PB Agenda Packet - Feb 5 2025 - Laserfiche WebLink

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22 DRAFT 819 had to buy a place down off South Miami because she couldn't afford even the dumpiest place in 820 Hillsborough because it was out of reach. So, if we're going to go that route,we're just going to 821 keep pushing people out and it's only going to be the rich that can be in this County,so I really 822 don't know how we can have those types of things without having some real thought. I live north of 823 70. There's nothing for me. I go to Mebane to shop. I would prefer to put my money here in town 824 but there's nothing for me in this town to shop. I have to go somewhere else to do that. I would 825 love to have more options north of town where a lot of us out there on the rural area have to drive, 826 1 drive at least 20 minutes to get to town to do something. So which way am I going? The one 827 that has more choices. And that's just the way it is. So, if Orange County wants the rural,they're 828 going to have to think about that. Peel off those warehouses and start thinking about something 829 that the rest of us can actually shop at and buy. Because I don't go to Family Dollar or Dollar 830 Trees for my groceries, so Food Lion is it in this town. Food Lion is it up this way and it's just not 831 enough. There are not enough choices for us up this way. And everybody down south in Chapel 832 Hill and Carrboro are happy because you can't beat enough choices off between everything that's 833 around them. So as far as they're concerned, County's waiting. The rest of us up in north,there's 834 plenty of people that up north that don't want growth. I'm with them, but I need some choices 835 closer to me because the mileage that I'm tacking on my vehicle just to go get groceries,we need 836 to think about that. And that's something that, if you're not going to expand water and sewer, it's 837 never going to be affordable. That's just the bottom line. The taxpayer's going to pay for it one 838 way or the other. You're either going to pay for the water and sewers to be built out or all of us 839 lower income folks are going to get pushed out and it's only going to be the folks that can afford 840 the million dollar plus properties. I mean I'd love to know where the commissioner's mind was at, 1 841 don't understand. At one point, if I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard that potentially eliminating or 842 reducing the rural buffer was supposed to on the table as far as a choice for people to talk about. 843 Did that get any attraction? 844 845 Leigh Anne King: So,that was some of what we tested. Well,we tested some, like I was saying,the Blackwood 846 Station area in particular was an area that was a focus both for rural conservation neighborhood 847 and also for the mixed-use center development. And I think, because there has been such strong 848 support for, and if you look at that kind of percentages of people in terms of the alternatives they 849 were supporting, if I remember correctly, I'll just go back. I'm double checking myself and not 850 saying something incorrectly here. So Alternative No. 1 had 58 percent. So that's current policy. 851 54 for Alternative No. 2, environmental agricultural watershed protection and then 52 percent for 852 rural conversation neighborhoods,which is No. 3. And then kind of, there's a split a little bit in 853 terms of some of the development mix for No.4. So,the high end, if you were going to compare 854 them across,there's actually more support for what we do today. But there's also this expression 855 that we need to be doing more than what we're doing today with respect to how we're offering 856 housing options within our community and making things more attainable for folks. I think the real 857 challenge, the real rub, is there is such strong support for environmental protection, agricultural 858 preservation, and watershed protection. And when you start putting lot of pipes in the ground to 859 serve different areas, are you going to be able to afford that infrastructure. There will be 860 development that will go along with it. And I think that there doesn't seem to be a lot of strong 861 support for changing in a major way the land planning in the unincorporated areas. 862 863 Adam Beeman: But cost was never brought up and this is just merely what do you think versus do you understand 864 that based on the approach that you're taking,you are going to significantly drive the cost up. 1 865 think a lot of people don't realize that the County's budget isn't going to stay static. The folks that 866 work for the County expect pay raises whether they're 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent or whatever 867 they may be. So that means that costs are going to go up every single year. And if the only 868 people that are footing the bills are taxpayers, that means we're going to continue to climb and 869 climb and climb. So that's the rub that people don't take into consideration.The ramifications of 870 maintaining what we have. Because once we close off, now we have prime land. Everything else 871 around us had been developed. There's no more developable land down the road. And we have 872 all this available land. What do you think is going to happen with those conservations. They're 873 going to figure out how to peel that conservation back and develop the heck out of that land