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D R A F T 5 Lydia Wegman: These changes that go in the UDO, these would be applicable only to two overlay districts? Perdita Holtz: Correct. Lydia Wegman: So they wouldn’t serve as some sort of precedence if there were some subsequent…. Perdita Holtz: No. When you get it back there will be in a different color to show what has changed from what was show at the February quarterly public hearing and the changes that have been made along the way. We try to make it clear what the changes are when we give you information. You may have also noted when you look through this, like suggestions about community character, that we plan on asking the community at the next public information meeting to share their thoughts about community character. If they have strong feelings about what they think are examples of community character that should be replicated or nearly replicated, to please send it to us because we would like to have some sort of photograph document to give to people who are maybe interested in developing in the area. Community character is a little bit nebulous to what one person thinks that might not be someone else’s so if we could get input from the actual residents on what they think the character is to show the developers or others interested in doing something, we think that would go a long way. Pete Hallenbeck: My take on community character is that we don’t point to some of the painted cinderblock buildings that we have that made a great deal of sense 30 years ago and say that’s how we do it in Efland and we would just get more of them. Road access was a big issue, the idea that you’d have to put in an access road, particularly the parcels north of the railroad tracks, you lose a 30-40 foot chunk from what is already a small piece of property. Another thing discussed was chain link fences and it was decided to allow a five foot chain link height limit so it’s a practical fence to keep the dogs and children from the street but business can’t come in and put up eight foot chain link fences with barbed wire which would drive a community in the wrong direction. One thing to remember is Efland is a very unique area; it’s the County’s town. It has water and sewer but is not in an incorporated area. Andrea Rohrbacher: I thought I saw something about the entrance to a building does not have to have street frontage. That has been very controversial in Chapel Hill in several spots. What was the thought process behind that? Pete Hallenbeck: When you look at the area between the railroad tracks and US 70, it not very wide and there really isn’t a predominant street. Everyone coming from the interstate is going to be on Forrest Avenue which runs parallel to the tracks and then there is US 70 and there maybe 400 feet between the two and businesses need parking so we want to make sure if you have a building that faces 70 that if you had parking in the rear, you could have a rear entrance to the building. This is an example of trying to fit into the existing building and the lay of the land of the parcels in the northern part. Tony Blake: Has Steve Brantley given any guidance to this from an economic development perspective? I’ve heard, Bonnie [Hauser] has told me, that there isn’t a vision for the area. I wonder if he came up with suggestions on the businesses to be attracted to the area. Pete Hallenbeck: I know he is aware of what is going on particularly in the economic development zone and west on Buckhorn and I think right now this is laying the groundwork for Steve to come in because we have all this different areas of density and mixed use. Lisa Stuckey: That BOCC appointed committee met for 10 years and then the citizens met for a year and brought it back to planning staff and everyone is in agreement so why would we mess with it. Tony Blake: Exactly. Lisa Stuckey: I’m serious, I’ve been on this Board a long time and we keep going back to Efland, let’s finish. It’s probably not a good idea to upset the apple cart. 9