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<br /> DRAFT
<br /> 492 Hill/Carrboro are both, and the County, have the joint planning agreement area and so the idea
<br /> 493 was that dense housing would happen within those jointly planned areas where urban, or
<br /> 494 suburban scale development is already the policy in the place. So, not really additional areas
<br /> 495 added to those beyond probably the Mebane growth area, but we're still waiting to see what
<br /> 496 happens with that comprehensive planning effort.
<br /> 497 Beth Bronson: At least acknowledging, I guess, in the comprehensive plan that the municipalities have their own
<br /> 498 land use plan. Because as somebody who lives near the 1-85 Mebane area,the confusion that
<br /> 499 was created around the municipality having their growth strategy and the County having their
<br /> 500 growth strategy, on top of Mebane itself being, straddling two different counties. Besides that,just
<br /> 501 the idea of the public trying to engage but then not understanding where all of these,they're not
<br /> 502 contradictory necessarily, but they're not congruent, so.
<br /> 503
<br /> 504 Leigh Anne King: Yeah. No, that's really important. I know I talked to at least one person when we were in Gravelly
<br /> 505 Hill that we were encouraging them to go and participate in the Mebane comprehensive planning
<br /> 506 effort for that very reason because a lot of the things that they wanted to provide feedback on and
<br /> 507 guidance on was more specific to what Mebane is actually doing in their effort. So, I think it's
<br /> 508 good to be aware of both, but you're right. Whoever has direct authority is the one you want to be
<br /> 509 making sure you're getting your comments to.
<br /> 510
<br /> 511 Statler Gilfillen: You just described sending an individual over to Mebane to talk to them about their planning and
<br /> 512 what they're doing, separate from what you're doing. Now, I'm looking at the Orange County. I'm
<br /> 513 looking at each of the municipalities and I'm hearing constantly separate. How much time or effort
<br /> 514 is where you're meeting with the Mebane, the Chapel Hill,the Hillsborough, all the planning
<br /> 515 departments together to coming up with a real vision for Orange County as a whole. I'm not
<br /> 516 hearing that. What am I missing?
<br /> 517
<br /> 518 Leigh Anne King: So, I think that there is definitely an effort in this process to engage the municipalities' leadership.
<br /> 519 There was a survey that was sent to the mayors of all the municipalities. There have been public
<br /> 520 engagement efforts, at least within close proximity to each of the municipalities and there has
<br /> 521 been advertising to community members there. So, I think in this effort,while it is not, regional at
<br /> 522 the County-level sense,this is not a plan that Hillsborough, Mebane, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and
<br /> 523 Orange County are collectively developing. There is an effort to try to encourage that coordination
<br /> 524 and collaboration as part of this effort. Some states have top-down planning that require regional
<br /> 525 planning coordination. North Carolina is not one of those, and we're not really set up to do that if
<br /> 526 it's not forced at the local level, but I think,actually, if you look at the history of this County and
<br /> 527 compare it to most counties in the state, and I would even go so far as to say a lot of the
<br /> 528 southeast, there's been a lot more collaboration and regional planning. The joint planning
<br /> 529 agreement is a great case study example of that than most places.
<br /> 530
<br /> 531 Cy Stober: Yeah, and I want to echo that but with a little more detail and I think Tom, I would invite Tom or
<br /> 532 Perdita to speak in greater detail because they've lived with these local agreements longer than 1
<br /> 533 have. The joint planning agreement established the rural buffer. It established the transition
<br /> 534 areas in Carrboro, and it regulates the use of land around Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The central
<br /> 535 Orange coordinated area and the land-use agreement with the Town of Hillsborough coordinates
<br /> 536 land use so that Hillsborough and the County are acting in coordination and consistent with each
<br /> 537 other in the perimeter areas around the Town of Hillsborough, and then the Water and Sewer
<br /> 538 Management. Planning, and Boundary Agreement, WASMPBA regulates the use of OWASA
<br /> 539 utilities and Hillsborough utilities to support new development in the County. The exception of
<br /> 540 that,which you are intimately familiar with, is how the legislature did an end run on us with schools
<br /> 541 and that does trump any local agreements with regard to utility extension and use. But otherwise,
<br /> 542 there's been decades of, including key staff at Clarion Associates,with regard to coordinated
<br /> 543 planning in the County. Currently, the only municipalities that we do not have inter local
<br /> 544 agreements with are the City of Durham which has a small part of County land within its
<br /> 545 incorporated limits on the east side, over near the 751 corridor, and the City of Mebane, and the
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