AGENDA # 13a(1)

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:

Town Council

FROM:

Mayor Kevin Foy & Council Member Ed Harrison

SUBJECT:

Town of Chapel Hill’s Participation in Triangle J’s Initiative, “Partnership for Development and Infrastructure”

DATE:

September 10, 2007

 

BACKGROUND

 

Triangle J has undertaken a major planning initiative in FY 2007-2008 designed to better address local government infrastructure needs and link them more closely to regional growth trends. This “Partnership for Development and Infrastructure” will be a three to five-year effort that better integrates current TJCOG work related to MPO-supported land use, transportation and air quality planning, the CORE project, and our smart growth committee with an expanded focus on our region’s burgeoning infrastructure needs. The Development and Infrastructure Partnership was developed over the past year by the Triangle J COG officers as a way to better involve local governments in regional growth and infrastructure decisions, and to involve university and private sector partners in considering how their actions affect these decisions.

 

The Partnership’s Mission is to bring together community and regional partners to work on long-term, regional strategies for: development and conservation of land, infrastructure to support development and improved mobility.  

 

The Partnership will ask its sponsors to participate in the following ways:

 

  1. Commitment by senior institutional leadership to come together 2 or 3 times a year with their peers to focus on the most crucial development and infrastructure issues facing the region. 
  2. Sustained involvement by staff and members from the sponsors in the work of the Partnership
  3. A three- to five-year initial funding commitment to define and carry out the Partnership’s work program

 

This initiative is detailed within the May 1, 2007 “Partnership for Development and Infrastructure” brochures included as “Attachment A” this memorandum. 

 

Over the next three years it is anticipated that the chancellors, mayors, commission chairs, and other department secretaries or agency heads will convene two or three times a year to focus on the most crucial concerns.  Triangle J’s expectation is that the combined wisdom and experience of the partnership’s senior leaders will result in at least two or three major conclusions leading to world class initiatives or programs that directly address the development and infrastructure needs of the Triangle.  

 

At this point in time N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and North Carolina Central have all committed to the program.  In addition to pledging the participation of their Chancellors, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, and Duke have each committed $25,000 annually to this program, while N.C. Central has committed $12,500.  Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Morrisville, Wake County, Durham County and Orange County are stakeholders in the program, along with the TTA, RTP Foundation, and others. 

 

The Triangle J is requesting that the Town of Chapel Hill’s financial contribution for the Development and Infrastructure of this Partnership be $2,500 per year for each of the three years. 

 

ATTACHMENT

 

  1. Triangle J COG newsletter (p. 3).