be integrated into everything that we do. Landscaping we've already done that. 320 Actually, Charity worked with staff to revise our entire landscaping guide, along with Marabeth Carr in the 321 Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Rec. So we now have a new landscaping guide that 322 prohibits all invasives and really prioritizes native and drought-resistant species. And then the other three, we 323 had two meetings about this to date, Perdita and I. 1 would expect that you're going to see a lot more about that 324 by the end of the year as part of the land use plan update, not as things coming forward to you, and part of the 325 updates that we provide to the planning board and the commissioners for feedback. And as we continue to move 326 forward, again, a reminder on the timeline, that is scheduled for adoption a year from this coming December, so 327 we still have another 18 months or so in that project. 328 329 Melissa Poole: To your question, Chair Beeman, about the net metering, so all those policies are really set by 330 the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and I think some of your colleagues can talk about how the efforts you 331 can make to try to lobby the Utilities Commission, but it's not a planning matter, per se, but it is a state board or 332 committee that basically says what Duke can and can't do, and then the legislation was written that ultimately 333 went through the Utilities Commission, and they rule on that. 334 335 Steve: And Duke has a lot of control over that process, too. Like they're big, big dogs in this state. 336 337 Adam Beeman: I know. Go ahead, Melissa. 338 339 Melissa Poole: I don't really have any questions. I just would like to follow up on a point Steve made,which is a 340 very good point, and I think Adam touched on this, regarding transportation. I recall looking—I can't remember if 341 it was y'all's website or the Hillsborough or Orange County website. One of our local websites lists out, in terms 342 of transportation in Orange County, over 80 percent of residents are single car drivers outside of the county, 343 every day. So in order to reduce transportation, at least in my mind, that is directly tied to economic 344 development. The idea that these things can't be done, this board actually is well positioned to assist in the 345 transportation issue when economic development initiatives come before the board outside of retail that pays 346 $12.00 an hour. That's pretty much all I have. 347 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 348 Adam Beeman: Before I give it to you, Lamar, there's one point that I want to make. The 2023 National Electric 349 Code, I'm almost positive, requires an EV charger in all new residential homes, but the State of North Carolina 350 wants to lag 7 years behind the code, so we're going to be battling that one from trade professionals because 351 we're not required to put it in unless the homeowner wants it, yet. So it's coming down the line, but the state 352 chooses to drag their feet, so we won't be required to put those in homes for another 7 years. 353 354 Statler Gilfillen: Going back to the question I started— 355 356 Adam Beeman: We're working across the board, Statler. 357 358 Statler Gilfillen: Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I wasn't aware of that. 359 360 Adam Beeman: We're getting to you. Lamar, go ahead. 361 362 Lamar Proctor: I just want to say thank you for doing this work. Are there other counties in North Carolina that 363 are adopting a climate action plan? 364 365 Amy Eckberg: There is a ton of counties. I think if they don't have one right now, they're in the process right 366 now of creating one. I think it's pretty commonplace nowadays for cities and towns and counties to be able to 367 have a climate action plan that lays out their strategies pretty specifically. 368 369 Lamar: Okay, great. And I just have a comment because this issue is important to me. I see it as one of the 370 most important issues facing all of us. And I just appreciate that you're working with what you can work with. A 371 lot of these are systemic problems that need to be solved or dealt with on an even larger scale, but I am very 372 grateful that you are doing this work and that our county is committed to doing this. I do feel like we got into this 373 climate situation through thousands and millions of decisions to choose to rely on fossil fuel energy over and over 374 and over again, and the only way we're going to get out of it is, over time, to make thousands and millions of 375 decisions to draw away from reliance on fossil fuel energy. And I do want to just comment that I see the keeping 376 temperatures at 1.5 degrees, and I understand why it's presented that way, but to me, the underlying issue is 377 getting the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere down. So for those who don't know,just looking it up, in 1960 378 it was about 300 parts per million, and it has steadily risen to now 420 parts per million. And so this stuff stays in 379 the atmosphere, and even though it's invisible, it's like anything else, a little bit of it is necessary, like water. You 380 need to drink water every day, but if you drink 5 gallons of water,you're going to die. So this is kind of what we're 381 doing to our atmosphere,just dumping invisible CO2,and it's having these physical effects of trapping heat in the 382 atmosphere. So I just encourage you when you're presenting this information, especially on the website, to 383 mention that parts per million because that is the underlying issue. It isn't the temperature. The temperature is 384 the secondary effect of having too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and I feel like it lets fossil fuel 385 companies off the hook when we only talk about temperature and we don't talk about what the direct thing is, 386 which is the CO2 concentration in parts per million. 