Agenda - 12-13-2016-13-3 - Information Item - Memorandum - Joint Planning Agreement – Chapel Hill Planning Commission Membership

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2 Commission within 90 days of a vacancy. To date, the Town has not exercised this option. The County Clerk's office has run the normal advisory board member recruitment process more than once for the positions but, to date, no applications have been submitted. The Town of Chapel Hill has continued the public hearing on the proposed LUMO until January 9, 2017 "to allow time for additional coordination with Orange County staff to ensure the text amendment meets the spirit and intent of the Joint Planning Agreement between the Town and Orange County." The Town has not yet adopted the proposed LUMO amendment so no appointment has been made to the Town's Planning Commission. In regards to planning commission membership, State statutes require that the planning commission contain a minimum of three members. Additionally, statutes require proportional (by population) representation of ETJ residents with a minimum of one ETJ member. The ETJ member(s) are appointed by the county board of commissioners. The statutes also provide that if "there is an insufficient number of qualified residents of the ETJ to meet membership requirements, the board of county commissioners may appoint as many other residents of the county as necessary to make up the requisite number." The JPA provides the opportunity for the County to provide comments or objections to the Town for all LUMO amendments. Planning staff's response in Attachment 2 includes this information: • Adding another position to the Planning Board for a Chapel Hill resident could result in "dilution" of the voice of ETJ/JPA residents who already feel at a disadvantage because they do not vote for the political board (e.g., Town Council) which ultimately exerts land use and zoning authority over them. It would seem that other solutions to the quorum issues may exist, such as: o Chapel Hill implementing the language in the Dec. 2015 JPA amendment which allows the Town Council to [appoint] members to the board if [a] seat remains vacant for too long. o Revising the quorum requirement to be, instead of an absolute number, a majority of seated members. Attachments (3)