Agenda - 01-21-20 12-7 - Information Item - December 18, 2019 Greene Tract Facilitated Meeting Notes

Browse Search

2 Session Notes Welcome & Introductions Maggie Chotas welcomed participants, reviewed the goals for the session and provided context about the meeting notes, which the DSC team will deliver three weeks after the meeting. She explained she was recording the conversation for the purpose of developing accurate notes, which will be more detailed than summary notes but not necessarily verbatim. The notes will be distributed to the group, and if anything is missed, the notes will be revised before a final copy is distributed. Penny Rich thanked everyone for coming, expressing appreciation for the willingness to have this conversation. Ms. Rich explained that the Orange County Commissioners want to move forward with the Greene Tract and the partnership and they are unclear what that partnership looks like moving forward. As such, she described her main goal as establishing the terms of the partnership and how the group works together. Ms. Rich emphasized it is important for all partners to feel like they are a part of every conversation. She said she hoped the outcome of the meeting would include plans for a governance document that allows Orange County to have guidance in conversations, with an understanding of what it means to be a partner and potentially what is means to no longer be partners. Ms. Rich explained Orange County would rather be partners and move forward given that it is in the greater good of the community to develop this land. She is encouraged that the group has chosen to have a facilitated conversation on this topic. Pam Hemminger said she was excited the group came together to pursue an opportunity to clarify its common goals around the Greene Tract. She descripted the group as trying to all come together with a "big elephant" picture and noted there are limitations to that approach. She encouraged the group to focus on small, pragmatic steps and align around goals and principles. Ms. Hemminger also explained her hope that the group can delineate the parts of the tract so that all staff can have clear direction moving forward as this has been an issue in the past. Her Chapel Hill team has been back over the original document and it is confusing and vague. She encouraged everyone to look at the Market Study and the Rogers Road Task Force, Mapping Our Future. Lydia Lavelle, provided context that over the summer when the Council had a meeting about the Greene Tract, it gave the Carrboro and County Boards pause as to how all three, as owners of the property, can move forward together. She noted Ms. Hemminger, Ms. Rich and she had been meeting for over two years to develop a solid plan for how to move forward with property which has been jointly owned for decades. Ms. Lavelle's Board was thrown back when Chapel Hill seemed to change the process with a new timeline and new thinking. Ms. Lavelle said she wants to move forward in a manner that respects the fact that we all own the property jointly, while Greene Tract Facilitated Discussion Minutes, December 2019, Page 2