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

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~a~ use, and had local identity. It is therefore ironic to us that the concept of "community character" is sometimes wielded to perpetuate homogenous, low-density, suburban development patterns that isolate neighbors and fragment our rural lands. Such developments do not adequately preserve habitats or viewsheds, and they add significantly to per-capita resource consumption and pollution generation. To be consistent with historical precedent, Orange County should allow more intense development at rural crossroads. Ideally, our economic development efforts would produce local businesses such as markets that generate local income, sales taxes, and jobs and also reduce transportation emissions. The most important historical characteristic to observe in such areas is the HUMAN SCALE. Green building and a diversity of uses may call for additional flexibility and community involvement in how we conceive of appropriate design. The Village Project offers its assistance to the County in this regard. The County may ultimately wish to follow other innovative communities in adopting form-based codes and having designers participate in the development review process. 7) Requiring Energy-Efficient, High-Performance Buildings. The Comprehensive Plan must ensure that new construction and renovations result in energy-efficient, high-performance buildings. Abundant resources are available that would provide starting points and guidance for the County in this effort. Orange County should lead the state, as it has in the past with other critical environmental issues, in modeling codes and ordinances that will reduce the impacts of new growth and per-capita. resource needs when it is most efficient to do so: at the time of construction or rehabilitation. The housing, commercial, industrial, and institutional development envisioned by the Plan will be around long into the future. Let's make it worth keeping and maintaining. On a procedural note, we encourage the Board of Commissioners to ask each Element-lead advisory board to submit comments by July 9 to the Planning Board for their consideration as they continue to refine the Comprehensive Plan this summer. Regarding stakeholder participation generally, we also request that the County advise the people and organizations who have generously volunteered their time to understand the Plan and the planning process how their comments have been and will be taken into account in the final drafts of the Comprehensive Plan and subsequent implementation planning phases. In conclusion, we return to the topic of sustainability. One final comment on the Plan illustrates a tension we have long noted in the County and would like to see resolved through the Comprehensive Plan: The term "carrying capacity" is a use ful concept in population ecology, but in a planning document at the County scale, "c arrying capacity" is a dubious and misleading notion. In order to analyze "carryi ng capacity; 'the analyst must define the boundaries of the system. For animals, this involves looking at foraging, habitat, migration patterns, etc. The Village Project • PO Box 685 • Carrboro NC 27510 • 919-942-6114 • w~vw.thevillageproject.com 3