Shaping Orange County's Future Final Full Report

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reversed trends of increasing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reduced traffic congestion, and decreased the percent of Single Occupancy Vehicle trips. The towns and county have adopted coordinated Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (APFOs) which ensure that development is not approved until governments are prepared to provide the necessary supporting infrastructure, including streets, sewer and water, and schools. Through joint agreements with Orange County, urban growth boundaries exist around Chapel Hill /Carrboro, Hillsborough, Mebane, and Durham. Through this coordinated planning, much of the growth over the last 30 years has been focused into the four towns: Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Mebane, and town transition areas. In town transition areas creation of "village" style development has been encouraged to develop diverse communities and preserve local open space. These villages have developed in measured steps, away from sensitive natural areas. Each village has become a small, yet diverse, community providing a genuine sense of place to live and grow. By focusing development into the towns and transition areas and providing incentives for land preservation in rural areas, the integrity of many of the county's large natural areas has been preserved. DATA COLLECTIONANDREsouRcE ALLOCATION Comprehensive environmental data collection and analysis are used to determine resource and environmental limits and provide guidance to sustainable use. Based on this data, Orange County, in conjunction with other counties in the region, has, after studying the pros, cons and feasibility, instituted a Planned Growth Budget, which is a system to fairly allocate use of the region's finite resources of water, air and land. PROTECTING WATER SUPPLYAND QUALITY Data is collected to determine limits to sustainable use of surface and ground water supplies that do not exceed assimilative capacity, the ability to support healthy aquatic life, and that maintain adequate year -round water flow. Water conservation has been addressed in several ways. Per capita use of water has been slowly declining due to the incorporation of water conservation into the design of all new construction, promotion of the use of landscaping that requires less watering, and implementation of other short and long term conservation strategies. Water quality is protected through a variety of means. Vegetative buffers along streams and rivers protect water quality and provide continuous wildlife corridor habitat. Landscaping is accomplished with less fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide application in both amount and toxicity. In rural areas soil erosion continues to be successfully controlled through use of farm and forestry best management practices and enforcement of regulations. In towns, monitoring and enforcement of soil erosion regulations has improved so that streams are well protected from erosion caused by construction and other activities. Ground and surface waters are regularly monitored for quality, and problems are promptly addressed. Wastewater treatment discharges are also carefully monitored and limitations are enforced. Development planning and expansion of sewage treatment capacity considers the costs of wastewater treatment and the assimilative capacity of the stream. Development is planned to protect water quality within critical surface water supply watersheds and in groundwater recharge areas.