Agenda - 09-02-2008 - 6e - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 1 Chair Jacobs said that the topic of Orange/Chatham regional planning was raised at the 2 last AOG meeting and what was discussed at the joint meetings, and it was promised that a 3 more full report would be brought back at the next AOG meeting. Staff will make initial 4 presentations and then the elected officials present at the joint meetings could speak on these 5 items, if they wish. 6 Planning Director Craig Benedict said that, based on some previous meetings, staffs 7 were asked to meet and discuss regional planning with Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, 8 UNC, OWASA, Chatham County, and Pittsboro. During the discussions, it was realized that in 9 this n:gional perspective inGudes such entities as the City of Dufiam, Dufiam County, and 1o Cary. The areas of interest include land use planning, transportation, parks, open space, 11 environment, and GIS information and mapping. Some of the areas of joint interest include 12 Jordan Lake Watershed, Haw River Watershed, 15-501 Transportation Corridor, development 13 of regional impact, and the regional value-added shared-use food and agricultural processing 14 center. There was discussion about how best to share this information among staffs, elected 15 officials, etc., as new information becomes available. He made reference to Attachment 1-a. 16 Chair Jacobs said that the three main topics were regional watershed protection issues, 17 transportation planning and public transportation issues, and joint planning. He said that part of 18 that discussion will include joint use of Jordan Lake water supply. There were also discussions 19 about trying to get a compilation of the similarities and differences between the comments made 20 on the Jordan Lake rules proposed. 21 George Lucier said that the group talked about selecting specific projects rather than 22 going too global in terms of the joint planning exercise. These could include the Haw River 23 Watershed, Jordan Lake Watershed, 15-501 corridor, and planning for local parks - Southern 24 Park would be an example. 25 Chair Jacobs said that there was discussion about the interest of working together on 26 some of these issues, and Chatham's Board was interested in the same things as Chapel Hill 27 and Orange County, and this has not been the case in the past. Some of the discussions 28 involved Carolyn Elfland from UNC, and public transportation was a major topic. 29 George Lucier said that there are 12,000 houses that have been approved but not yet 3o built in Chatham County, and many of them would use the 15-501 corridor. 31 Jim Ward asked if there was interest in talking about a possible bypass around Chapel 32 Hill coming from the south. He said that 15-501 is already a parking lot at times and there 33 needs to be relief, and public transit cannot take all of these trips. 34 George Lucier said that there is not enough financial capital, and this would have to get 35 on the Transportation Improvement Plan with DOT. He said that DOT is deeply over committed 36 and it is starting to delay projects. 37 Jim Want said to try and at least get it on the DOTs agenda. 38 Commissioner Gordon said that she attended the meeting of the Durham-Chapel Hill- 39 Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization, and in the next two meetings, the results of the 4o transportation study will be available,, which will address some of-this area. She said that it 41 would be timely to bring up the issue of a bypass when this study comes out. 42 George Lucier said to bring it up at the next meeting of this group and Commissioner 43 Gordon said that it would probably be in May. 44 Bill Strom asked about an interiocal agreement. Craig Benedict said that in 1989 there 45 was a proposed courtesy review agreement and he said with the boards' approvals, they could 46 implement something like this and he said they could work towards a joint planning agreement. 47 Bill Strom said that there should really be a joint planning agreement discussion on the 48 table because there are joint interests. 49 George Lucier suggested working towards a Memorandum of Understanding, or several so MOAs. There could be one overarching agreement that would identify specific areas and then s ~ have subheadings. 0