AGENDA #3
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Public Hearing - Shaping Orange County’s Future Provisional Report and
Recommendations
DATE: September 18, 2000
Tonight’s Public Hearing has been called so that the Council can hear citizen comments on a document titled “Shaping Orange County’s Future Provisional Report and Recommendations,” and to receive staff comments on this report.
OVERALL CONCEPT
In June 1994, a 15-step approach was outlined 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. (Please see Attachment 6.)
The project is led by a Task Force made up of citizens of Orange County. There also is 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 provided by Orange County. Chapel Hill and Carrboro each, for the past several years, made an annual contribution to Orange County to help pay for the staff support of this project.
It is our understanding that the Task Force is currently at the end of Step 13 of the 15-step process. Following Public Hearings that have been scheduled by the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, and the Orange County Board of Commissioners, the Task Force is to consider all comments and revise the Provisional Report. An Assembly of Governments meeting is to be scheduled at the end of January 2001, to allow elected officials from the three governing bodies to receive and discuss this revised report.
The staffs of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County have been asked to prepare “Implications Reports,” offering comments on the April 2000 Provisional Report.
Attachment 1 is the Implications Report prepared by the Orange County Planning Staff, called “Preliminary Staff Evaluation: Implications of the Shaping Orange County’s Future Provisional Report and Recommendations,” dated August 28, 2000. This report is comprehensive in its review of the Provisional Report. It is a 72-page document that begins with a “Summary of Task Force Recommendations,” and then offers staff comments on each of the 193 recommended actions.
We have reviewed this Orange County Staff Report, and believe that it presents a reasoned response to each of the recommended actions, with discussion of cost implications where possible. We concur with the Orange County Staff analysis and comments; we have not duplicated that effort.
There are a number of recommended actions, however, that would have implications unique to the Chapel Hill community. For those items, we offer additional comments in a Chapel Hill Staff Addendum (Attachment 2). We have not commented on the many recommendations where Chapel Hill Town Council policy is clearly consistent with what is being recommended (e.g., Action Item 2-D, “Encourage diverse citizen participation in local decision-making.”)
Attachment 3 contains the April 5 “Shaping Orange County’s Future Provisional Report,” the subject of tonight’s hearing. This is a document that the Town Council has previously received (note attached Council Memoranda from April 24 and June 26).
We believe that the Shaping Orange County’s Future project and its Provisional Report have helped to focus community discussion on issues of countywide concern on a broad array of topics covering many aspects of life in Orange County. There are a number of recommendations that we believe would result in desirable and helpful outcomes for the Chapel Hill community.
Tonight the Council considers these documents, and hears from citizens. We intend to prepare a follow-up report to the Council on October 11, with a set of comments that grow out of tonight’s hearing, for the Council’s consideration. If the Council agrees on a set of comments, these would then be forwarded to the Shaping Orange County’s Future Steering Committee for consideration in producing a revised report. The Council would then consider such a revised report at a January, 2001 Assembly of Governments meeting (tentatively set for January 29).
1. Orange County Staff Implications Report (p. 3).
2. Chapel Hill Staff Addendum (p. 57).
3. April 5, 2000, Shaping Orange County’s Future Provisional Report (begin new page 1).
4. April 24, 2000 Council Memorandum on the Shaping Orange County’s Future project (p. 96).
5. June 26, 2000 Council Memorandum, transmitting comments from Advisory Boards (p. 102).
6. February, 1996 version of the 1994 “15-step Process” (p. 114).