HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-29-2003-7cAft G 1 7�
PLANNING THE LOCATION OF SCHOOLS
IN ORANGE COUNTY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The ongoing process to site a new high school in southern Orange County has
been a source of concern and consternation for many months. To some degree the
difficulties encountered are of our own making. To a large extent, however, these
difficulties reflect fatal flaws in the statutory process by which North Carolina delegates the
authority for siting schools. This is particularly true in an urbanizing area such as ours.
We are fortunate in Orange County to have a good system of communication
between the school boards and the Board of County Commissioners. Yet, despite good -
faith attempts at mutual assistance, the dysfunctional aspects of the school siting process
have become increasingly manifest. The most recent result is a time - consuming search
that works to the detriment of the children we are all committed to serve, while potentially
undermining other community goals related to sound land use, environmental sensitivity
and honoring public decisionmaking processes.
Once we have sited the new high school, we must change the way we do business.
The importance of establishing a timely and predictable process for siting schools is
made more acute by the pending adoption of a Schools Adequate Public Facilities
Ordinance (SAPFO). That ordinance requires a commitment from the county and school
boards to provide facilities within a reasonable timeframe to meet enrollment demands
generated by growing school populations. There is little leeway for delay.
Yet, as we have seen with the current siting of a new high school, a decision may
take more than a year as a school board grapples with issues of size and location related
to the selection of a particular parcel upon which to locate a facility.
Further complicating that process, North Carolina statutes invest the authority to
site schools in boards of education that have neither the training nor the support staff to
make these increasingly complex decisions. Thus we witness time spent on ultimately
doomed consideration of changes to urban service boundaries that are the basis of
carefully crafted, community- endorsed land use plans. Similarly misguided efforts have
previously included discussion of locating schools in the rural buffer north of Chapel Hill.
A lack of understanding of the ultimate land use goals embodied in municipal and
county plans is further reflected in comments about building a rural high school in
Carrboro's Northern Transition Area, targeted for intensive development, or in remarks
that seem to anticipate waves of growth in downzoned areas of southern Chapel Hill.
This disconnect is less a failure of individual or collective vision than it is a function
of North Carolina's antiquated and compartmentalized method for siting schools that
reflects the realities of a rural state that no longer exists.
Certainly in our fast - growing county, this arrangement has proven ineffective. We
have seen several developers interested in one property attempt to bribe and otherwise
manipulate a school board. In another case, the search for a suitable parcel has largely
failed to take into account public transportation resources -- negating a chance to teach
our younger generation to embrace alternative modes of transit -- in pursuit of an
outmoded auto - dependent model promulgated by the state.
We pride ourselves in Orange County on our commitment to public education, the
rigor of our land use planning and environmental protection, and our creative and
collaborative approaches to problem - solving.
Our Orange Water and Sewer Authority is perhaps unique in North Carolina in its
structure, which provides a mechanism by which Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange
County may jointly plan, share and control water and sewer service within the framework
of local land use regulations. The recently adopted Water and Sewer Boundary
Agreement, which involves Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Orange County, is
another example of collective effort to key public resources to support defined land use
goals.
The Joint Planning Agreement between the county and the towns of Chapel Hill
and Carrboro is yet another such partnership. The JPA created the rural buffer and placed
voluntary limits on municipal powers of annexation. These powers are granted by state
statute, yet were circumscribed in the interest of achieving a greater good -- the orderly
and publicly organized growth of southern Orange County.
That willingness to look beyond protecting institutional turf in order to achieve
broader goals is at the basis of my proposal to restructure our method for siting schools.
The time has come to look beyond old prerogatives to new realities.
Given the importance of land use planning in our community, and given the
heightened need for timely and orderly provision of educational facilities, I propose we
direct county staff to develop a draft memorandum of understanding that would engage
both school systems with the municipalities and the county in a comprehensive school
siting process. Such a process, unlike current practice, would bring to bear the
considerable planning and information resources of four jurisdictions. Planning entities
could work in partnership with the boards of education, employing growth models and
school population projections to identify specific parcels or areas best suited for siting
schools in the coming decade.
This approach would allow us to plan in a deliberate manner. Early involvement by
those elected officials charged with land use decisions would be assured prior to taking
proposals to the public for comment. We might then consider including in our next county
bond package monies sufficient to purchase the necessary, identified sites, lending an
element of surety that is currently lacking in our school planning process.
The ultimate result would be an enhanced process that minimizes conflicts with
land use goals and provides parents and taxpayers with the knowledge the siting of
schools can be achieved in a well- conceived and expeditious manner.
Barry Jacobs
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