AGENDA #5a
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Status of Shaping Orange County’s Future Project
DATE: March 27, 2000
We have been working with staff members from Orange County and Carrboro to discuss the status of the Shaping Orange County’s Future project, and to put together a possible schedule of dates for next steps. The purpose of this memorandum is to report that recommended schedule, and to suggest dates for bringing materials to the Chapel Hill Town Council.
OVERALL CONCEPT
In June1994, a 15-step approach was approved for the Shaping Orange County’s Future project. The process started with the formation of a Task Force and is to end with the Task Force submitting a Final Report to each jurisdiction in Orange County. The project began getting fully underway during 1996. We attach a copy of the “15 Steps” here, taken from a 1997 report.
The project is in the hands and under the control of a Task Force made up of citizens from Orange County. There is also a Steering Committee, made up of elected officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County, that meets periodically to offer advice to the Task Force. Staffing is handled by Orange County. Chapel Hill and Carrboro have each, for the past several years, made an annual contribution to Orange County to help pay for the staff support of this project.
The Task Force is currently at Step 11 of the 15-step process.
UPCOMING STEPS
By March 20, the Task Force was expected to have completed work on a preliminary report. On March 27, this preliminary report is to be forwarded to the elected boards in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Orange County for comment.
Representatives of the Task Force would visit each governing board to formally transmit the report and ask for comments. For the Chapel Hill Town Council, we believe the logical date for this to happen would be the April 10, 2000 regular business meeting. The Council would be asked to offer its comments so that the Task Force, when it meets on April 27, can review those comments along with any others received from Orange County, Carrboro, and Hillsborough.
Step 12 calls for the Task Force to present its report to existing committees and commissions in the County, and then to refer the report to the four governing bodies. Orange County staff suggests that Step 12 take place in the form of a Countywide Forum on May 18, 2000, to present the report. This would be a meeting conducted by the Task Force, with all elected officials invited. Please note that May 18 had previously been suggested as a potential date for an Assembly of Governments meeting. The plan had been that the Task Force would have completed its report early in 2000, held a community forum, and then presents the report to the assembled governing bodies at an Assembly of Governments meeting on May 18. The County staff suggests that this forum, sponsored and conducted by the Task Force, be the event scheduled for May 18.
The Task Force is then expected to make further revisions to the report, based on comments by local governing boards and comments at the forum, and send the report again to the four governing boards. For Chapel Hill, the logical date for this next transmission would be the June 26, 2000 regular business meeting. This would be Step 13 of the 15-step process. At that time the Town Council would be asked to receive the report, and schedule a public hearing to allow an opportunity for Chapel Hill citizens to offer their comments on the report. We would probably recommend at that time that the Council refer the report to the Town Manager for comments, and schedule a public hearing for September 18, 2000 (a regular public hearing night for the Council), to receive the Town Manager’s report and to take public comment. All comments from that evening would then be forwarded to the Task Force.
Following this public hearing in Chapel Hill (and similar public hearings in Orange County, Carrboro, and Hillsborough), an Assembly of Governments meeting would be held on September 28, 2000, to review the whole package of information. This would finish Step 14 of the process.
Following the Assembly of Governments meeting, all comments would be forwarded to the Task Force to prepare a Final Report. The target date for completion of this would be October, 2000. At that time, the Final Report would be transmitted to each of the four governing bodies, to be considered in revising local comprehensive plans. This transmittal would be the 15th and final step in the Shaping Orange County’s Future process.
This memorandum suggests the following schedule for reports and meeting related to the Shaping Orange County’s Future project:
· April 10, 2000 Report to Town Council
· May 18, 2000 Task Force Forum
· June 26, 2000 Report to Council, call Public Hearing.
· September 18, 2000 Tentative date for Public Hearing
· September 28, 2000 Assembly of Governments Meeting
No Council action is required at this time. It will be our intention, unless directed otherwise by the Council, to bring items forward to the Council as outlined above, as materials become ready for public review and comment.
1. 15 Step Plan