Agenda - 08-25-2008- c2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 1 of 4 (IS Tom Altieri From: James Carnahan ~carnahan@mindspring.com] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 8:52 AM To: barryj@earthlink.net; Valerie Foushee; mcarey5@nc.rr.com; gordonam@mindspring.com; mikenelsonnc@aol.com; jaybryan7@msn.com Cc: Tom Altieri; Donna Baker Subject: Comprehensive Plan Update [also attaching Word file of this letter] Dear Orange County Board of Commissioners, As you know, The Village Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting walkable communities in Orange County. As such, we have taken a great interest in the update of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan. Because we see the importance of this process, in 2007 we convened a diverse coalition of stakeholders to help engage the community and to provide input on the Plan, the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition ("Coalition"). The Coalition submitted input on the draft Comprehensive Plan on January 28, 2008 and May 5, 2008. The Coalition believes that incorporating this input into the Comprehensive Plan would greatly help it establish a sustainable path into the future for Orange County. The Village Project encourages the County to consider these comments carefully; they are the result of an intensive dialog held over many months among community leaders from all sectors on future growth in Orange County. The Village Project submits herein additional comments on its own behalf regarding the May 2008 draft of the Comprehensive Plan for consideration by the Orange County Planning Board and Board of Commissioners. The following comments thematically summarize our findings from a detailed review of the May draft Plan, which we will submit separately at a later date. We are also including in the accompanying attachment proposed edits & revisions to Chapter 1, section 3, "Toward a Sustainable Future." 1) Sustainability and Global Climate Change. Chapter 1, section 1.3 represents a good start at articulating a shared vision for the county's sustainability and provides the basis for a set of "sustainability principles" intended to serve as overarching goals for the County. To be truly "comprehensive" the plan must define and utilize sustainability in the broadest context: environmental health, economic vitality, and social equity. Our quality of life is impacted by global events, and our daily decisions and activities have global impacts. Global warming is an epochal challenge, now widely acknowledged as caused and exacerbated by human behavior, including choices we make in Orange County. Global warming has the potential to alter the planet and way of life we now enjoy beyond recognition, with possibly catastrophic results. We have a shared responsibility to future generations to take steps to reduce our per-capita contributions to climate change by living as efficiently as possible. Acknowledgement of this responsibility and of the global context should be explicit throughout the plan and should play a foundational role in the Plan's Goals and Objectives. We feel that, if the County is seriously committed to sustainability, the Plan should go further in this respect. 2) Localizing Economic Development. Economic activity over the last 50 years has been conducted as if resources were inexhaustible and the fabric of the planet was indestructible. Because it does not 6/6/2008