Agenda - 10-07-2008- 7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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284 I)~FT' ®:tITLY NOT AP~~1VEI) ~T ~Y ~®CC 1 Tom Altieri added a few things to the public record. Commissioner Gordon submitted some 2 comments. He also submitted some comments on behalf of some citizens that were received 3 since the packets were put together (comments were from Donnie Walker; John Hubert, Karen 4 Pierce, Nancy Wilberman, Bob Reids, Terry Dixon, Terry McGuire, and Tom Magnuson). 5 Comments are incorporated by reference. 6 7 8 Chair Jacobs thanked the Planning Board for all of the work dedicated to this effort over 9 several years. He also thanked the Planning staff and Mr. Waldon and his associates. He 10 reiterated that the next phase is the implementation phase, which is the phase where specific 11 neighborhoods and parcels are discussed. This process will take a year or more and will 12 involve public hearings and submission of information and comments from the public. All 13 documents received will be forwarded to the Planning Board and to the Board of County 14 Commissioners, so nothing will be filtered. He said that all of the advisory boards were asked to 15 make comments and it was decided that the Planning Board would be the ultimate arbiter 16 among the advisory boards of what would go into the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and it 17 would make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. There are some 18 documents from an advisory board that did not meet its deadlines. In June, the Commissioners 19 specifically said that they did not want to entertain a complete rewrite of a section of the 20 Comprehensive Plan, but the advisory board went ahead and did a complete rewrite. The 21 Board of County Commissioners is interested in how the Planning Board would like to proceed 22 with this. 23 Also, the Town of Chapel Hill finally gave a response and would like to comment on the 24 Land Use Plan Update, but cannot do it until September. If the Planning Board does not object, 25 he would like to give the Town of Chapel Hill until the second meeting where this is being 26 considered, which is September 10tH 27 28 PUBLIC COMMENT: 29 Chris Moran is a member of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan Coalition which 30 represents various diverse partners. He said that he has learned a lot about this process and 31 he is encouraged to make some comments. He said that his comments were mostly with 32 regard to the housing, services, and facilities elements. He said that he was surprised that 33 there have been no major changes reflected in the plan. He is not convinced that everyone 34 understands these concepts or.the particulars of what is being recommended. This will be the 35 ,guiding document for the next 20 years, so he would like to reemphasize these points. He feels 36 very strongly that in the services and facilities portion, there is a strong emphasis on aging, 37 public health, and mental health. He would like to recommend that something about poverty be 38 included as a major focus for Orange County. He said that unless living wages are improved, 39 and unless more blue-collar jobs are provided, he does not think that very much can change. 40 He would also like to see more of an emphasis on sustainable food resources and how more 41 food can be grown in Orange County so that it can be shared with hungry persons and various 42 feeding programs. County housing options should include shelters and transitional housing 43 programs, because more units are necessary for people to work on their goals before they 44 transition back into the community. There is a great need to restore more existing units of 45 housing in the County so that people from homeless shelters can transition. He said that there 46 also needs to be quality mobile home parks for those that choose to live in them. He suggested 47~ having incentives to landlords to help energize units so that the existing housing stock is 48 improved. He said that the bottom line is that, as the County plans for• new developments in 49 Orange County, there needs to be adequate services and caregivers provided for all of the 50 recipients of those developments in case things happen, as they will 51 ~'.'.Z l'~I i~: .~ .~i El's <'I{I~:41~ ~~:1.'~'~i'.. .