3.2.22 Planning Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

9 DRAFT 112 Lamar Proctor: I would make the suggestion that our Planning Department and the City of Mebane Planning Department has 113 a lot more institutional and specialized knowledge of how the pieces and parts work together between a town and a county. 114 Mebane is growing at an exponential rate and it is creating a lot of uncertainty in western Orange County and in west 115 Hillsborough as to how far it's going to go. Mebane is growing every day, I see new projects breaking ground on a weekly or 116 monthly basis. It seems the Planning Department could, if it chose to, continue to say`hey you need to do something, Board 117 of County Commissioners' because if it just sits there waiting for the Board of County Commissioners,who already have a 118 huge amount of issues on their plate, then Mebane's going to turn into some huge, unplanned Burlington that really destroys 119 any sort of certainty for people in western Orange County because once it goes in and they get surrounded and their property 120 values get destroyed, or their neighborhood is gone, then it's done because the County has no control over Mebane's zoning. 121 If Mebane just continues to blow up and expand with no agreements and no understanding then it's going to be a mess and 122 it's going to be a real problem for Orange County citizens but yet you guys, the Planning Department, have much more 123 institutional knowledge and much more specialized knowledge of how these pieces and parts work together so I would 124 encourage you to please continue to remind the Board of County Commissioners that this is an issue that Orange County 125 citizens need some certainty on. You've got a model sort of agreement, I'm not saying it should be the same agreement, but 126 you've got WASAMBA with Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough and you've got nothing with Mebane. 127 128 Craig Benedict: Your comments will be put into the context that this work plan was presented to the Planning Board and here 129 are their topics and so this will come forward to the Commissioners and accent to your concerns. 130 131 Adam Beeman: Since it was brought at the last meeting that Hillsborough, Durham and Mebane have no plans to extend any 132 further water or sewer and that is was a political decision, I would hope they would go back and think about that for a long- 133 term plan, I would hope the political decision moving forward with some change in Commissioners that they look at that long- 134 term because evidently once you suck up all the land the next step is for density is to go up. I understand that it gets 135 expensive so we might as well make investments in the near term rather than wait. They should be thinking about that. 136 137 Craig Benedict: I think that's a good point. When the water and sewer boundary agreement was put together in 1996 and 138 approved in 2001 and there were a lot of assumptions of population growth and how much land was necessary to 139 accommodate that population growth so we will turn this item#7 to discussing with OWASA, Hillsborough, Mebane and 140 Durham about what is the potential of their infrastructure and do they have interest in expanding their infrastructure and if they 141 even have the ability. I'll make sure it's incorporated in the minutes. 142 143 Kim Piracci left the meeting 144 145 Whitney Watson: I wanted to commend you guys for putting community outreach so high in the list. That seems to be an area 146 where the professional staff has not been appreciated by the public. They have not understood the process or the guidelines 147 and code that is in place. It's a good idea to put that up and make that a priority. I also want to hook on something that Adam 148 brought up about the waste and water infrastructure, and maybe encourage the Planning Staff and Board to look more broadly 149 at the meaning of infrastructure and know that rural broadband is on the list of things to try to address in the coming years. 150 Perhaps, other kinds of infrastructure, especially for Northern Orange County could be considered. 151 152 Craig Benedict: Those comments are well taken. I think there's a lot of growth in how to fix that and that is one of my areas of 153 interest to create a better network for the rural areas. 154 155 David Blankfard: Is staff looking at ways of getting funding through the Build Back Better Infrastructure Bill? 156 157 Craig Benedict: Yes,that's a good comment and I didn't mention it here but besides the Build Back Better Infrastructure Bill, 158 we have allocated some money for Broadband infrastructure in the tune of 5 million dollars which we hope to leverage that 159 with some private providers to help get service to the rural areas. 160 161 Melissa Poole: Broadband is the number one concern in my district. 162 163 Craig Benedict:Well taken 164 165 Carrie Fletcher: Internet is very problematic and really needs to be addressed. 166