AGENDA #13
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Planning Department Workload
DATE: June 15, 2005
This report recommends work priorities in view of the present staffing shortages in the Planning Department. We request feedback from the Council if further adjustments are needed.
Planning Director Roger Waldon retired on June 1 and Long Range Planning Coordinator Chris Berndt plans to retire in July. We also will temporarily lose the services of another planner who soon will begin parental leave for several months. At a minimum, the department’s production capacity will be reduced by 120 hours per week. Because of the dedication of Roger Waldon and Chris Berndt, we know that we will lose substantially more than 40 hours per week from each of them.
We are working on options to fill positions, both temporarily and permanently, and will do so as promptly as we can. However, in order to address the highest priorities of the Town Council, particularly this fall, some work will need to be deferred.
We anticipate that the vacancy from the paternity leave will be temporary with the planner returning in early fall. We anticipate organization changes to fill the position vacated by Chris Berndt this summer. The vacancy created by Roger Waldon’s retirement is anticipated to be filled late this year. We also expect that Chris Berndt will be hired part-time to help with the downtown economic development initiative. We have requested and received a proposal to use the services of Clarion with the creation of Neighborhood Conservation Districts.
We believe the Council has provided guidance on work items that are of the highest priority for this fall. Tonight, we continue to seek guidance and direction. We recommend that the staff focus on the highest priority items and defer several items as shown below.
Work Items of Highest Priority:
· Neighborhood Conservation Districts (please refer to the accompanying memorandum)
· Affordable Housing Task Force to investigate the addition of inclusionary zoning provisions to the Land Use Management Ordinance (work plan to be provided on June 27)
· Downtown economic development initiatives (Planning Department. to provide resources and assist the Manager’s Office)
· Long Range Transit Master Plan and Short Range Transit Plan
· 2040 Regional Transportation Plan
· 2005 Mobility Report Card
· Downtown transit transfer study
· Bicycle and Vehicular Parking Adjustments to Land Use Management Ordinance
· Demolition by Neglect Provisions for the Land Use Management Ordinance
· Rogers Road Small Area Plan (please refer to Attachment 1 for additional information)
· Advisory Board review of Comprehensive Plan Goals
· Land Use Management Ordinance amendments for Dark Skies/Lighting Changes
· Tree Ordinance Changes
· Transfer of Development Rights
· Land Use Management Ordinance amendment to establish Use Patterns (descriptions of particular types of development that would represent desirable forms of development)
We will continue to communicate with the Council to report progress and make further adjustments in our work focus. As vacancies are filled we will be able to give attention to additional tasks.
We will appreciate the Council’s further guidance if we need to make adjustments in our proposed priorities.
ATTACHMENT
Information Regarding Rogers Road Small Area Plan
On May 9, 2005, Ms. Susan Levy, Director of Habitat for Humanity, petitioned the Council to begin the process of developing a small area plan for the Rogers Road community early in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. A copy of the petition is attached.
The Council’s goals for 2005 adopted on February 28, 2005 included a small area planning process for the Rogers Road neighborhood as its 8th highest priority for the year. The following excerpt from the goals document describes the context:
“ Description: The Council has discussed conducting an additional small area plan per the Council’s action on the Greene Tract Work Group recommendations in November 2002. In the jointly adopted resolution among Orange County, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, Chapel Hill agreed to conduct a small area plan for the residential area west of the Greene Tract (Rogers Road, Purefoy Road area), including the affordable housing site on the Greene Tract. The plan will include a more detailed look at the impacts of providing public services in the area, especially the extension of sewer, and the impacts on the area of developing an affordable housing site.”
The product to be produced by the end of the second quarter of 2005 (June) was an initial report to Council on a potential process for proceeding. In our quarterly progress report to the Council on May 9, 2005, we reported that we planned to delay the initiation of developing this process and other projects until 2006 due to anticipated staff vacancies in the Planning Department.
The process of completing a small area plan is greater in scope than the planned work on developing neighborhood conservation district plans. Based on our experience with other area plans the Town has undertaken, an intensive community participation process led by the Town’s Planning Board would be a component of that process, followed by Council review and ultimately, a formal public hearing process. Such a process in the past has taken 18 months to two years to completion with the adoption of a small area plan.
In this report on workload, we propose to concentrate our limited resources on the Council’s highest priority goals of development of parking lots 2 and 5, completion of the neighborhood conservation districts, continuation of work on the Horace Williams Property, development of a Transit Master Plan, and consideration of the Town’s affordable housing goals. Each of these goals ranked higher than the Rogers Road Small Area Plan.