12_4_24 Planning Board Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Approved 2.5.25 to be considered when we're drafting policy recommendations for this plan. Those are existing 929 utilities, again, to get to that earlier point about economic development. Most of those areas are 930 zoned for residential, but there are some non-residential areas in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that 931 are adjacent to or have proximity to those utilities. All that could be discussed. We are also 932 currently in the two of the alternatives, well, all the alternatives now have two activity nodes within 933 the rural buffer. One right outside and one within, and I think we're moving forward with that in 934 mind. They will depend upon a decentralized, engineered system, so state permitted wastewater, 935 state permitted water. And to your point about the for-profit management of water. I share your 936 concern, so I think that, and the commissioners have reached out to the manager who told me we 937 need more research on, particularly, you know, decentralized wastewater whether it's community 938 septic or, community wastewater so it's a package plant. The commissioners are intrigued but 939 concerned. They don't feel that they have enough information today and you feel that way too, so 940 we need to get more information on all of those matters. But where we're at right now is a real 941 distaste for sprawl. Real concern about affordability. For those who are informed, concerns about 942 tax base, and concerns about under-utilization of existing infrastructure. I think all of that's true 943 and going to inform what we come back to you with in the future. 944 945 Adam Beeman: I'm rotating off of March, so I'm trying to get all of it off and aired out because I probably won't be 946 here the next time around. So, I apologize. Charity, go ahead. 947 948 Charity Kirk: Adding on to environmental stuff, is there any consideration of wildlife corridors, because we're 949 talking about alternatives to land use and these conservation neighborhoods, but there's nothing 950 about connectivity that I've heard. And besides there's watershed protected areas. But what is the 951 consideration for wildlife connectivity? 952 953 Leigh Anne King: Excellent question. So when we develop the alternatives and we're looking to change the land 954 uses, particularly for the rural conservation neighborhoods, and the mixed-use centers in 955 Alternative No. 4, we did evaluate the New Hope Conservation Corridor's analysis that was part of 956 the data that we looked at when locating those areas on the map, and there are gradations of 957 quality of corridors and patches and so we were prioritizing the most high quality corridors and 958 patches when locating these areas. If you see the maps of New Hope there's some level, almost 959 everywhere, that doesn't have development on it today. But there was a concerted effort to look 960 at that, and it's actually something that as we're drafting the policies for the plan and thinking 961 about if we're going to be supporting rural conservation neighborhoods and unincorporated 962 portions of the County, we want to make sure that protected lands, the 60 percent or whatever 963 number that's landed at, in terms of the open space protection, would be promoting conservation 964 of high quality conservation corridors for wildlife. 965 966 Charity Kirk: So, in the plan, you would actually specify what would be rural conservation neighborhoods 967 zoning wise and then they would need to do a rural conservation neighborhood there. They would 968 have to apply to the County to change it to a standard subdivision. 969 970 Leigh Anne King: The plan is policy. No zoning change will happen as a part of a land use plan. 971 972 Charity Kirk: So, the UDO would have to be changed separately. 973 974 Leigh Anne King: Correct. And this is the way it always happens in communities throughout the United States. 975 There's the plan that happens first. And that's the policy guidance that will typically include 976 recommendations for zoning, subdivision, UDO, whatever the ordinance is called, for changes to 977 that to bring the code into compliance with the vision of the plan. So, at this stage, there wouldn't 978 be any zoning changes. I think in our land use categories, we would talk about the types of 979 zoning categories that make sense to be applied within different areas, but it wouldn't actually be 980 zoning. 981 982