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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2_5_25 Planning Board Minutes Approved 4.9.25 1 MEETING MINUTES 2 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 3 FEBRUARY 5,2025 4 REGULAR MEETING 5 6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Adam Beeman (Chair), Cedar Grove Township Representative; Lamar Proctor(Vice-Chair), Meg 7 Millard, Little River Township Representative; Statler Gilfillen, Eno Township Representative; Beth 8 Bronson,At-Large Representative; Charity Kirk,At-Large Representative; Chris Johnston, 9 Hillsborough Township Representative; Delores Bailey,At-Large Representative; Liz Kalies, 10 Chapel Hill Township Representative. 11 12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Whitney Watson,At-Large Representative; Steve Kaufmann, Bingham Township Representative. 13 14 STAFF PRESENT: Cy Stober, Planning & Inspections Director; Perdita Holtz, Deputy Director—Long Range Planning 15 &Administration; Jack Moran, Planning Technician. 16 17 OTHERS PRESENT: None 18 19 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 20 21 The meeting began at 7:02 PM 22 23 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 24 25 INTRODUCTION TO THE PUBLIC CHARGE 26 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 27 appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land 28 development law of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish 29 coordinated and harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner,which considers 30 the present and future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive 31 process that contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall 32 County. The OCPB will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and 33 quality public services during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 34 35 PUBLIC CHARGE 36 The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks 37 its citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board 38 and with fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to 39 observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting 40 until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair 41 will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is 42 observed. 43 44 Adam Beeman: One thing I just want to pass along before I roll off and hand off the reins to whoever 45 becomes the new chair and vice chair. I was at a Generac conference 2 weeks ago, and 46 they were talking about power needs in America. 50 percent of all the transformers in this 47 country are 48 years and older. We have increased our rates 30 percent since 2020, and 48 the government comes out every 5 years with a forecast of what they expect the power 49 demand to be. In 2024 they came out; I think that it was 67 gigawatts of future growth. At 50 the end of 2024, they revised that to 137 gigawatts of growth. In 1 year. 51 Approved 4.9.25 52 Beth Bronson: 67 to 137 you said? 53 54 Adam Beeman: Yes. There is a Al plant in Wisconsin that when it's finally up and running it will consume 55 the equivalent of 330,000 single family homes just to power this one building. 56 57 Charity Kirk: That's why DeepSeek is interesting because it's lower power. 58 59 Adam Beeman: Well, I mean, crypto currency you have all the data mining. It's just a constant power 60 draw. All I want to say is, folks, when you're thinking about your future you might want to 61 diversify all your electrical choices and don't just go to one path. 62 63 Charity Kirk: What does that mean, diversify all your electrical? 64 65 Adam Beeman: Well, I know some people, and I love my propane, and I will never give up my propane 66 cooking or gas cooking, so don't fight me on that one. But really you need to have a little 67 of everything. I know some people in Chapel Hill are heading to 100 percent electric. 1 68 have gone to people's houses, and we've put in their stoves, everything electric, and so 69 now as that bill continues to climb, because it's never going to stop, 30 percent in 4 years, 70 and if we have all that infrastructure that's that old, it's just going to continue to turn over, 71 and they're going to continue to pass that onto us. If we can have a little of everything, 72 solar, wind, and normal power, then we'll probably have a better balance than if people all 73 shovel to one way or the other. 74 75 Charity Kirk: So that's all like general community things, not personal things? 76 77 Adam Beeman: Correct. I just know that some communities were trying to ban gas appliances and all that 78 other stuff and take that off as a choice in new construction. I am just saying I can't afford 79 to go that route with all electric. We need to have that happy balance, so just something 80 to think about. That is what I learned at the conference, that power is going to be quite in 81 demand, especially if we have all these EV chargers and everything that everybody wants 82 online. It's just something to think about, and the cost is never going to stop climbing. 83 84 Charity Kirk: Thank you for clarifying. 85 86 Adam Beeman: On that note, I'm going to let someone else do all the other stuff. We're going to vote for 87 our chair. Do I have anybody that wants to volunteer for the chair? 88 89 Charity Kirk: Well, I think Chris and Lamar, I asked them, both were interested. Are you interested 90 Beth? 91 92 Beth Bronson: Am I interested? No, I am not interested, but I would be flattered to be nominated. 93 94 Charity Kirk: Okay. 95 96 Chris Johnston: Wait, wait, wait. Charity, are you interested? 97 98 Charity Bronson: No, not really. I don't have the bandwidth for it, so it seems Chris and Lamar are 99 interested. 100 101 Chris Johnston: I am interested in being vice chair. Approved 4.9.25 102 103 Adam Beeman: Vice chair. 