AGENDA #10
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Rogers Road Small Area Plan Report
DATE: June 27, 2005
This report responds to the Council’s request to identify how a Rogers Road Small Area Plan could be accomplished. Given current staff shortages and expected work load, we recommend that development of a Rogers Road Small Area Plan begin next June following completion of the four Neighborhood Conservation Districts.
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.
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.
On June 15, 2005, the Council considered an item regarding the Planning Department Workload. A copy of the agenda item is attached. In the memorandum, we responded to the petition from Habitat for Humanity and recommended work priorities in view of the present staffing shortages in the Planning Department. We requested feedback from the Council if further adjustments were needed.
On June 15, the Council asked how a Rogers Road Small Area Plan might be accomplished this fall. The Council requested that a proposal be obtained from Clarion Associates, if possible, in this short time period.
Attached please find a letter from Clarion Associates which outlines a potential process and an estimated budget to do a Rogers Road Small Area Plan.
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 and supported by Town staff 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 the June 15 report on workload, we proposed to concentrate our limited resources on the Council’s highest priority goals of development of the downtown economic development initiatives, 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.
We believe that in order to accomplish a Rogers Road Small Area Plan now, it would be necessary to engage a consultant and to hire an additional staff person. We do not have the staff resources to provide the necessary administrative attention to the small area planning process in addition to the work already scheduled. Further, it would be necessary for the Planning Board to agree to supplement the Board’s regular two meeting per month schedule to accommodate an additional initiative. The Planning Board has agreed to devote one meeting a month, over the next year, to the creation of the four neighborhood conservation districts proposed.
RECOMMENDATION
We believe the time commitment required of the Planning Board and the Town staff to conduct a Small Area Plan for the Rogers Road Area is not possible this year given the anticipated staff shortages and the work already scheduled. We recommend that work for a Small Area Plan be scheduled following completion of the four Neighborhood Conservation Districts next June and that the work be led by the Planning Board and supported by Town staff.
ATTACHMENTS