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167 <br />~R u~ <br />the fi ~' <br />~~~~ Creati~.g <br />s <br />° ti~ ~~ ~ ~~~ - Wc~lhable <br />~11~ <br />° ~~~I "~~~Sr~. Communities <br />~~ <br />June 4, 2008 <br />Dear Orange County Board of Commissioners, <br />As you know, The Village Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting <br />wa]kable communities in Orange County. As such, we have taken a great interest in the update <br />of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan. Because we see the importance of this process, in <br />2007 we convened a diverse coalition of stakeholders to help engage the community and to <br />provide input on the Plan, the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition ("Coalit ion"). <br />The Coalition submitted input on the draft. Comprehensive Plan on January 28, 2008 and <br />May 5, 2008. The Coalition believes that incorporating this input into the Comprehensive Plan <br />would greatly help it establish a sustainable path into the future for Orange County. The <br />Village Project encourages the County to consider these comments carefuIly; they are the result <br />of an intensive dialog held ovex many months among community leaders from all sectors on <br />future growth in Orange County. <br />The Village Project submits herein additional comments on its own behalf regarding the May <br />2008 draft of.the Comprehensive Plan for consideration by the Orange County Planning Board <br />•and Board of Commissioners. The following comments thematically summarize our findings <br />from a detailed review of the May draft Plan, which we will submit separately at a later date. <br />We are also including in the accompanying attachment proposed edits & revisions to Chapter 1, <br />section 3, "Toward a Sustainable Future." <br />1) Sustainability and Global .Climate Change. Chapter 1, section 1.3 represents a good <br />start at articulating a shared vision for the county's sustainabil ity and provides the basis for a <br />set of "sustainab ility principles intended to serve as overarching goals for the County. To be <br />truly "comprehensive" the plan must define and utilize susta inability in the broadest context: <br />environmental health, economic vitality, and social equity. Our quality of life is impacted by <br />global events, and our daily decisions and activities have global impacts. Global warming is an <br />epochal challenge, now widely acknowledged as caused and exacerbated by human behavior, <br />including choices we make in Orange County. Global warming has the potential to alter the <br />planet and way of life we now enjoy beyond recognition, with possibly catastrophic results. We <br />have a shared responsibility to future generations to take steps to reduce our per-capita <br />contributions to climate change by living as efficiently as possible. Acknowledgement of this <br />responsibility and of the global context should be explicit throughout the plan and should play <br />a foundational role in the Plan s Goals and Objectives. We feel that, if the County is seriously <br />committed to sustainability, the Plan should go further in this respect. <br />Tlie Village Project ° PO Box 685 ° Carrboro NC 2751.0 ° 919-942-6114 ° w~vwthevillageproject.com <br />