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7 <br />• University of North Carolina <br />• State of North Carolina (Eno River State Park) <br />• OWASA <br />• The Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Mebane and Hillsborough <br />• Orange County Health Department <br />• Orange County Recreation and Parks Department <br />• Orange County Planning Department <br />• Commission for the Environment <br />• Historic Preservation Commission <br />• Agricultural Districts Advisory Board <br />• Water Resources Committee <br />• Planning Board <br />There are undoubtedly many other groups not listed above which can <br />be coordinated with. <br />2. Accomplishing Resource Conservation Through the Planning <br />Department <br />A related comment from the hearing deals with whether these plans <br />and activities could be accomplished within the existing Planning <br />Department. <br />This concept was evaluated at the outset of the plans for forming the <br />new department. For a number of reasons, trying to accomplish the <br />many goals (new and old) in the confines of the Planning Department <br />is not recommended. These reasons include: <br />• Lack of Economy of Scale /Limited Resources in Planning. <br />The proposal for the new department calls for a mix of existing staff <br />two new positions to focus on new areas of emphasis. The new staff <br />positions, an administrative assistant and Natural Resource <br />Conservation Manager, would be needed regardless of the location <br />of these tasks. As indicated in the proposal, new boards that have <br />been created will require administrative support beyond available <br />resources in Planning, and the priority land identification and <br />acquisition efforts will require a person with abackground/education <br />not currently available. No new short-term space needs have been <br />identified by the creation of the new positions, so there are no cost <br />benefits to keeping the proposed initiatives in Planning. In <br />summary, the same relatively-small amount of money, time and <br />resources would be incurred whether as a new department or as an <br />expanded function of the existing Planning Department -unless a <br />substantial redirection of responsibilities, staff and financial <br />