Minutes 02-25-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Price asked if businesses are seeking rooftops, ready made sites, or lower land prices. Steve Brantley said he hears a persistent desire for more hotel opportunities and believes these will happen going forward. Commissioner Dorosin referred to the chart that Mayor Stevens handed out regarding gradual growth over time. He said there are several projects in the works currently, and asked if there is a more accurate sense of growth; for example, a big jump next year, and then leveling out thereafter, followed by another big jump. He asked if there are areas that the County should be anticipating currently, as the budget process begins. Mayor Stevens said there is a strategic growth plan, which involved the pulling in of the Town's services boundary. He said the two greatest constraints to growth are water capacity and traffic. He said these constraints limit the population growth. He said the main interest being expressed is in residential. He said1000 units have already been approved, with potentially 1000 more to come. He said there will be pressure to grow to capacity more quickly than expected. He said the quality of the developments will be important. Commissioner Dorosin asked if there is a timeline for the already approved residential units. Mayor Stevens said a large part happened 12 years ago with Waterstone, but the economic crash of 2008 slowed things down. He said the Town is now catching up, but there is still 5 to 10 years to go. He said traffic is an enormous concern, especially in the downtown area. He said the Town wants to draw development toward the interstates. The conversation moved onto aspects of Agenda Item number 2a: Collins Ridge and Effect on School Facility Needs/Rail Station Area/Daniel Boone Village, including the following information: Background Collins Ridge is a 1000+ unit residential use project in Hillsborough's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). Orange County commented on the project impact on traffic on Churton Street and the County realized impacts on human services, especially schools. The development project proposes to make town traffic consultant transportation improvements in the Churton Street corridor to ameliorate project traffic. Joint staffs have had discussions with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to explore the ability to use developer traffic improvement funds to accelerate the comprehensive Churton Street widening plans in the state Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). From a school capacity perspective, the developer has not yet gauged the impact of the preliminary `run' of SAPFO Certificate of Adequate Public Schools (CAPS). Although capacity may appear to be available at various schools levels (i.e. elementary, middle, high) which is the CAPS testing scenario, the specific school elementary zone that serves this area is presently over capacity. A large concentrated project and other residential approved projects in the area can cause more drastic changes in the capacity projection models which can accelerate new school Capital Investment Plan (CIP) needs. Commissioner Rich asked if there has been a discussion with the Orange County Schools (OCS) regarding capacity issues, and the possibility of redistricting. She said the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is trying to open up conversations with the schools and to keep them abreast of developments. Commissioner Rich referred to the idea of widening Churton Street to accommodate traffic, and asked if there are any alternate solutions to this congestion issue.