Agenda 11-19-19 Item 12-2 - Information Item - Memorandum - Minutes - Intergovernmental Collaboration with Municipal Partners

Browse Search

34 grow. Ms. Price described this as a culture of collaboration—working together to help companies find a good fit with the amenities they are looking for when they are thinking to relocate or expand. Ms. Hemminger noted not everyone might know how we work together to move quickly on economic development opportunities. When an opportunity arises, manager, chair, economic development directors and the mayor meet to see if there is a consensus on a path forward and then we take it to our boards. She suggested making the joint statement the town and county are working together on economic development and we support start-ups coming to all Orange County. We are all working together to keep those and attract new ones. Ms. Price said when they do come here, she would like to make it public and celebrate the collaboration between town and county. Ms. Hemminger asked if the thinking is the property will be sold by the end of the year. Mr. Myren shared that a letter of intent hasn't been negotiated yet. Ms. Hemminger requested notification as early as possible for public hearings, noting the importance of being prepared. She shared the information the town is trying to get the parking deck voted on in November. Ms. Chotas asked for other items related to the topic area of economic development. Mr. Jones and Ms. Clark shared handouts of the town's new affordable housing dashboard data, noting long-term, the more we can look at affordable housing as partners, the better. We're all facing this issue of new affordable housing—there needs to be more of a regional approach to it. Ms. Hemminger asked if there were similar stats the county could provide. Ms. Hammersley said the information will be shared with the new Housing Director who will also share the county's data. Ms. Hemminger reflected the affordable housing dashboard approach came out of the trip to Boulder where similar information was shared. We developed our own version and it was very helpful in setting the stage for the bond. The reality was we were always talking about affordable housing, but we had no clue where we were. We wanted to be able to quantify it, talk about it in the same terminology and make it so anyone could access the information. She expressed a hope for Carrboro, Hillsborough and the county to all have similar ways to share so we can see how we are all doing collectively. Ms. Clark noted at the most recent meeting with the Coalition and the Collaborative, both Carrboro and Orange County provided information in a similar format and it's being identified as a priority with the Collaborative itself so joint measures will be available to track what the Collaborative is doing county-wide. Ms. Hemminger asked if the topic of affordable housing with joint statistics could be on the agenda for the Assembly of Governments. Ms. Clark said the data could be packaged, if that's helpful. Chapel Hill Work Group Minutes, October 2019, Page 7