Shaping Orange County's Future Final Full Report

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INTRODUCTION - PURPOSE AND PROCESS In December 1996, a group of 30 citizens met for the first time to begin work on a comprehensive initiative called "Shaping Orange County's Future ". Their charge was to develop a quality growth and community - building plan for all of Orange County (both its towns and rural areas) that addresses a multitude of issues with implications for the county's current and future quality of life. This group was the outgrowth of a report from a steering committee of elected officials and interested citizens after a 1993 conference on quality growth plans for the county. This group of citizens — known as the Shaping Orange County's Future Task Force — has developed a vision and a set of recommendations after over 400 hours of meetings, community forums, outreach activities and brainstorming sessions. The subsequent pages of this document spell out this vision for the future and recommendations for attaining it. Why Shaping Orange County's Future? In a county that has seen many citizen committees and studied many far - reaching and difficult policy issues over the last few decades, one might ask why Shaping Orange County's Future is needed. The answer to that question is found in the very agreement to create the initiative: "Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the unincorporated areas of Orange County are at a crucial period in our history. The next twenty years could determine whether Orange County will continue to be an attractive, desirable place to live... We could become like Los Angeles with urban sprawl...Another possibility is that the fourgoverning bodies working together with each other and the citizenry could develop an Orange County model as determined by the values and visions of the people... With growth, we must snake sure that we better our community, improve our relations with each other and, hopefully, lay the foundation forfuturegenerations to lead fulfilling lives... At a 1993 conference... sponsored by the Assembly of Governments, nationally recognized quality growth planner, Dr. John DeGrove said that we could grow smart- or we could grow dumb. The way to grow smart... (is) to develop a comprehensive quality growth strategy. " So, while we have undertaken many studies and plans over the years, these efforts have infrequently been coordinated at the local government level to ensure that town plans and county plans are consistent. Most plans to date have focused on land use issues, without delving into the deeper quality of life, sustainability, and community - building issues that are directly relevant to a comprehensive planning process. 1