4-3-24 PB Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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10 DRAFT 200 Under our green community focus area, as you can imagine, there is a lot of associated actions here. The 201 climate action plan places great emphasis on preserving our natural spaces for the role that they can play in 202 mitigating climate impacts, for the role that they can play in sequestering carbon and how our natural spaces 203 provide us with a lot of resiliency. Some action items here are to prioritize the rural buffer and anti-sprawl zoning 204 in the comprehensive land use plan and then to examine current development within the rural buffer and rewrite 205 regulations to prevent further suburban developments. And we definitely want to have a focus on connectivity of 206 natural spaces, as recommended in the Eno New Hope land conservation plan, so making sure that we have 207 those important wildlife corridors. We also want to develop some guidelines and incentives for developers to 208 really start utilizing a lot of green infrastructure in their development, as well as planting native plant landscaping. 209 210 In terms of next steps, we're looking to find those areas of collaboration and talk through the intersections 211 between the actions that are in the climate action plan and what's going into the comprehensive land use plan. 212 I'm on the strategic planning committee for the CLUP, and I've been engaged in the planning process, and so I'm 213 looking forward to being able to continue to promote what we have going on in the CAP in the overall planning of 214 the comprehensive land use plan. And then I'm also just really looking forward to having continued 215 conversations with planning staff. We're starting to do that already to be able to start drafting some proposed 216 language for some possible UDO amendments that may be coming your way in the foreseeable future. 217 218 1 want to encourage you to check out our climate action plan. It is available on our website, as well as our 219 dashboard. I have this QR code that will link directly to it,or you can visit it through the link. And I encourage you 220 to reach out to me if you have any questions. And, finally, I just want to make a shameless promotion for an 221 upcoming event that we have going on in collaboration with the Arts Commission. It is a climate and 222 sustainability event happening on opening night,April 5,from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Eno River Arts Mill. We have put 223 a call out to artists within our community and surrounding community to submit artwork that represents their 224 interpretation of climate change and what our changing climate means to them, so I've been able to actually 225 serve on the jury to review all of the submitted artwork, and we have some amazing pieces, so I'm excited about 226 this event, and I hope you can come out and enjoy it. So that's all I have for you this evening. Happy to take any 227 questions that you have. 228 229 Adam Beeman: In regards to prioritizing the rural buffer and anti sprawl, in your discussions,do you discuss how 230 to pay for all these things, because the community is going to be voting on a $300 million bond for the schools. 231 We have$78 million of needs for the county. And so the only way I see that we continue to pay the bills and not 232 on the real estate taxes is to grow. We need growth. Strategic growth. But we need growth. I completely 233 understand preserving and everything else, but I just don't understand how the community cannot grow and 234 continue to pay the bills without forcing us all out. So that's one thing. And I'm not really looking for an answer; 235 just something to think about. But what I do want an answer: on the solar panels,was that private and public or 236 all public places or private places, like residents that put them up? 237 238 Amy Eckberg: Both. 239 240 Adam Beeman: And so knowing what little I know about how the utility company likes to take it, what happens 241 with the homeowners that are producing more than they actually use? Where is that extra credit going, and is 242 there a way that the county can capture that rather than let the utility company keep it for free? 243 244 Speaker 1: Unfortunately, no. Duke Energy, through the net metering process, is getting the extra energy 245 that's being generated, and the residents or commercial businesses that are producing that extra are getting the 246 additional back on their utility bills, so it's not a system that we can work out to have the county capture that. It's 247 directed through Duke Energy. They have a whole program set up for net metering. 248