387 388 Amy Eckberg: Thank you. Thank you for that feedback. I appreciate it. 389 390 Adam Beeman: All right, Statler, it's your turn now. 391 392 Statler Gilfillen In the building code, the commercial code, energy-wise, is far stiffer and more rigid than the 393 residential code. Apparently, a number of years ago,the residential developers managed to keep it much looser. 394 Many states allow an individual county to override a state building code with something more stiff. That is 395 apparently not the case here in North Carolina. Is there anything that we can do to bring the residential code a 396 little more into conformance of what you need? I've got four questions tonight, by the way. That's one. 397 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 398 Amy Eckberg: We're reallyjust trying to advocate with the building code council through various networks. We 399 all join together, and I'm talking about the towns and the counties, to be able to provide some language to 400 encourage them to revisit the building codes. So, right now,that's what we're trying to do -advocate as best that 401 we can for them to do that. 402 403 Cy Stober: If I may, I think the building code council refers to it as liberalizing the building code, but basically 404 what that means is less and less oversight, less and less permitting by our own county and, therefore, less 405 opportunities for us to incentivize energy saving practices as well, through either fee structures or permitting, 406 which I think I made a comment when, last summer when they changed, for example, the minimum amount of 407 improvements that are made to a building that don't require any permits went from $20,000.00 to$40,000.00. 408 So, if you were doing $40,000.00 of improvements to your home, you don't require any permits, and that makes 409 what you're talking about, Statler, very difficult. Doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve advocacy as mentioned in 410 the plan and action. 411 412 Statler Gilfillen: The second issue is, in the last month, a number of studies are starting to come out that EV 413 vehicles may actually in their lifetime be more pollutant than the conventional gas engine, and if we are pushing 414 to improve the EV, use of EV vehicles, are we, in fact, being counterproductive? I don't have an answer for this. 415 1 can only raise it based on what I'm reading in reports and in the news. 416 417 Amy Eckberg: I don't think that we have a definitive answer for that either. I think there's been definitely some 418 issues that have been brought up in terms of the mining of lithium and the production of EVs in the batteries, and 419 then recycling and talking about, you know, there are some negatives to EVs, but I think the positives overall 420 outweigh the negatives, but I think the jury's still out and there's still research being done, so it's hard to say 421 definitively at this point. 422 423 Statler Gilfillen: For a long time they've been talking about the high speed rail going from Raleigh to Charlotte 424 which would go through Orange County. I believe from my own experience being in Europe for a good portion of 425 my life, rail transit makes a big difference. Anything about the high speed rail, in particular, more than bus or 426 other? 427 428 Amy Eckberg: I have not heard any updates on that. Do you all have any updated information? 429 430 Cy Stober: It's going through the initial kind of feasibility analysis because it would actually be a high speed rail 431 line that connects Washington D.C.to New Orleans or Florida, I can't recall. But, yeah, it would use the rail bed. 432 So, we have a 200-foot right-of-way, railroad right-of-way that goes through Orange County. And — 433 434 Statler Gilfillen: Has that already been defined? 435 436 Cy Stober: Yes, it is already owned by the North Carolina Railroad. So, evaluating it for a new set of tracks, 437 because the existing tracks cannot accommodate vehicles traveling at that speed, is necessary. It's very likely 438 additional land will be needed to accommodate that line,and we're talking about decades in terms of making that 439 a reality. Our current president, as you know, is a big advocate of rail. He used the Acela for most of his career 440 commuting from Delaware to D.C. He would love to see it happen, but it takes a very long time and every state 441 has different ways of acquiring land and permitting. So that also adds complications to it. So it's at the very initial 442 levels of evaluation. 