Orange County NC Website
building new schools and they need to ask themselves if it is a possibility to add an or create <br />same type of different construction with the present schools. Other thing to consider is <br />retrofitting the Lincoln Center and other smaller schools because of the trend toward smaller <br />class sizes. <br />Chair Jacobs said that the Department of Public Instruction recommended acreages that are not <br />functional for urbanized areas. He said that Raleigh just received a smart growth award for a <br />middle school that is located on four acres in downtown Raleigh. He thinks the school boards <br />should have more participation and be more creative in the construction standards. He pointed <br />out that South Carolina just abandoned its acreage standards. <br />Jim Ward asked how the group dealt with the acreage issue. Craig Benedict said that with the <br />urban sites, they knew it would be mare difficult to find acreage. Recommendations will be <br />coming forward an acreage needs more on a case-by-case basis. There is some land banking <br />opportunities. <br />Joal Hall Broun left at 9:15 p.m. <br />Craig Benedict said that they acknowledge that there will have to be urban settings, where <br />acreage will have to be changed, and suburban settings but not sprawl settings, where they <br />should be as conscious as possible of efficiently using whatever lands are available. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that there needs to be a formal statement of smart growth principles <br />that everyone agrees upon. She thinks there can be smart growth principles in rural, urban, and <br />suburban settings. She said that the idea of land banking was not new, and the county has had <br />a School Park Reserve Fund for several years. The idea was to set aside one cent a year for <br />land purchases for school and co-located park sites. This fund was spent down and currently <br />no more money is being added. She said that the County needs to work with the school <br />systems on school siting because statutory responsibility far siting schools still resides with the <br />school boards. <br />Ed Harrison, Jacquelyn Gist, Alex Zaffron and Cam Hill left at 9:20 p.m. <br />5. Update on Orange County Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element and Transfer of <br />Development Rights Activities (Orange County Planning <br />Craig Benedict said that there were public outreach activities in March, April, and May of this <br />year, where the staff went to the various townships and made presentations about the <br />comprehensive plan update. The main emphasis of the work has to do with watershed <br />protection. <br />Regarding air quality, the pattern of development happening in rural parts of the County is <br />somewhat of a sprawl pattern and there are a lot of vehicle miles traveled. Some suggestions <br />involve a reduction in the build out population of the rural areas of the County. <br />Another issue is to look at the Hillsborough general area. There are areas outside of <br />Hillsborough that could be serviced by water and sewer that are under Orange County's <br />jurisdiction. These could be urban transition areas. A task farce has been farmed to talk about <br />the potential for this. There is also a task force for a small area plan in Efland. <br />