Minutes - 20060120 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Gordon said that she would be pleased if the BOCC could get through the items on the BOCC priority list this year. She wants to be ever mindful of the communication with the public in terms of process. It is always important to tell the public what they are doing because they spend taxpayer dollars on behalf of the public. She said that this is a progressive board that cares about people and when the Board has a success, they should let the public know. Chair Jacobs made reference to the Communications goal, in particular the branding of County publications and services and that there is a standard design. He said that this would be cost effective and less confusing. Also, combining printing projects for Senior Times and Recreation and Parks could be more efficient. Chair Jacobs made reference to Affordable Housing and said that he would like to see the Board directing to work more on the issue of mobile homes and mobile home parks. This is a tremendous aspect of the affordable housing stock. He thinks that they need some strategies and creative thinking. Chair Jacobs made reference to Youth under the goals and said that he was thinking they need to do some creative work now that the County controls the Sportsplex and how to plug some of the youth programs and services there. Sharron Hinton could work on this. Chair Jacobs made reference to the ten-acre lot issue and said that under the ordinance you can develop aten-acre lot development and then later on it is only the homeowner's association that would prevent you from further subdivision and it is just a staff review process. This is a large percentage of the development in Orange County and a huge loophole that people are exploiting to avoid having to do some comprehensive planning. He would like to direct staff to work on this and bring it back to the Board. Andy Sachs asked what was needed for the work session on January 31 ~. John Link said that the staff has made collective notes and they will pull this together and will work with the Chair and Vice-Chair. COUNTY BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS Written InputlUpdates from BoardslCommissions: Alice Remini, Chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, said that the HPC has a reputation of being quiet. She said that they actually work really hard and are proud of this. She spoke about two issues -the irretrievable loss of historic properties and the greater loss of their context of the rural landscape. The HPC is stressing two approaches in dealing with this loss -education and partnership. One of their accomplishments during 2Q05 was the approval of a quick response team whose purpose will be to inspect any property over 50 years of age for which a prior permit has been requested. They will work with the owner either to save or at least to protect by photographing and documenting the building before its destruction. The HPC realizes that much more education will be needed to bring about a preservation outlook in the County. This past year they worked with a teacher at Cedar Ridge High School who had a number of his students undertake all reports with older County-born residents. A good part of their future planning involves working with average citizens of the County, both young and old. They would also like to have rehabilitation workshops where homeowners can learn about historically friendly building materials and techniques. Another educational achievement will be the proposed update of the countywide inventory of historic resources. They would also like to continue to pursue a heritage scenic corridor program. In this regard, they are speaking with residents of the Arthur Minnis area, and they