443 444 Statler Gilfillen: My last comment, and I hope you can laugh a little bit at this. You made a reference to cycling 445 and walking. There are, in my opinion,two other common uses for those types of trails that seem to be ignored; 446 one would be for jogging. That's different than walking, and sometimes, the architectural planning needs are a APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 447 little different, and the other one that seems to be very much missing in Orange County is rollerblading. If it were 448 easy and promoted, more people would possibly do it. 449 450 Whitney Watson: I think it's an amazing amount of work that's been done. It seems to me there is an opportunity 451 over the next 18 months or so as the land use plan comes together to tie some of the issues or actions that are 452 not in alignment. For example, in rural broadband, huge initiative. Let's get rural broadband out throughout the 453 county which, of course,facilitates people working from home and ordering from Amazon with multiple deliveries 454 a day. And then if people now live 15 miles outside of City Center or Town Center, when they get ready to do 455 their shopping, they have to jump in their single use-vehicle and drive in and find places to park, and so on. And 456 the same is true for workforce development or having employment opportunities. In some ways, we're pushing 457 people to move closer and having a more dense environment, and at the same time, we want the county to be 458 more rural and agrarian. So, with that tension between what do we really want for a lifestyle and what do we 459 want to do for the environment is something that probably requires a lot of conversation, and it may require a lot 460 convincing for folks who live out from some of the towns and cities of Orange County. 461 462 Amy Eckberg: Absolutely, and I know that all those things are going to be discussed and looked at as we 463 continue to go down the road of the comprehensive land use plan. 464 465 Delores Bailey: I do agree with all of the information. Just one little point. You talked about possibly providing 466 density as an incentive for when people would include the policies that you're talking about and, with the 467 affordable housing lands on because that's normally what the governments have to give to developers when 468 they do the right thing. When you talk about density bonuses, what were you talking about specifically? 469 470 Amy Eckberg: It could be height density. I know the County of Arlington does a very successful building density 471 program to encourage green development, and they look at things like height density since they're a very dense 472 community. I think that's something that I would just strategize with planning staff. We haven't had 473 conversations about it. I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility, but it would definitely need to be 474 researched more. 475 476 Delores Bailey: So, I was just wondering if there had been any,orjust to encourage you to do a lot of talking with 477 the planning departments because the developers already are looking for ways to provide that in the city and, 478 usually, that's around the affordable housing piece of it. 479 480 Amy Eckberg: That's a great point. Thank you. 481 482 Adam Beeman: Any other questions? 483 484 Statler Gilfillen: I have one last comment, if I might. I don't know if you're familiar. About 2 years ago in the 485 Economist Magazine, there was an article about an Irish company that has cut a contract with the American 486 company Carrier to develop a new type of air conditioning unit that will require half the energy to produce the 487 same chilling effect. It's apparently caught up in the bureaucracy right now a bit. Are you familiar with this at all? 488 489 Amy Eckberg: I'm not, but I think I need to look into it. 490 491 Melissa Poole: So, one other point. As we were talking, Adam made a great point about environmental 492 protections, because we all want them. Unfortunately, in this country, environmental protections are expensive, 493 so there is an economic variable to be considered as well. You mentioned quite a number of things that Wake 494 County has done in legislation they've implemented. One piece of legislation they've implemented, which 1 495 fundamentally and wholly support and would love to see happen in Orange County, is they required their bike 496 riders to get license plate and collect fees,just like you do on a car, in order to offset some of their costs. APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 497 498 AGENDA ITEM 8: NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS 499 500 Perdita Holtz: Late last year, I think it was around the time we were doing the work plan in December, some 501 planning board members, asked to have an opportunity to review and discuss the current notification 502 requirements that we have in our unified development ordinance when there was available agenda space, and 503 there was available agenda space,this meeting, and so here we are. I am going to give a short-ish presentation 504 and then open it up for you all to discuss as you requested. So, I pulled together all of the current requirements 505 in the LIDO in this table that's on the screen and it's within the abstract for this item as well, and basically for 506 amendments that affect a parcel of property, the current notification is that property owners within 1,000 feet of 507 the subject property get a mailed notification, and then there are also signs posted on the property in question. 