Agenda - 08-19-2008 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 1 Personally, I support the emphasis on compact, mixed -use developments not only 2 because it's a good conservation strategy, but because this is the best strategy for significantly 3 increasing the supply of housing affordable to working and middle class households. 4 To put it another way, if the plan's implementation does not result in an increased supply 5 of less expensive land — on a per lot basis — for residential development than currently available, 6 then the comprehensive plan update will have little or no impact on reducing the shortage of 7 workforce housing in the county. 8 This points to the main flaw with the plan's housing element. It almost exclusively 9 focuses on issues related to affordable and special needs housing; albeit an area of concern 10 which I fully support. However, the housing element should also address the systemic problems 11 which cause the county's housing market to skew towards upper - income housing and 12 recommend actions for bringing the market into a more equitable balance. 13 Finally, I encourage the Commissioners to ask themselves if they've heard from as many 14 stakeholders as they feel is appropriate for a policy document of this significance before voting 15 on the plan later this summer. I believe the compressed time schedule put a strain on the 16 planning advisory boards and diminished the opportunity — especially during Phase 11— for 17 widespread and continuous community input. As such, I encourage the Commissioners to 18 immediately solicit the written comments of each lead advisory board so that their comments 19 can be utilized by the Planning Board as they continue to refine the plan this summer. Indeed, 20 one or more joint advisory board meetings at this stage would be useful in assessing community 21 support for the proposal, as well as gathering constructive recommendations for final 22 improvements." 23 24 Holly Reid read a prepared statement: 25 "My name is Holly Reid and I am a co- founder of the Walkable Hillsborough Coalition, a 26 group of community volunteers who have worked the past seven years to advocate for 27 pedestrian and bike ways for Hillsborough, surrounding communities, and Orange County. 1 28 have been involved in the exploring the possibility of reopening a train station in Hillsborough. 1 29 am also one of the twenty-nine members of the Special Transit Advisory Commission, whose 30 charge was to recommend a regional transit system for the Triangle region to our joint 31 Metropolitan Planning Organization representatives. Our final report will be presented to the 32 MPO's this Wednesday, May 21, in Raleigh. 33 Over the years and especially through my involvement on the STAC, I have learned that 34 the Triangle area is one of the most sprawled regions in the country and that we expect a million 35 more people to Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties in the next 20 years. I have learned that 36 we are off - the -scale auto centric in our country, and that we are realizing the great costs of this 37 choice every day: poor health, poor community connections, dangerous and unattractive 38 alternative modes of getting around, disenfranchised young and old, loss of commerce in our 39 downtowns, and an irresponsible carbon footprint, to name a few. 40 1 believe our Unified Transportation Board recognizes these huge community costs. 41 They have listed many of these as key issues in a future Comprehensive Transportation Plan 42 that is recommended in Objective T -3.2, and they see this plan as addressing strategies for all 43 transportation modes, including bike, pedestrian, rail and all other critical transit facilities. 44 What is absolutely critical to righting our heavily over - weighted single modal car culture 45 is a new multi -modal transportation system that is well emphasized in Goal 3. What needs just 46 as much emphasis in Goal 3 is future development that is compact, walkable and in mixed -use 47 neighborhoods along transit corridors supported by transit. Transit and pedestrian - oriented 48 development is the critical nexus of transportation and land use and it needs to be highly 49 emphasized and cross - referenced frequently in our Comprehensive Plan. In my view and the 50 Coalition's view, this needs to be written right into the Overarching Goal as the most important 51 change in transportation and land use, a game- changer for our future.