Agenda 04-26-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 1 costs about $600,000 to join. He said anything the climate council can do to help would be 2 great. 3 Commissioner Fowler said the climate council had been working on LEED certification. 4 She said it sounds like the county will qualify at some level. She said that this certification could 5 be used as a stepping off point to examine where there are deficits in efficiencies. 6 Commissioner Bedford said there were two areas she wanted to mention. She said one 7 is with the Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro MPO and the new metropolitan transit plan. She said 8 they are trying to convince the NC Department of Transportation that bike/ped and multi-modal 9 projects should not have to be funded only as part of a road improvement. She said those 10 projects should be able to be funded as stand-alone projects. She said that the new plan 11 focuses on that. She said that the state could spend hundreds of millions of dollars on adding a 12 lane to a highway, which would only improve commute times by a few minutes. She said that 13 spending the same amount of funds on multi modal forms of transportation could create real 14 change. 15 Commissioner Bedford said she and Commissioner Hamilton are members of the Solid 16 Waste Advisory Group (SWAG). She said that people have to look upstream and downstream 17 when thinking about solid waste. She said upstream is trying to get people to waste less. She 18 said there is a contract out for what zero waste looks like and what would the county need to get 19 there. She said that the county is part of UNRBA and they are working on Falls Lake and the 20 nutrient issues there. She said the county is the headwaters for three or four different water 21 basins. She said Jordan Lake is a water provider and is in worse condition due to PFAS from 22 the Haw River. She said the county has stricter requirements than the state for water protection 23 buffers. She said climate change is harder to making progress on. She said that the county is 24 pursuing electric vehicles for the county transportation department, but they are very expensive. 25 Representative Meyer asked for any economic development updates. 26 Chair Price said there has been recent progress. She said Morinaga is open and they 27 had more job slots. She said Medline is about to open and is huge. She said Thermo Fisher is 28 developing. She said ABB expanded without any incentives. She said quite a bit is happening 29 in the western part of the county. She said Durham Tech is still a partner in many of these 30 developments. She said part of attracting companies is making sure there is a talent pool 31 available, and that Durham Tech is assisting with training. She said UNC is looking into 32 training people for trades and distribution centers. 33 Commissioner Bedford said she said there are some possible developments in Chapel 34 Hill. She said the previous Bucee's site is under review for another development. 35 Commissioner Greene said the proposed development at the Bucee's site qualifies 36 under existing zoning, so the Board won't see it. 37 Representative Meyer said that Google and Apple developments will drive a lot of 38 growth in the Triangle. He said that a Toyota battery plant will be developed in the western 39 Piedmont, which will spur associated development. He said that along the coast there will be a 40 major effort to make North Carolina both the largest provider of off shore wind energy and the 41 manufacturer of off shore wind technology and infrastructure. He said that with off shore wind 42 energy developing off the coast, and the battery industry developing in the western Piedmont, 43 Orange County will be right in the middle of those two industries. He said those two industries 44 will enable other clean industries to develop here. He said the county should be thinking ahead 45 in the type of role we want to play in these developments. He requested that the county have 46 a larger economic development discussion with people from the state. He said that he usually 47 doesn't hear from county economic development staff when they are working on projects that 48 has state involvement. He said he would be open to helping staff develop projects. 49 Chair Price said that the county could set up meetings for Representative Meyer with the 50 Economic Development Director, Steve Brantley. She said that the Economic Development 51 department staff, Chair Price and Deputy County Manager Travis Myren met with