4-3-24 PB Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 DRAFT 447 little different, and the other one that seems to be very much missing in Orange County is rollerblading. If it were 448 easy and promoted, more people would possibly do it. 449 450 Whitney Watson: I think it's an amazing amount of work that's been done. It seems to me there is an opportunity 451 over the next 18 months or so as the land use plan comes together to tie some of the issues or actions that are 452 not in alignment. For example, in rural broadband, huge initiative. Let's get rural broadband out throughout the 453 county which, of course,facilitates people working from home and ordering from Amazon with multiple deliveries 454 a day. And then if people now live 15 miles outside of City Center or Town Center, when they get ready to do 455 their shopping, they have to jump in their single use-vehicle and drive in and find places to park, and so on. And 456 the same is true for workforce development or having employment opportunities. In some ways, we're pushing 457 people to move closer and having a more dense environment, and at the same time, we want the county to be 458 more rural and agrarian. So, with that tension between what do we really want for a lifestyle and what do we 459 want to do for the environment is something that probably requires a lot of conversation, and it may require a lot 460 convincing for folks who live out from some of the towns and cities of Orange County. 461 462 Amy Eckberg: Absolutely, and I know that all those things are going to be discussed and looked at as we 463 continue to go down the road of the comprehensive land use plan. 464 465 Delores Bailey: I do agree with all of the information. Just one little point. You talked about possibly providing 466 density as an incentive for when people would include the policies that you're talking about and, with the 467 affordable housing lands on because that's normally what the governments have to give to developers when 468 they do the right thing. When you talk about density bonuses, what were you talking about specifically? 469 470 Amy Eckberg: It could be height density. I know the County of Arlington does a very successful building density 471 program to encourage green development, and they look at things like height density since they're a very dense 472 community. I think that's something that I would just strategize with planning staff. We haven't had 473 conversations about it. I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility, but it would definitely need to be 474 researched more. 475 476 Delores Bailey: So, I was just wondering if there had been any,orjust to encourage you to do a lot of talking with 477 the planning departments because the developers already are looking for ways to provide that in the city and, 478 usually, that's around the affordable housing piece of it. 479 480 Amy Eckberg: That's a great point. Thank you. 481 482 Adam Beeman: Any other questions? 483 484 Statler Gilfillen: I have one last comment, if I might. I don't know if you're familiar. About 2 years ago in the 485 Economist Magazine, there was an article about an Irish company that has cut a contract with the American 486 company Carrier to develop a new type of air conditioning unit that will require half the energy to produce the 487 same chilling effect. It's apparently caught up in the bureaucracy right now a bit. Are you familiar with this at all? 488 489 Amy Eckberg: I'm not, but I think I need to look into it. 490 491 Melissa Poole: So, one other point. As we were talking, Adam made a great point about environmental 492 protections, because we all want them. Unfortunately, in this country, environmental protections are expensive, 493 so there is an economic variable to be considered as well. You mentioned quite a number of things that Wake 494 County has done in legislation they've implemented. One piece of legislation they've implemented, which 1 495 fundamentally and wholly support and would love to see happen in Orange County, is they required their bike 496 riders to get license plate and collect fees,just like you do on a car, in order to offset some of their costs.