508 Sometimes, more than one sign is required,for instance, if it's a corner,there's two signs. If it's a very large piece 509 of property, we might post more signs along the frontage. And then, of course, there are also newspaper 510 advertisements for the board county commissioner's public hearing. I wasn't going to go through each of these, 511 it's just a table to share with you. 512 513 You may recall back in March of last year, we provided an info item, also as a result of planning board member 514 requests about NIMs and who requires NIMs, and there some counties that were mentioned in particular to look 515 at. This is a table that is also included in the agenda materials. It's the info item from last year. I made phone 516 calls and emails to the planners within Buncombe County, Durham, Chatham, and Wake Counties to see who 517 requires NIMs and what the notification requirements are, and that is all contained within this table as well. And 518 then,just as a reminder, there is also additional communication that occurs that's a matter of policy or practice. 519 There are email newsletters that go out, and you may have noticed that for the past few months, at the end of the 520 planning board agenda, there's a link there that people can use to sign up for the planning and inspections 521 department monthly newsletter, and then there's also a general county weekly newsletter that includes 522 information on certain planning matters such as re-zonings when they come around,and also social media posts 523 that are done by our community relations department for certain planning matters such as the re-zonings. 524 525 As part of tonight's agenda, over the weekend, Charity sent me a couple of questions because she knew she 526 couldn't be here tonight, and I was able to pull some information that I shared with her and that I'm sharing with 527 you. She asked about population density in unincorporated Durham and Wake and how that compared to 528 Orange County, so I had our GIS data staffperson pull some 2020 census numbers, and, in a nutshell, these 529 yellow-shaded cells here in the spreadsheet show what the density is, and in Durham County, it's .32 people per 530 acre. In Orange County, it's .24 people per acre, and in Wake County, it's .61 persons per acre. And then 531 Charity also asked if address quantities rather than distance is ever used as the standard by which to do 532 notifications, and I can tell you that in my 30 years in planning in four different states, I have never seen that and, 533 importantly, I have not seen it in North Carolina. We are North Carolina and follow North Carolina law, but she 534 had asked if that is ever done . One of the reasons distance is used for the direct-mailed notifications is that it's 535 based on who's directly affected by a project, and I realize there can be a lot of different opinions about directly 536 affected or directly impacted, and so, you know, in Orange County, we settled on 1,000 feet. That was actually 537 increased in 2017 from 500 feet. It was doubled in 2017 to the thousand feet that we use today and which is very 538 much in line with the maximum that anybody else in North Carolina does that we are aware of. And then, also, 539 we do post the signs, so if you're outside of the mailed notification boundary, if it's a site that you're driving by 540 regularly, you're probably going to notice the sign. We know that some people say they can't read the sign, but 541 that tells them, hey, let me find out about this because they show up at the meetings and so they know about it, 542 you know, whether or not they could read every single word on the sign. So, Melissa has a question. 543 544 Melissa Poole: I have a question because us having discussed this many, many, many times, any change would 545 require getting the county attorney involved and a LIDO update, isn't that correct? And then the board of county 546 commissioners ultimately have to vote. APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 547 548 Perdita: Holtz: Yes, the county attorney's office reviews all UDO updates, and if it were something that was 549 really out of line,you know,we would talk with the attorney staff before we spent any significant time to see if they 550 were even comfortable with the concept. 551 552 Melissa: So, to be clear, it's not something that this board can just propose and vote on and, boom, it happens? 553 554 Perdita Holtz: No, as a matter of fact, before we spent significant staff time on anything coming from a 555 planning board proposal, we would run it through the manager's office who would take it at least to chair/vice 556 chair, if not the full BOCC to get approval to work on that. 557 558 Melissa Poole: And if memory serves, our thousand feet exceed the state recommendation. 