Agenda - 11-09-2006-1 Space Needs report

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Orange County Space Needs Report , 2005 Update Page 7 of 69 Non - Departmental Agencies Agencies that may reside in County facilities , but for which the County is not * mandated to provide space , were also not included in the current space analysis . Examples of such include day care activities that are located in the Northern Human Services Center , Cedar Grove as well at the Northside Center in Chapel Hill . Conditions in Current Work Space The 2000 report included an extensive list of observations from Departments regarding workspace issues that affect the quality of service delivery to clients . Without reiterating the list in its entirety , suffice to say , many of the issues remain . The following items summarize the core issues mentioned by a significant number of departments in the 2000 and remain an issue in 2005 : • The majority of departments listed insufficient space that required doubling up of personnel in offices , lack of private space in which to conveniently conduct confidential conferences with clients or , in the case of supervisory staff , with employees . While a major renovation has been completed at the County' s largest facility , the Whiffed Human Services Center , no new space was added since the 2000 study was completed . • Inadequate storage space was mentioned across the board . • Parking at many of the facilities is inadequate for the traffic volume generated by the building activities . o Paving some lots and re - striping others would maximize existing parking . o Unpaved parking lots , particularly at the ' Whitted Building , create safety hazards for clients . • Lack of meeting space continues to be a challenge . Team management is heavily utilized both within and across departmental lines , thereby making meeting space a critical contributor to a successful project outcome . At this time , there are a total of eight meeting rooms in all County buildings that will accommodate ten or more people . Consolidating Expansion/New Campus As previously noted , sites of current County facilities are essentially at capacity . Areas where expansion is most critical today include the Planning and Agriculture Building and the 911 Center , neither of which have sufficient real estate to accommodate any additional growth . Further , the Whitted Building , the largest service delivery location to meet human services needs of our citizens , has extremely limited capacity for additional square footage . It is , however , a foregone conclusion that county services will have the need to expand over the next several decades if the expanding population of our County is to be well served . The recommendations contained in this report include a variety of methods to address the long -term county department space needs . While recommendations will include adaptive reuse of existing buildings in some instances , the space needed to accommodate the predictable growth cannot be found on property currently owned by Orange County . For this reason , a primary focus of the study is the development of an alternative County campus at a site yet to be determined . 7