Orange County NC Website
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0 <br />PUBLIC DISPU'T'ES PROGRAM <br />Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County <br />Since 198, the Public Disputes Program has been helping communities, <br />jurisdictions and organizations discuss difficult topics, resolve multi-party conflict, <br />and develop consensus-building skills by designing collaborative processes, <br />providing mediation and facilitation, and conducting training and education <br />programs. For more information, contact Andrew M. Sachs, ,Program Coordinator, <br />302 Weaver Street, Carrboro, NC 27510, (919) 929-8800, ext. 23, <br />asaschs(c~disputesettlement.org. <br />Representative Project Experience <br />Design and facilitation of a year long community consensus building process on the <br />Town of Carrboro's Northern Transition .Area Small Area Plan. The result of <br />this intervention, the "Facilitated Small Area Plan for Carrboro's Northern Study Area" <br />was selected in 200o by the NC Carolina Chapter of the .American Planning Association <br />as the recipient of the Brian.Benson Award for Small Community Comprehensive <br />Planning. <br />• Facilitation of public forum through which parks and recreation advocates, <br />environmental advocates, affordable housing advocates, neighbors of the <br />"Greene tract," and officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County met to clarify <br />options for future uses of a 109 acre parcel jointly owned by the three local <br />governments. <br />• Mediation for residents living near the Orange County regional landfill and <br />representatives of three local governments. The parties negotiated an agreement <br />through which the governments would acquire soil from adjoining tracts for use in <br />landfill operations while minimizing adverse impacts on residents and the <br />environment. <br />Facilitation of a work group composed of people from neighborhoods near the <br />University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) power plant and UNC administrators. <br />The group evaluated UNC's plans for demolishing and reconstructing the power <br />plant's coal silos. After aseven-month process, work group members signed an <br />"outcome document" that recorded areas of understanding and agreement, clarified <br />issues that were not yet resolved, and set forth methods for future consultations between <br />UNC and the neighbors. <br />• Design and facilitation of process through which twenty seven residents of Chapel Hill, <br />Carrboro, Hillsborough and the unincorporated areas of Orange County appointed by <br />their respective jurisdictions to the Shaping Orange County's Future Task Force reached . <br />consensus on a set of values and goals for guiding the community's future and on a <br />draft set of recommendations for achieving those ideals. <br />• Facilitation for 60 local elected officials, non-profit housing development and <br />advocacy organizations, government staff, and advisory board members convened <br />by a local Department of Housing and Community Development for athree-hour <br />"strategic housing session." Participants learned about different types of public funding <br />