104 105 Chris Johnston: Yes. 106 107 Adam Beeman: Okay. So, this might make it really easy, do we have anybody else that's interested or 108 wants to be nominated for a chair? 109 110 Statler Gilfillen: I will defer to Lamar at this time. 111 112 Lamar Proctor: Thank you. I'm happy to do it. 113 114 Adam Beeman: Just let's just have an up and down vote, I guess. All for Lamar for chair. 115 116 MOTION BY Adam Beeman to nominate Lamar Proctor to be Chair of the Board. 117 118 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 119 120 Adam Beeman: Now, I'm going to hand the reins to Lamar, and you can go ahead and find the vice chair. 121 122 Lamar Proctor: All right. Do, do I have any nominations for vice chair? 123 124 Charity Kirk: I nominate Chris for vice chair. 125 126 Lamar Proctor: Do I have a second? 127 128 Beth Bronson: Second. 129 130 Lamar Proctor: Second, any other nominations? All right. The floor is closed for nominations. All in favor 131 Chris for vice chair. 132 133 MOTION BY Charity Kirk to nominate Chris Johnston to be Vice Chair of the Board. Seconded by Beth 134 Bronson. 135 136 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 137 138 Adam Beeman: Congratulations. 139 140 Lamar Proctor: It was a difficult, messy, democratic process. 141 142 143 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATION ITEMS 144 145 Lamar Proctor reviewed the upcoming meeting calendars. 146 147 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 148 149 Lamar Proctor: Do I have a motion to approve the December 4th minutes? 150 151 Adam Beeman: I believe Meg had a correction. Approved 4.9.25 152 153 Meg Millard: I was present at that meeting, and Marilyn Carter was not present. 154 155 Beth Bronson: That's correct. 156 157 Meg Millard: So that's a change to who was here. 158 159 Beth Bronson: And if anybody else has something to change from the minutes I would make a motion to 160 approve the minutes with Meg's adjustments to the attendance record. 161 162 Adam Beeman: I second that. 163 164 Lamar Proctor: All right. All in favor of approval with that amendment. 165 166 MOTION BY Beth Bronson to approve the minutes with amendments. Seconded by Adam Beeman 167 168 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 169 170 Lamar Proctor: All approved, so the meeting minutes have passed, and I don't have any comments, so 171 does anyone have any informational items or anything they'd like to discuss? Nope. Do 1 172 have a motion to adjourn? 173 174 Beth Bronson: Well, I would just like to thank Adam for his service. I think it's pretty amazing to be a 175 member of the public. For all of us kudos because this is on our time. This is on our 176 ability to, and kudos to the planning staff for working with us as they do and being so 177 helpful and informative and providing trainings and guidance when asked. I think that it is 178 a real testament to that legislative-making process, and I really applaud all of us for 179 participating, so thank you, Adam. 180 181 Lamar Proctor: And thank you, Adam, you were, you saw us through some very contentious things that 182 could have easily devolved into chaos. 183 184 Beth Bronson: You sure did. 185 186 Adam Beeman: Well, I appreciate that, and good luck in the future, and you may see me sitting in the 187 audience now and again. 188 189 Beth Bronson: I hope so. 190 191 Lamar Proctor: All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? 192 193 Statler Gilfillen: I have one thing. Just a historical issue to bring up, and I had sent an email to Cy. He 194 said say something, so I will. I have a fairly large collection of antique architectural books 195 and technology, and in the back of two of those books, one of them is I believe the oldest 196 formal building code in America, the 1818 Boston Building Code. I have a copy of the 197 web page that I posted. As we are reviewing different documents, and we are trying to 198 approve land use studies, etc., I am reminded of the Boston Building Code in 1818 was 199 six pages long, including addendums, and I think one or two paragraphs talked about the 200 design of fireplaces for cooking of chocolate because they burned a lot of houses down. 201 That building code probably did more to impact the urban framework of any city in Approved 4.9.25 202 America since then at six pages. We are looking at trying to get approved documents that 203 are often hundreds of pages long. The language is often beyond the scope of the 204 average person to read, and I just would like to remind people from a historical standpoint, 205 sometimes the simpler we can make stuff, the more it will be followed, used, and we'd 206 benefit from it, so and if anybody is interested, here is a copy of the web page that I have, 207 and for what it's worth, the follow-up 1830 building code for New York City that changed 208 the composure of that city was all of ten pages long. 209 210 Lamar Proctor: Wow. 211 212 Statler Gilfillen: So as a lawyer, I'm sure you can appreciate how important the language can be. 213 214 Lamar Proctor: Yeah. That's really cool. Thank you for sharing that, and if you Google 1818 Boston 215 Building Code, your site is the first thing that comes up. 216 217 Statler Gilfillen: Good. I have had people over the years contact me to ask if they could use it. It was one 218 of the early pre-Civil War architectural books that I have. 219 220 AGENDA ITEM 8: ADJOURNMENT 221 222 Lamar Proctor: Cool. Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? 223 224 Adam Beeman: I motion to adjourn. 225 226 Statler Gilfillen: Second. 227 228 Lamar Proctor: All right. All in favor. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. 229 230 MOTION BY Adam Beeman to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Statler Gilfillen 231 232 MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 233 234 The meeting adjourned at 7:15 PM.