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APPROVED 1 21412 0 0 6 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />WORK SESSION <br />October 24, 2006 <br />7:30 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Tuesday, October 24, <br />2006 at 7:30 p.m. at the Link Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses <br />Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, and Alice M. Gordon <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Stephen H. Halkiotis <br />COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geof Gledhill <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Rod Visser and Deputy Clerk to <br />the Board David Hunt (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) <br />NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT <br />AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. <br />1.Process to Enhance Monitoring of Publicly Financed Affordable Housing Projects te.g. <br />Habitat for Humanity -Sunrise Road) <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to a letter from Habitat for Humanity updating the County <br />Commissioners on the project that Habitat is working on. In the course of the development, <br />there has been a lot of discussion about the design and how much community participation <br />there has been and should be. The Sunrise Coalition has had a lot to say on the project and it <br />has made some points about the process that he thought were worth the Board taking note of <br />and seeing how to incorporate them into the process. He said that he and Commissioner <br />Foushee had a meeting last week, which also included Susan Levy of Habitat for Humanity and <br />other non-profit housing providers. Martha Hoylman, Chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory <br />Board, was also in attendance, and she informed the attendees that the AHAB is coming <br />forward with a number of recommendations about changing the way in which projects are done, <br />including the five-year cap that has been placed on projects. There are a lot of issues that will <br />be coming back to the County Commissioners regarding affordable housing projects. <br />Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that staff has attempted to respond to the <br />concerns expressed about the publicly financed projects. The process proposal would entail <br />continuous communications that take place between the developer, County staff, and the ARAB <br />as a first means of evaluation and review. These would be public meetings. She recognized <br />Susan Levy, Executive Director of Habitat far Humanity of Orange County, who was present. <br />Susan Levy said that Habitat has attempted throughout the process to be accountable to <br />the funding partners. She said that this has been a very open and accountable process. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to page 7 in the agenda packet and said that same of the <br />Sunrise Coalition's points have as much to do with the process as they do with the project. <br />Susan Levy said that the mare specific the process could be, the better. One of the <br />issues had to do with the definition of single family. Habitat's assumption was that if two houses <br />were attached, then they are still single-family homes and Sunrise Coalition had a different <br />interpretation. Gwen Harvey said that staff would take that under advisement. Geof Gledhill <br />said that he would make sure that this issue is clear. <br />Chair Jacobs said that in four years this has evolved a significant amount, so there <br />needs to be a way to keep the County Commissioners in the loop. He asked what the AHAB <br />