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19 <br /> Attachment 3 <br /> From: Travis Mvren <br /> To: Perdita Holtz;Craig Benedict <br /> Subject: FW: Explanation for Town of Chapel Hill"s decision to increase Planning Commission membership <br /> Date: Thursday,November 10,2016 2:58:50 PM <br /> From: Pam Hemminger [mailto:phemminger @townofchapelhill.org] <br /> Sent: Monday, November 07, 2016 1:41 PM <br /> To: ALL BOCC MANAGER_CLERK <br /> Cc: Roger Stancil <br /> Subject: Explanation for Town of Chapel Hill's decision to increase Planning Commission membership <br /> Dear Board of County Commissioners, <br /> In response to questions I have received, I am writing to provide you with an explanation for <br /> the Town of Chapel Hill's recent decision to increase the size of our Planning Commission <br /> from nine to ten members. <br /> This decision was made in response to a request from the former Chairman of our Planning <br /> Commission who expressed concern about the frequency of meetings at which only five or six <br /> Commission members are in attendance. <br /> Given Chapel Hill's growing queue of projects awaiting development review and the town's <br /> plans to revise both our Future Land Use Map and our Land Use Management Ordinance <br /> (LUMO) next Spring, the Council agreed that increasing the size of the Commission would <br /> ensure that many different perspectives are represented at each meeting. In addition, we felt <br /> that adding another member would increase the Board's bandwidth for the significant tasks <br /> ahead. <br /> During our discussion, it was noted that a contributing factor to the attendance challenge the <br /> Planning Commission faces has been the vacancy of two seats which are set aside for Chapel <br /> Hill Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) or Joint Planning Area (J PA) members. <br /> Because efforts by both the county and the town to fill those seats have been largely <br /> unsuccessful for the past few years, we felt it was important to take a proactive approach and <br /> add an extra seat. We will, of course, continue to work with the county to try to identify <br /> candidates for the two vacant seats and welcome your active participation in that process. <br /> We value the opportunity to collaborate with Orange County and appreciate your willingness <br /> to find new ways to work together. <br /> Please let me know if you have any questions - <br />