Orange County NC Website
sales tax not be removed until sales tax revenues have recovered from the <br />recessionary levels. She thanked the County Commissioners for their past support. She hopes <br />that the County Commissioners will fund a continuation budget for CHCCS. <br />NON-PUBLIC HEARING ITEM <br />4. Orange County Transit Plan: Draft Financial Plan for Rail and Bus Investment <br />Chair Pelissier said that Triangle Transit would be on their way shortly. <br />Chair Pelissier said that in the meantime, she gave the Board a summary of the recent <br />Orange County Leadership Transit meetings to discuss the Orange County Transit Plan. The <br />goal is to develop a financial plan to be brought back to the individual elected boards. She said <br />that they have discussed this issue and the bus plan. She said that there will be acost-sharing <br />with Durham County and Orange County that is agreed upon by both counties. They are having <br />this work session because the timeline has been sped up, since Durham County has decided to <br />put both a'/4-cent sales tax and a %2-cent transit tax on the ballot in the fall. She wanted Orange <br />County to have the same discussion. One of the issues that came up this week at their meeting <br />is that with the %rcent transit tax, Durham County was to make their decision before the end of <br />June, but then it got changed to the end of July. The Board has received some information in <br />the packets that was briefly discussed on Tuesday. There are some general plans for the light <br />rail <br />Chair Pelissier suggested talking about the bus plan until Triangle Transit <br />representatives arrive. The bus plan was just presented to the Board of County Commissioners <br />on Tuesday and none of this information has been presented to the Towns in Orange County. <br />The Towns would have to buy in before moving forward. <br />Planning Director Craig Benedict-said that about a year ago, Orange County took a <br />stronger role in the Orange County Transit Plan. He showed some maps of the Triangle region. <br />It has been decided that there would be two systems -one from UNC to Alston Avenue and <br />then another system in Wake County that would go from Cary to North Raleigh. More recently, <br />a commuter route element has come about that would connect the dots between the light rail. <br />There is an idea in the group that maybe Orange County should pay for 20% of the line between <br />UNC and Duke and maybe Durham County could pay the remainder. <br />Regarding a fair share financially, Triangle J was hired to do an analysis of what they <br />called a Shared Benefit Area, and Craig Benedict showed this area on a map. They finally <br />came to the conclusion that Durham County would pay for the parts that are in Durham County. <br />The scenario discussed tonight is suggesting that Orange County pay for portions of <br />light rail within Durham County, but within the Chapel Hill Town Limits. <br />He went through Attachment 4 which was the Durham-Orange Triangle Regional Transit <br />Program Financial Plan Draft. <br />He said that staff of Hillsborough, Mebane, Carrboro, Orange County, Chapel Hill, <br />Triangle Transit, and UNC met on a regular basis for about six months to determine which bus <br />routes need to be augmented to provide better service. The group came up with goals and <br />priorities. <br />David King, Executive Director of Triangle Transit, made a PowerPoint presentation. <br />The Orange County Bus and Rail Investment Plan <br />Maps of peak hour volumes (red is bad, yellow is getting bad, and green is ok) <br />