Minutes - 20090915 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Gordon thanked all for coming out. She made reference to page 8 and the Task Timeline. Under DCHC MPO, the 41h bullet should say Transportation Advisory Committee and not Transportation Advisory Board. Also, regarding the last section, Endorse/Adopt final plan, she said that her understanding is that the DCHC MPO endorses the Orange County portion inside the MPO and then as a courtesy they also endorse or concur with the RPO. Also, TARPO endorses the CTP but gives a courtesy endorsement for the part inside the MPO. She said that the way it is written needs to be changed. She suggested adding, "DCHC MPO adopts Orange County CTP (area inside MPO)" as the second bullet and then all the other bullets will be pushed down. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the survey on page 13 and said that she had a tweak. She said that the four most common names are Smith, Jones, Johnson, and Williams. She said that the thing about "Smith" is that it is very close to the name of a road that actually exists. She suggested leaving out Smith and substituting Williams or another common name. Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 14, #11 and suggested that it say, "do not make NC 86 an expressway." Commissioner Gordon made reference to Attachment 4 on page 20 and said to change adoption from 2009 to 2010. Commissioner Jacobs said that if DOT is really trying to make the process transparent, then the less "planningese" and "transportationese" is used when it is presented to the public, the more likely it will be a transparent process. He said that there are so many acronyms and nuances that the professionals are aware of, but the public does not need to know unless they ask. He suggested just laying out the basics. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the map of the Burlington-Alamance MPO and who decides where an MPO impinges on a county. Karen Lincoln said that Mebane and the rest of Alamance County agreed to become part of the Burlington-Graham MPO, and so the urbanized areas became part of that. She said that she has contacted the Burlington-Graham MPO and Mebane to see if they would like to participate in this process and she has been sending updates and information. Commissioner Jacobs said that when the TARPO was created, the Orange County Board of Commissioners made a conscious decision not to make all of Orange County a part of the MPO. Presumably, Orange County has some capability of determining for itself where it wants to have those lines. He thinks that if one of the possibilities is that another MPO keeps moving into Orange County, then Orange County's MPO may want to preemptively move into where the RPO was. It would be like annexation, only for transportation. He said that the County Commissioners should have a say before other boards adopt transportation jurisdictions within the County's border. Commissioner Gordon said that the definition of when an area has to go into an urbanized area or not should be added. Her understanding is that, once the area is designated as urbanized, it will become part of an MPO. The MPO has a certain status with the federal government. She thinks that this process should be clarified for the Board. Commissioner Jacobs said that since the Board is only approving the timeline and the release of the survey, he would like this to come back to the Board of County Commissioners for further analysis and discussion —this issue of MPOs and how they relate to the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. Commissioner Gordon said that it is really important that the Board of County Commissioners get involved in this discussion of the MPO boundary as early as possible. Commissioner Jacobs said that it has been the position of the Orange County Board of Commissioners not to have NC 86 as a four-lane divided highway. He wants to know how this