Agenda - 10-17-2005-1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5 The County continues in negotiation with the property owner regarding acquisition of a facility that can adequately address the long -term storage needs for the County, as well as provide needed expansion space for the Emergency Management and Information Systems Departments (and potentially the Economic Development Commission as noted below). The Board may recall that Emergency Management, in particular, was noted as a high priority department for whom additional space should be provided. The new facility would accommodate the administrative and fire marshal staff and would also provide a location for a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Resolution of this matter is expected within a matter of a few weeks. Board of Elections Space Request The Board of Elections (BOE) has requested additional space for their operations and storage needs within the past few months. While the aforementioned storage facility can theoretically address their storage needs for equipment, it does not provide relief for operations space. The Economic Development Commission (EDC) office has agreed to allow the BOE primary use of their conference room in the Court Street Annex, the current location of both departments, however, this does little to address the overall space concerns expressed by the BOE. The space study group has identified two options as potential solutions: • Option is Relocate the EDC offices to the proposed storage facility building at such time acquisition is finalized and allow the BOE to expand into the approximately 741 square feet now occupied by EDC; or • Option 2: Relocate BOE to the approximately lo,000 square foot Orange Enterprises facility in the event the Board chooses not to upfit the facility for the Parks operation or for relocation of farm services related functions, currently located in the Planning and Ag Building. Animal Shelter County Commissioners have recently approved the purchase of property on the south side of Eubanks Road, adjacent to the east side of the Landfill. Closing on the property is conditioned on the County being able to obtain the appropriate regulatory approvals from the Town of Chapel Hill to site the Shelter. The Town has indicated that the site will need a Special Use Permit (SUP) and a Zoning Compliance Permit (ZCP). The expedited review for the SUP, which the County would request, is estimated by the Town to take approximately 18 months; the ZCP, another five months. Since the SUP and ZCP require that the project architect complete much of the work, the Request for Proposal process to obtain an architect is being expedited at the County level. A recommendation to the Board is expected before the Holiday break. Much of the design of the facility would logically flow in tandem with the regulatory approval process. Assuming a construction time of approximately 18 months, combined with the SUP and ZCP approvals, the project completion is likely to be completed by mid -2009. While the University has heretofore expressed a willingness to allow the existing Shelter to remain at its present location after the January t, 2007 lease expiration, it is unclear how the move to