Agenda - 05-19-2008-C.3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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36 1VIEIYIORANDUM Date: Apri117, 2008 To: Orange County Planning Board CC: Clarion Associates, Tom Alfieri, Craig Benedict, Laura Blackmon, From: Orange County Comprehensive Plan. Coalition Re: Initial Coalition Comments on First Draft, Orange County Comprehensive Plan Update The Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition recognizes the tremendous challenge of preparing a Comprehensive Plan Update for the county in less than two years. The planning board and element lead advisory boards deserve much credit for undertaking this challenge. Such commendation also belongs to the planning department and other county personnel who have worked with the planning and advisory boards in this effort, as well as the consultants hired. The coalition shares the common desire that the updated plan be a bedrock upon which the sustainable development of Orange County will be anchored for the next twenty years. Wlvle the update made available last month has the flaws to be expected of a first draft, it meets its most daunting challenge head-on. Unlike the proposed Land Use Element update of early 2006, the current proposal aims to combine eight wide-ranging elements into one document. Better yet, the current draft shows strong indications that it will integrate these elements in a manner that facilitates both the sustainable development of Orange County as well continuing to preserve its highly-prized natural and cultural resources. However, the Coalition believes that ongoing public participation is crucial to ensure public support of the Comprehensive Plan Update. As such, we are disappointed that the project management team discouraged us from presenting our initial comments regarding the draft goals and objectives on the same schedule as the Element Lead Advisory Boards. We had hoped that our comments would have been given as much consideration as possible prior to the preparation of the second draft. This is especially so since we presented a very complete statement on goals and objectives in January. The problem of limited public participation is further compounded by the fact that the. second draft won't be available for public review until less than. two weeks before the Map 19 Public Hearing. Although the coalition is optimistic that the plan will truly be a cornerstone, this compressed timeframe introduces an element of instability because public participation is being truncated. Of course, we recognize that neither the planning board nor the project management team set the timeline. As such, we will bring these specific concerns about the. public participation process to the attention of the county commissioners. Be that as it may, we still plan to .immediately share with Clarion Associates the following comments: Chapter 11, Toward a Sustainable Future, provides an important conceptual framework for how the various elements of this comprehensive plan are intended to work together and mutually re- enforce each other. Similarly, it animates, or operationalizes, the county commissioners' core planning principles found in chapter 2. As such, Chapter 11 should be expanded upon, improved, and moved forward ifl the update. We recommend that it be placed immediately after chapter 2.