Agenda - 04-09-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 1 Perdita Holtz said the staff's recommendation is to continue to bring this issue to the 2 forefront at the state level. 3 Frank Clifton said as staff looked at this, the reality of this village concept in a rural area 4 is that they don't have a connectivity plan. The hesitancy of DOT to accept more responsibility 5 for these right-of-ways and with the Board of County Commissioners not wanting to be involved 6 in the maintaining of those right-of-ways, creates the awkward position of asking property 7 owners to put the walkway in and accept the maintenance and liability. He said there is need 8 for more study and a decision about how far the County wants to get into the urbanization 9 business. He said that the state is expanding ability but not revenue sources for this. He said 10 that if the desire is to encourage development then before rules burdening property owners are 11 established, the issues need to be studied further. 12 Commissioner Gordon said she supported connectivity, but wondered if there is a 13 collector street plan for this area, because they are trying to make this more urban but they 14 have no mechanism for connectivity. She said the whole point was to allow more non- 15 residential development but there needs to be a path to that. She said that collector street 16 plans are more in the paradigm and at least have the developer build the street. 17 Perdita Holtz said they could look at this issue. She noted that in Efland, many of the 18 lots go to the center line of the roads and DOT maintains them but does not own any right of 19 ways. She said that the suggestion is to adopt the overlay districts at this time and put some 20 design standards in place before any more large scale development takes place, while 21 continuing to work on the topic of sidewalks. 22 Commissioner Dorosin clarified that what the staff recommends is approval of the 23 internal walkway plan for the five acre interstate district with no walkway plan for the village 24 district. 25 Perdita Holtz said that for the Village District there would be an internal pedestrian 26 system required for projects on 2 acres or greater than 15,000 square feet of building area. 27 She said that there is leeway in this during the site plan process. 28 Commissioner Dorosin questioned how the Planning Board's recommendation differs. 29 Perdita Holtz said that the Planning Board recommends a privately owned and 30 maintained walkway system throughout the area, on private property. 31 Commissioner Dorosin questions how this differs from the requirement for 2 acres or 32 more. 33 Perdita Holtz said the 2 acre requirement is only for internal use, larger businesses 34 would only have walkways between buildings; however the Planning Board's recommended 35 walkways would be a private sidewalk system that anyone could use. 36 Commissioner Dorosin said his question is with regard to the approval process and he 37 wonders if they could incentivize the developers to provide a publicly accessible sidewalk. 38 Perdita Holtz said there would need to be a sidewalk plan for the area to avoid issues 39 with encouraging trespass on adjoining properties if a sidewalk ends at the edge of one 40 property and is not continued on the next. 41 Commissioner Pelissier said most lots in this overlay district either face Hwy 70 or 42 Efland Cheeks Road and these are highly traveled roads. She said that requiring sidewalks is 43 not going to encourage connectivity in this area. 44 Perdita Holtz said the internal pedestrian system is an amenity for that property. 45 Commissioner McKee said that this issue brings up questions that center on the cost of 46 housing and the cost of building in Orange County. He said that he does not believe the 47 planning is not far enough along to really consider and he feels the discussion is premature. He 48 said there should be a closer look at connectivity and whether this will continue the escalation in 49 property cost on housing and businesses. He thinks the high housing cost in Orange County is 50 partially due to these regulations.