Orange County NC Website
4 <br />At the end of the Council's February 7, 2000 work session the Council directed the staff and <br />consultant to make adjustments to the draft plan in response to the public comments and Council <br />statements. The Council asked that this revised plan come to the Council at its Mazch 27, 2000 <br />meeting for possible adoption. On Mazch 27 the Council decided to hold three additional public <br />information meetings at locations azound Chapel Hill on the draft Plan in response to a citizen <br />petition. The Town Council subsequently adopted the Comprehensive Plan, including a new <br />Land Use Plan, on May $; 2000. <br />The Plan is organized around twelve major themes, each growing out of the community values <br />that have been identified and which,' taken together, form a strategy for Chapel Hill's future. <br />These themes are: <br />• Maintain the Urban Services Area /Rural Buffer Concept <br />• Participate in the regional planning process <br />• Conserve and protect existing neighborhoods <br />• Conserve and protect the natural setting of Chapel Hill <br />• Identify azeas where there aze creative development opportunities <br />• Encourage desirable forms ofnon-residential development <br />• Create and preserve affordable housing opportunities <br />• Cooperatively work with the University of North Cazalina <br />• Work towazd a balanced transportation system <br />• Complete the bikeway/greenway/sidewalk systems <br />• Provide quality community facilities and services <br />• Develop strategies to address fiscal issues <br />Last fall, the Chapel Hill Town Council formally requested that this Joint Public Hearing be <br />convened, and that the Joint Planning Area Land Use Plan be amended to reflect Chapel Hill's <br />new Land Use Plan for Chapel Hill's Transition Areas. <br />Summa of Joint Land Use Plan -Joint Plannin Transition Area <br />The Chapel Hill Joint Planning Transition Area (Northwest Area) is generally the land outside <br />the Town limits and south of Interstate 40, including a portion of the land north of Weaver Dairy <br />Road, the land west of Airport Road (N.C. 86), and the land north of the University of North <br />Carolina's Horace Williams Tract and Homestead Road. The western boundary of the azea <br />generally follows Rogers Road. A rail line bisects the northwest area, and a large parcel of <br />property in the center of the azea (known as the Greene Tract) is jointly awned by the Town of <br />Chapel Hill, the Town of Carrboro, and Orange County. <br />According to the land use classification system outlined in the Joint Planning Land Use Plan, <br />transition azeas "are in the process of changing from rural to urban uses or are already urban in <br />use; aze developed at or suitable for urban-type densities; and are now provided or aze projected <br />to be provided with urban services. Transition Areas aze denoted as a subclass or overlay-type of <br />land use classification, providing a link with the basic land use categories of the Orange County <br />Land Use Plan but permitting the development of a more detailed series of underlying land use <br />plan categories" (pages 5$-59). <br />2 <br />