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though it may be cheaper in some areas than others, you still might have much higher <br /> transportation costs in some of these areas, which is not what anyone wants. <br /> Council Member Matt Czajkowski said he disagreed with Alderman Johnson. He said <br /> the direction this is moving toward is for all of the jurisdictions to provide funding for the CHT, <br /> whereas it has historically only been Chapel Hill. He said the fundamental question is why <br /> Orange County should fund this if most of it is happening in Chapel Hill. <br /> Mayor Kleinschmidt said the funding would be proportional to where the homes are, so <br /> Chapel Hill would pay more. <br /> Alderman Chaney said Carrboro has an affordable housing strategy, and there was a <br /> meeting about the inter-local agreement. She said it would be nice to see in the agreement <br /> the proportion of funds that CHT is raising itself. <br /> Alderman Chaney said Robert Dowling is part of the Orange County affordable housing <br /> coalition, which is a group of about a dozen providers with some sort of role in affordable <br /> housing in Orange County. She said this coalition would be very interested in the question of <br /> the County's combined goals. She suggested that everyone think about being better listeners <br /> to that coalition. <br /> Mayor Kleinschmidt said he hopes that everyone will state their commitments strongly <br /> on the night when votes are taken to adopt these recommendations. He worries that future <br /> board members approving homes for the CHT will become concerned with the increased <br /> percentage of operational expenses that they are being required to pay, and this will be a <br /> disincentive. He hopes that each of the individual boards can employ whatever processes <br /> they might have to diminish that possibility. <br /> b. Transit-Related Affordable Housinq Opportunities <br /> David Bonk said this is an update on efforts being made to try and incorporate issues <br /> of affordable housing into the planning related to the light rail corridor between Durham and <br /> Chapel Hill. He said there is a strong correlation between affordable housing, the cost of <br /> transportation, and the ability of public transit to offset a major portion of that cost. <br /> He said staff inembers in Chapel Hill have been in contact with Triangle Transit (TTA) <br /> and with counterparts in Durham to coordinate efforts related to station area planning. He said <br /> the stations that have been proposed in Chapel Hill are best characterized as a combination of <br /> UNC owned and/or greenfield sites. He said Durham has an even mix of greenfield station <br /> locations and inner city urban station areas, which carry a host of issues. <br /> David Bonk said the federal government recently announced a grant program that <br /> would be made available to support the development of station area plans around stations for <br /> projects that have reached a certain level of maturity in the federal process. He said Chapel <br /> Hill submitted a grant application and should hear back about this in March. He said this grant <br /> would fund $2.3 million worth of efforts to support station area planning on both sides of the <br /> corridor, and it will be a coordinated effort between Chapel Hill and Durham. <br /> He said one lesson that has been learned is that it is important to start planning early; <br /> however, this is an evolving situation, and the grant that has been submitted has several key <br /> work tasks. He said one of these is a market survey at each of the proposed stations to <br /> determine the usage. He said there is another work task that flows from this that would focus <br /> specifically on developing strategies and plans for affordable housing that is consistent with <br /> the overall goals of both Durham and Chapel Hill. <br /> David Bonk said staff is very hopeful about the possibility of getting this funding, which <br />