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important issues were: equitable distribution of new facilities, storm water management, open <br />spacelwildlife corridor establishment, and historic preservation. <br />(a) 10 QUESTIONS THAT LEAD U5 TO PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY <br />1. Q: What are we doing? <br />A. Trying to address the impacts of growth that affect our livelihood and quality of life. <br />2. Q: Haw can we fix it? <br />A. The Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element is an important guidebook that can <br />promote an orderly, and tax-conscious development pattern. <br />3. Q: What are the big issues? <br />A. Water quality, air quality, traffic, loss of farmland, and loss of open space <br />4. Q: What is the common denominator that generates these issues? <br />A. Housing and population -housing creates impervious surfaces, populations <br />generate cars and pollution, cars create traffic, development converts and conflicts with <br />farmland, and development converts open space. <br />5. Q: What regulates the amount of housing? <br />A. Zoning (what type and density} and land use {where and why} ordinances of the <br />County. <br />6. Q: How much housing in the rural county is here now and how much more is <br />allowed? <br />A. Approximately 20,400 units existing; 131,000+ units allowed by present regulations; <br />{FYI -Urban areas - 28,900 dwelling units existing; 31,000 dwelling units possible} <br />7. Q: How long would it take to build that many units and could someone actually <br />build that many in rural areas? <br />A. Build out is difficult to estimate, but at present growth rates (which are relatively <br />conservative in comparison with Johnston, Wake, and Durham Counties), it would take over 200 <br />years. When Orange County was formed in 1752, Hillsborough was known as the `capital of the <br />backwoods.' This area formed in 1752 due to `heavy immigration' probably couldn't imagine <br />125,000 people in the year 2000. So the passible 131,000 units and associated 310,000 people <br />may seem similarly improbable to today's citizens. <br />8. Q: Does the availability of good sails for septic systems limit the maximum <br />housing lots possible in rural areas? <br />A. Yes, but to a small degree. There are aver 200,000 acres of undeveloped land in the <br />County, and only about 10-15°~ of that may be constrained by stream buffers, etc. Some <br />farmlands have good soils far development and same not. There has been a trend towards <br />maximizing what regulations allow, and Orange County is in the path of development pressures. <br />Tables: Trends in average lot size and number of lots in subdivisions <br />9. Q: Is the big question, "Haw many units and associated population can the <br />County sustain aver the long run?" <br />A: Yes. To achieve some of the goals of the County: protecting air and water quality, <br />reducing traffic; preserving the farm economy and land value equity; and protecting <br />