Orange County NC Website
3 <br /> plain maps. Cleared areas are considered capable of <br /> supporting the highest intensity development, forested areas <br /> moderate intensity, and wetland areas no development. <br /> Vegetation mapping has been completed for the Southern <br /> Triangle and North Chapel Hill Area and is about 50% <br /> complete for the University Lake Watershed Area. <br /> Slope Orientation <br /> Slope orientation, i.e. , northern versus southern <br /> exposure, is the final environmental parameter. I is not a <br /> constraint as are the first three parameters, but rather is <br /> an amenity factor. Its primary effect on development is to <br /> promote energy conservation and livability if high intensity <br /> development is allocated toward southern orientations when <br /> other parameters permit. <br /> Slope orientation mapping has been completed for the <br /> Southern Tringle and North Chapel Hill Area and has not <br /> commenced yet for the University Lake Watershed Area. <br /> Accessibility Mapping <br /> Mapping and overlaying the environmental parameters <br /> mentioned above defines districts of varying development <br /> 4111 potential which are assigned Development Intensity Type <br /> classifications. For example, the overlaying may define two <br /> areas containing low slope, good soils, clear vegetation, and <br /> southern orientation. However, one site is fronted by a <br /> major arterial while the other is accessible only by an <br /> unimproved dirt road. Obviously, the site along the arterial <br /> i is more suited to high intensity development because of its <br /> location. <br /> As a means of recognizing the locational advantage of <br /> essentially similar overlay districts, RELATIVE ACCESSIBILITY <br /> is used, it is expressed numerically on a contour map, level <br /> 1 being the most accessible and level 4 the least. <br /> Accessibility levels are determined from scores based on <br /> combined travel times from the town centers of Chapel Hill <br /> • and Carrboro and the four 1-40 interchanges to evenly <br /> distributed points in the JPA. The overall impact of <br /> relative accessibility on Development Intensity Type <br /> classifications is to lower a Development Intensity Type by <br /> one numeric increment for each accessibility level less than <br /> one. <br /> JPA staff participants have tentatively agreed upon the <br /> Accessibility map as presented. <br />