12_4_24 Planning Board Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Approved 2.5.25 had to buy a place down off South Miami because she couldn't afford even the dumpiest place in 819 Hillsborough because it was out of reach. So, if we're going to go that route, we're just going to 820 keep pushing people out and it's only going to be the rich that can be in this County, so I really 821 don't know how we can have those types of things without having some real thought. I live north of 822 70. There's nothing for me. I go to Mebane to shop. I would prefer to put my money here in town 823 but there's nothing for me in this town to shop. I have to go somewhere else to do that. I would 824 love to have more options north of town where a lot of us out there on the rural area have to drive, 825 I drive at least 20 minutes to get to town to do something. So which way am I going? The one 826 that has more choices. And that's just the way it is. So, if Orange County wants the rural, they're 827 going to have to think about that. Peel off those warehouses and start thinking about something 828 that the rest of us can actually shop at and buy. Because I don't go to Family Dollar or Dollar 829 Trees for my groceries, so Food Lion is it in this town. Food Lion is it up this way and it's just not 830 enough. There are not enough choices for us up this way. And everybody down south in Chapel 831 Hill and Carrboro are happy because you can't beat enough choices off between everything that's 832 around them. So as far as they're concerned, County's waiting. The rest of us up in north, there's 833 plenty of people that up north that don't want growth. I'm with them, but I need some choices 834 closer to me because the mileage that I'm tacking on my vehicle just to go get groceries, we need 835 to think about that. And that's something that, if you're not going to expand water and sewer, it's 836 never going to be affordable. That's just the bottom line. The taxpayer's going to pay for it one 837 way or the other. You're either going to pay for the water and sewers to be built out or all of us 838 lower income folks are going to get pushed out and it's only going to be the folks that can afford 839 the million dollar plus properties. I mean I'd love to know where the commissioner's mind was at, I 840 don't understand. At one point, if I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard that potentially eliminating or 841 reducing the rural buffer was supposed to on the table as far as a choice for people to talk about. 842 Did that get any attraction? 843 844 Leigh Anne King: So, that was some of what we tested. Well, we tested some, like I was saying, the Blackwood 845 Station area in particular was an area that was a focus both for rural conservation neighborhood 846 and also for the mixed-use center development. And I think, because there has been such strong 847 support for, and if you look at that kind of percentages of people in terms of the alternatives they 848 were supporting, if I remember correctly, I'll just go back. I'm double checking myself and not 849 saying something incorrectly here. So Alternative No. 1 had 58 percent. So that's current policy. 850 54 for Alternative No. 2, environmental agricultural watershed protection and then 52 percent for 851 rural conversation neighborhoods, which is No. 3. And then kind of, there's a split a little bit in 852 terms of some of the development mix for No. 4. So, the high end, if you were going to compare 853 them across, there's actually more support for what we do today. But there's also this expression 854 that we need to be doing more than what we're doing today with respect to how we're offering 855 housing options within our community and making things more attainable for folks. I think the real 856 challenge, the real rub, is there is such strong support for environmental protection, agricultural 857 preservation, and watershed protection. And when you start putting lot of pipes in the ground to 858 serve different areas, are you going to be able to afford that infrastructure. There will be 859 development that will go along with it. And I think that there doesn't seem to be a lot of strong 860 support for changing in a major way the land planning in the unincorporated areas. 861 862 Adam Beeman: But cost was never brought up and this is just merely what do you think versus do you understand 863 that based on the approach that you're taking, you are going to significantly drive the cost up. I 864 think a lot of people don't realize that the County's budget isn't going to stay static. The folks that 865 work for the County expect pay raises whether they're 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent or whatever 866 they may be. So that means that costs are going to go up every single year. And if the only 867 people that are footing the bills are taxpayers, that means we're going to continue to climb and 868 climb and climb. So that's the rub that people don't take into consideration. The ramifications of 869 maintaining what we have. Because once we close off, now we have prime land. Everything else 870 around us had been developed. There's no more developable land down the road. And we have 871 all this available land. What do you think is going to happen with those conservations. They're 872 going to figure out how to peel that conservation back and develop the heck out of that land 873