Orange County NC Website
3 <br /> 1 continues to handicap the ability of towns to plan for their future by proposing elimination of ETJ <br /> 2 altogether. He said this is a short bill currently before the general assembly, and coupled with <br /> 3 other legislation, it would greatly limit the Town's ability to design standards. He said there <br /> 4 needs to be thoughtful long term planning for the community. He said the impact of these bills <br /> 5 needs to considered, and efforts should be made not to plan for creation of urban areas outside <br /> 6 of the town limits. He said another option is to require, when changes occur in their planning <br /> 7 areas or zoning, there is a condition of petition for voluntary annexation into the city. <br /> 8 Council Member Harrison said it would help if counties made it clear to the General <br /> 9 Assembly that this bill is not supported. <br /> 10 Chair Jacobs said Orange County is different, partially because the county was able to <br /> 11 come up with a joint planning agreement with the municipalities without the "wars" that often <br /> 12 occur between elected bodies and citizens. He said the Task force should move forward as <br /> 13 planned, regardless of possible legislation. He said there should be more discussions about <br /> 14 ETJs and how to plan for these areas. He said the question should be asked, if it is in the best <br /> 15 interest of municipalities to incorporate these areas into the urban town limits. He said that, <br /> 16 because of the joint planning area, there is more authority to say where water and sewer will <br /> 17 and will not go. He noted that the Rogers Road group is not going to report back to the Board <br /> 18 of County Commissioners until September, so there is time for future discussion in light of the <br /> 19 consequences of the legislation. He suggested more joint planning, especially in light of the <br /> 20 Rogers Road process. <br /> 21 Council Member Jim Ward said the task force has incorporated OWASA into its <br /> 22 discussions. He said the latest plan for that now encompasses more area than just the Historic <br /> 23 Rogers Road area. He said this was done to reduce the cost per household. He said there is <br /> 24 some pushback, but the intent of the group is to move forward with this kind of design. He said <br /> 25 he hopes there will be support for finding a way to fund the water and sewer for Rogers Road <br /> 26 and the extended areas. He said that efforts are being made to get some figures for the cost of <br /> 27 this. <br /> 28 Commissioner Rich said it may be a good idea for staff to share the new map with all <br /> 29 elected bodies. She said that the discussion was originally about just the historic area, and now <br /> 30 the conversation is about a utility district and includes more homes than proposed before. This <br /> 31 does make it more cost efficient. She said there was some push back during the meeting <br /> 32 yesterday, so more estimates and a diagram will be presented at the next meeting. <br /> 33 Commissioner Price said a lot of this has to do with costs, which is why there was a <br /> 34 request for estimates and a diagram. She said that the goals will not be accomplished if the <br /> 35 utilities are installed and then people cannot get the service. <br /> 36 Council Member Jim Ward said another piece of the puzzle is that the figure of$6 <br /> 37 million was for water and sewer to Historic Rogers Road only. He said including the other areas <br /> 38 will double the cost, but will triple the coverage. This is where the savings comes in. He said all <br /> 39 of the boards need to have this discussion, because this infrastructure is put on the landscape <br /> 40 so that most of it is with the Chapel Hill town limits. He said the other parts are in the Orange <br /> 41 County and Chapel Hill joint planning area and he questioned what this means for funding. He <br /> 42 proposed that the portion that is in Carrboro should be paid for fully by Carrboro; and the <br /> 43 portion in Chapel Hill and Orange County needs to be discussed by these two entities. He said <br /> 44 the normal population equation will not work for this. He said that this is an issue for the Town <br /> 45 and the Board of Commissioners. <br /> 46 Commissioner Price said her understanding from the Town of Carrboro was that the <br /> 47 14% would be spread out. She said there has been a request for specific numbers to be <br /> 48 presented at the next meeting. <br /> 49 Mayor Kleinschmidt said that the Mayor of Carrboro said that their $900,000 will all be <br /> 50 spent in the portion of the area in Carrboro. <br />