Minutes 05-13-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chair Foushee said that UNC is a critical piece because the University has made it clear that it would rather spend more money on this plan than on building more parking lots. She said that this cannot be ignored. Frank Clifton said that tonight is the first time that he saw Orange County participating to this depth up to this time. Craig Benedict said that the University has been missing from the stakeholder involvement. Steve Spade said that UNC is an active player in the planning and has been active in the discussions about the Orange County Transit Plan, as well as collaborating with the other transit systems. Also, he said that they believe it is important for the County to participate in this process. Commissioner Jacobs said that he and others were on the Carolina North committee and at that time they heard that nearly 30% of UNC's employees live in Orange County. He said that in the long-range vision slide, there is still no robust connection between Hillsborough and Carolina North. Hillsborough is building a train station to be on the commuter line and UNC is going to build a hospital if Alamance Regional lets them. There is a four-lane section of I-40 between Hillsborough and Carolina North. He said that it seems that there should be a much higher visibility connection than what he saw on the maps tonight. David King said that he gets a lot of mixed signals about the University railroad. He has always looked at this railroad corridor as a God-send and within the last several weeks the Chancellor has said that the University is going to get away from coal. Also, there is a lot of ambivalence and hostility toward development in all parts of the corridor. If there is to be light rail, it would have to serve development, and north of Carolina North, none has been contemplated or discussed. Commissioner Nelson arrived at 8:49 PM. Steve Spade said that he has been working with the University, and they are torn as to which corridor to place the emphasis. The long-term growth will be toward Carolina North. David King said that the fact that the University and the hospital are so parking constrained and the way that this is dealt with currently is to build a new deck, then both the University and the hospital are motivated to see this light rail system put in place. Commissioner Jacobs said that Triangle J Council of Governments purposely involved UNC in the Development and Infrastructure Initiative to get them to the table to talk about transportation and to participate. He said that it seemed that the UNC representative was the most resistant to talking about collaborating. He said that the next step is to get the University actively involved. Frank Clifton said that as customers shift from one transit to another, then one entity is going to be handicapped. For example, when people shift from buses to light rail, then the bus system will be handicapped. He thinks that there has to be more discussion about how to bring people together so that one system's benefit is not another system's demise. Commissioner Pelissier said that Orange County is going to be responsible for placing a referendum on the sales tax. She asked who would keep all of the elected officials informed and updated on all information. Steve Spade said that the staff agrees about keeping everyone informed. The University, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill are actively engaged in all of this. Hillsborough and the County elected officials have not been as involved. Frank Clifton said that he has tried to keep his elected officials informed but there needs to be open dialogue at the table when all elected officials are together.