Agenda - 04-06-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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13 1 BACKGROUND: 2 In the past, as part of the Board of Commissioners' annual planning and goal setting retreats, 3 the Board requested and reviewed/provided feedback on annual plan summaries from the 4 County's internal advisory boards and commissions. This information provided the Board with a 5 yearly overview of the boards and commissions and their projected goals for the upcoming year. 6 This particular process ended in 2007. The Board decided at its April 13, 2010 meeting to 7 reinstate this process independent of the Board's annual retreats. 8 9 Advisory Boards and Commissions Represented at this meeting: 10 11 Board Name Representative(s) Presenting 12 13 Chapel Hill Orange County Visitors Bureau Anthony Carey 14 Economic Development Advisory Commission Anthony Carey 15 Orange County Planning Board Dave Blankfard 16 Orange Unified Transportation Board Eric Broo 17 18 Anthony Carey discussed the work plan summary for the Chapel Hill Orange County 19 Visitors Bureau. He said since March 2020 hotel revenue is down 69.9%, and tourism revenue 20 is down 55%. He said together that is about a $122 million decrease in Orange County, due to 21 the pandemic. He said CARES Act funds have been used promote businesses as the economy 22 begins to open back up. He said weddings and small events are beginning to be scheduled. 23 He said James Taylor will have an interactive exhibit at the new Visitors Center location. 24 Anthony Carey discussed the work plan summary for the Economic Development 25 Advisory Commission. He said the corridor around the Buckhorn Area Plan is of great interest 26 to the Commission. He said the Advisory Commission gave out over$1 million in grants to 27 small businesses and farmers. He said Steve Brantley, Economic Development Director, is 28 working on long-term recovery plan and is encouraging non-residential growth. 29 Commissioner Greene referred to the future plans for 2021. She said one of the items 30 on which the Commissioners would like to focus is affordable housing partnerships. 31 Anthony Carey said the Commission knows affordable housing is needed in Orange 32 County, and economic recovery would need to keep affordable housing in mind. He said 33 affordable housing is related to economic development. He said residents travel outside of the 34 county to find employment, and it would be good to find ways to have jobs closer to home. 35 Commissioner Greene asked if there is an update on a food processing center. 36 Anthony Carey said there needs to be more focus on processing plants for farmers and 37 restaurants. He said the pandemic put a pause on some of those developments. 38 Chair Price encouraged continued relationships between the two boards represented by 39 Anthony Carey. 40 Dave Blankfard, Planning Board Chair, gave an update on its work plan. He reviewed 41 the outputs from the Planning Board, amendments, and development projects. He said the 42 Planning Board's projects, specifically RTLP and Buc-ee's, generated a lot of discussion. He 43 said the 2020 census will assist the Planning Board in planning for the future, and will result in 44 tweaks to the comprehensive plan. He said future initiatives will include streamlining some 45 processes, but also creating processes that give developers time to analyze requests. 46 Commissioner Dorosin said the RTLP and Buc-ee's projects generated a lot of bad 47 feelings in the community and concerns about transparency in the process. He said the 48 Planning Board is made up of community members, and he would like to consider how the 49 process can be made better for the residents. He said if policies are in place, whether or not 50 proposals meet the policies is a different question. He asked if the County can more effectively 51 communicate the role and responsibilities of the Planning Board.