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area is number one in the country for increased gas consumption and pollution. The new land use plan will put people closer to the urban areas. Craig Benedict made reference to community outreach and said that there will be public hearings. He asked how the Board and the CPLUC should go out to the community. There are three options -community could come to an open meeting with CPLUC members and staff, there could be meetings in northern Orange County, ar there could be a meeting in Hillsborough and in the rural areas of the County. Commissioner Gordon said that she is not sure that this is ready to go to community outreach. One assumption is that the towns will want to become more dense and this needs to be checked with the towns and definitely with Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The assumption is that the towns will want to receive this and that the people will want to go from a maximum density of one acre to five acres. This is not going to be easy to explain. She asked what would actually be taken out to the community. Craig Benedict said that this is a land use plan change. The goal is to have more continuity with the expectations of the Board to have less density in the rural areas. Barry Katz said that there is so much more to be said and they need to have mare Planning Board members here and he would like another meeting to discuss this. John Link said that it is important, as we go out into the community, that we also talk about some of the proposed subdivision regulations. All of the proposed changes should be presented at the same time. Chair Brown said that it sounds like we are talking about a lot of people. She is interested in going back to sustainability and how the County can afford taking on higher densities. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to community outreach and said that no ane on the Board of County Commissioners or in CPLUC is an advocate of private property rights before community goals. A lot of the people that we are proposing to down-zone are proponents of this view. He said that the more community outreach the better. He suggested having a focus group and having Craig Benedict do a presentation. Don Cox said that from a historical perspective, we have never had as many farmers on the verge of going out of farming as we do now. They look at their land as family assets. We need to convince them that this down-zoning will not adversely impact their economic structure. We need to show them that this will work for them. He thinks that there will be a lot more land coming onto the market than in the last few years. He feels very strongly that we will have wished we had preserved a lot of the farm land. Craig Benedict said that in Cane Creek, he was able to show that the sale of property was based on acreage and not how many units you could put an it. Farmers were getting an acreage value and the developers were getting the profit. Commissioner Gordon asked about the small area process with our partners. Craig Benedict said that with our joint area partners, we will begin discussing such things as the rural buffer densities. There will be task forces put together here with the Board of County Commissioners and Planning Board members and Planning staff. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he agrees that this is not ready to ga out to the public yet. He also agrees with the focus groups. He also agrees with Don Cox in that we should separate out the developers from the landowners. He said that the whole Planning Board needs to hear this as well as the Commission for the Environment and others. He said that we have forgotten what we went through with water issues in the summer of 2002 and we are going to get slammed again. This is an area for growth and we need to be careful. The need for additional comment is critically important. Commissioner Jacobs said that we are basically talking about sustainability. He suggested trying this out with a few different groups to see the reaction.