559 560 Perdita Holtz: Yes, the state requirement is for abutting land uses which means the parcels that touch or are 561 located directly across the street from the affected parcel. 562 563 Melissa Poole: OK. Thank you. 564 565 Lamar Proctor: And I apologize,just to clarify, is this being brought before us because we feel that we're not 566 notifying enough people? Because on the chart, it looks like we're above and beyond our neighbors, at least, in 567 terms of our distance, and that sort of thing. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understood. 568 569 Adam Beeman: Dolores, we'll start with you and work our way backwards. If you have any questions? 570 571 Delores Bailey: I'm good. Thank you. 572 573 Chris Johnston: I appreciate the chart. It's always good to know what our neighbors are doing. 574 575 Lamar Proctor: The state law is just the minimum required. The state law doesn't prohibit us from doing, 576 obviously, it doesn't prohibit us from extending our notification areas. 577 578 Perdita Holtz: Well, it doesn't, Lamar, but there may be a limit to that. You know, if Orange County were to 579 suddenly say we're going to go a mile or we're going to go significantly more than any other place in North 580 Carolina does, I don't know that our attorney staff would be comfortable with that and opening up Orange County 581 to a potential lawsuit that is so out of line with what the state statute says and what normal practice is in North 582 Carolina. 583 584 Lamar Proctor: Well,and I'll just make this comment, not to delay this, but I think Chapel Hill tried to do an officer 585 oversight board and that got the interest of the state legislature, and they forbade that, so if you, I think your 586 warnings are... 587 588 Perdita Holtz: You may recall Orange County lost our impact fee authority in 2017. 589 590 Lamar: That, yes.And there are other examples of going above and beyond, and then the legislature comes in 591 and shuts it down on this specific basis. 592 593 Adam Beeman: So, I think would this at some point put an unfair burden on the applicant? The Treesist came in. 594 He had to foot the bill out of his pocket to send out all those notifications at first class regular. It's not bulk mail; 595 correct? 596 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 4.3.24 597 Perdita Holtz: That is correct. 598 599 Adam Beeman: So, first class rate for however many notifications you're going to send, that's expensive, at 600 some point, that burden becomes too much, and they'll certainly be at the state house. 601 602 Cy Stober: And, Mr. Chair,that has been the informal conversation we've had with our staff is the applicant 603 has a legal responsibility to notify everyone who could possibly be affected by a special use permit or a zoning 604 case that's tied to a property. When does that threshold end? When are they simply notifying folks? Because 605 the county wants them to, not because they're individuals who'll be directly affected by a change in use on a 606 property. That's kind of been the key takeaway. 607 608 Steve Kaufmann: I remember we had a conversation about this last year. When the signs were brought 609 up about the quality of the signs, and it was mentioned that they're going to improve, did that happen? 610 611 Cy Stober: Yes. And, I don't know when that was when Ashley came and we went through the website, but our 612 social media presence,our website presence are,we use X,we use Facebook,we are getting the word out there 613 in so many more ways than we were before. We have a new newsletter and that is more interactive and 614 integrative with social media. There are so many more resources that we have that use contemporary 615 technology and practices. So, yes, we have better signs that we put physically out there in the world that are 616 easier to see and to maintain, and we're always looking to improve, so please give us feedback if you think of a 617 way that we could make things a little bit better, but we are, I think, leaps and bounds beyond where we were a 618 year ago in terms, particularly our online presence and notifying folks through social media and email. 619 620 Adam Beeman: I would say since my time on this planning board for 7 years that the county has made huge 621 strides in trying to educate the public, notify the public, and engage the public. Public doesn't necessarily want to 622 be engaged, but they demand, so they're doing their best. I assure you it's a heck of a lot better than it ever used 623 to be. So, have faith that they are trying to move in the right direction. And also, last thing, tonight is Melissa's 624 last night. She's rotating off. This is her last night, so I thank you for your service on the board, and we 625 appreciate your time. 626 627 AGENDA ITEM 9: ADJOURNMENT 628 629 MOTION BY Melissa Poole to adjourn meeting. Seconded by Lamar Proctor. 630 631 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 632 633 The meeting adjourned at 8:12 PM. 634 635 636 Adam Beeman, Chair