AGENDA #9a

MEMORANDUM

TO: Mayor and Town Council

FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

SUBJECT: Procedural Options for Considering Second Draft of Development Ordinance

DATE: January 28, 2002

On January 14, the Town Council reviewed the status of work and comments on a proposed second draft of a new Development Ordinance. The Council expressed interest in additional opportunities for presentation and discussion, and asked the Town Manager to propose a schedule of meetings and work sessions to accomplish this objective. Adoption of the attached resolution would initiate a series of meetings to review the second draft.

This item is one part of a three-part item on tonight’s agenda.

BACKGROUND

Following adoption of a new Comprehensive Plan in May 2000, the Town Council began a process to revise Chapel Hill’s Development Ordinance. A first draft was prepared in the spring of 2001, reviewed by citizens and Advisory Boards, and considered at a Public Hearing in June. A second draft was prepared over the summer, and reviewed again by citizens and advisory boards. A Public Hearing on the second draft was held in September. In October, the Council decided to invest additional time in review of the draft.

A workshop was conducted on January 11, attended by approximately 50 citizens, advisory board members, designers, developers, and staff, to examine how proposed provisions of this second draft would affect the form of new development. On January 14, the Council adopted a resolution establishing a May 20^th date for a Public Hearing on the third draft and decided that additional workshop opportunities would be desirable, and that work sessions for the Town Council would be helpful.

PROPOSED SCHEDULE AND PROCESS

We agree that additional discussions would be useful to expand understanding of the proposed changes to regulations, and to generate additional ideas. We note that scheduling such discussions will necessarily alter the target calendar for adopting a new Development Ordinance. However, we believe that the need for additional discussion outweighs the objective of meeting the target calendar.

Accordingly, we suggest the following:

· A series of 7 Council Work Sessions, each 90 minutes in length, six of these sessions scheduled at 5:30 pm on the date of a regularly-scheduled 7:00 pm Council meeting and one to take the place of the Council’s March Public Hearing. Each of the first six sessions would have the format of a 45-minute presentation on a section of the second draft, followed by a 45-minute discussion period. The final Work Session would be a wrap-up. We suggest that these sessions be scheduled on the following dates:

February 11, 5:30 p.m.

February 18, 5:30 p.m.

February 25, 5:30 p.m.

March 4, 5:30 p.m.

March 18, 7:00 p.m.

March 26, 5:30 p.m.

April 8, 5:30 p.m.

We note that these dates are already scheduled for other meetings.

· Two citizen forums, each two hours in length, 7-9 pm, to present and discuss the same information that will be presented to the Town Council. The first forum will be scheduled after the first three Council Work Sessions, the second citizen forum after the next three work sessions.

· A workshop, similar to the January 11 workshop, to focus on infill development and redevelopment in residential areas. The session would be scheduled from 9 am-12 pm on a Saturday morning.

It would be our intent to arrange for these Work Sessions to be cablecast. In addition, the Town web site would be used to put out information on the draft Development Ordinance and related meetings. Forms would be available on the web site for citizens to download and send in written comments.

We believe that this series of discussions would put the Council in a good position to offer direction to our consultant about what changes should be incorporated into a third draft of the proposed Ordinance. Providing the consultant with direction could happen during May-June.

Accordingly, we would suggest that the consultant be asked to prepare a third draft over the summer, to be ready to take to advisory boards and citizen meetings for review during September. This would allow for consideration of a third draft at Public Hearing on October 16, with the possibility of Council action during November, with an effective date of the new Ordinance being January 1, 2003.

RECOMMENDATION

We recommend that the Council adopt the attached Resolution, initiating a series of meetings to review the second draft as discussed in this memorandum.

A RESOLUTION SCHEDULING A SERIES OF MEETINGS TO DISCUSS THE SECOND DRAFT OF A PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE (2002-01-28/R-9)

WHEREAS, the Chapel Hill Town Council has initiated preparation of a revised Development Ordinance; and

WHEREAS, two drafts of a revised Ordinance have been prepared; and

WHEREAS, the Council has decided that a series of workshops and discussions should be scheduled to review and discuss the second draft of the Ordinance;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council directs the Town Manager to arrange for the following series of meetings:

· A series of 7 Council Work Sessions, each 90 minutes in length, each scheduled at 5:30 pm on the date of a regularly-scheduled 7 pm Council meeting. Each of the first six sessions would have the format of a 45-minute presentation on a section of the second draft, followed by a 45-minute discussion period. The final Work Session would be a wrap-up. We suggest that these sessions be scheduled on the following dates/times: