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<br /> DRAFT
<br /> 709 housing stock. Hopefully help with affordability issues, or at least provide some housing choices
<br /> 710 within the County. And I want to be careful because the Board was very astute in saying that we
<br /> 711 need to be very careful about talking about this being the direct link to creating affordable housing,
<br /> 712 because there are a lot of steps that have to happen at a particular project level to make that
<br /> 713 happen. We don't have inclusionary housing in this state, and so we can't mandate that as part of
<br /> 714 the land use plan and our regulations, but it provides opportunity for creating more housing
<br /> 715 choice, potentially, because you can do denser development. So maybe you could have some
<br /> 716 townhomes, or some smaller-lot, single-family, or duplexes, etc.,to create more housing choice,
<br /> 717 which hopefully leads to affordability.
<br /> 718
<br /> 719 Dolores Bailey: Okay. Cy, is that something like what might happen on the Greene Tract?So, the protected areas
<br /> 720 are identified first?
<br /> 721
<br /> 722 Cy Stober: Yes, but the Greene Tract's better.
<br /> 723
<br /> 724 Dolores Bailey: It's been in planning for a long time.
<br /> 725
<br /> 726 Cy Stober: I mean, it is what it is. It's certainly been a talking point. But it's better,the reason that it's better is
<br /> 727 that the County is an owner along with the towns, and so we get to dictate the terms of
<br /> 728 affordability, and we have a lot more power as a landowner. And, the City of Durham, particularly,
<br /> 729 going back to Mayor Bell, but also, especially, Steve Schewel,when he was mayor there,the man
<br /> 730 is a walking dictionary, encyclopedia, of affordable housing in North Carolina. And they realized
<br /> 731 the general assembly has limited the options so that essentially if you want to dictate affordability,
<br /> 732 you need to own the land, or you need to own an easement on the land. And there are a couple
<br /> 733 of notable zoning cases in the city where land ownership was negotiated and then terms were
<br /> 734 established once the County was able to establish ownership rights to the land. And the Greene
<br /> 735 Tract affords this. The Town of Chapel Hill, and the Town of Carrboro, and I really hope that we
<br /> 736 agree on what the affordability should be. And we already have agreed, minimally,what the
<br /> 737 environmental protections should be,with the headwaters preserve. But the master plan also
<br /> 738 provides for additional green space and connectivity on the Greene Tract. So, the Greene Tract is
<br /> 739 better in that regard. It's also aspirational,which is the frustration, as it's not real yet. But it could
<br /> 740 be a really great model for what we'd like to see, and we're going to be, lord knows Perdita spent
<br /> 741 the whole summer making sure that it got across the finish line, so,yes, indeed, and we got more
<br /> 742 work to do,and we're hoping that it'll come to reality very soon. But we'd love to be able to hold
<br /> 743 that up as the model that we would like others to emulate.
<br /> 744
<br /> 745 Dolores Bailey: And my last question is, in your set of questions to the commissioners, did you all talk anything
<br /> 746 about transportation and some type of transportation to the northern part of the County,
<br /> 747 connecting us better that way?
<br /> 748
<br /> 749 Leigh Anne King: We didn't have a specific question about transportation. There is actually, I'm not sure kind of
<br /> 750 what the status is at this point,there is an ongoing transportation plan that's being developed for
<br /> 751 the County right now. So, our questions were much more land use focused because of this effort.
<br /> 752 But, again,we have been coordinating with the staff working group and the various interests that
<br /> 753 work on transportation in the County to think about—I think because we got the message through
<br /> 754 the engagement that the more dense housing options needed to be focused within the existing
<br /> 755 municipalities, it changes the conversation a little bit about transportation outside in the
<br /> 756 unincorporated area, but to your point, it's still a very important consideration to be thinking about.
<br /> 757
<br /> 758 Dolores Bailey: Especially if we want to ever move the density of housing further out in Orange County.
<br /> 759
<br /> 760 Adam Beeman: Steve? Whitney?
<br /> 761
<br /> 762 Whitney Watson: I'm struck by how close most of the numbers are that you reported. And I'm wondering if there are
<br /> 763 clear, more than a few percentage points, mandates for one direction or another. Or,when you
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