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SUMMARY
MINUTES OF A MEETING WITH THE FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2000, AT 7:30 A.M., CAROLINA INN Mayor Rosemary Waldorf called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. Council members present were Flicka Bateman, Joyce Brown, Pat Evans, Kevin Foy, Lee Pavão, Bill Strom, Jim Ward, and Edith Wiggins. Chapel Hill Town staff present were Town Manager Cal Horton, Assistant Town Managers Sonna Loewenthal and Florentine Miller, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, Assistant to the Manager Bill Stockard, Finance Director Jim Baker, Planning Director Roger Waldon, Engineering Director George Small, Interim Transportation Director Scott McClellan, Assistant to the Mayor Alice Joyce, and Town Clerk Joyce Smith. Members of the Legislative delegation present were Representatives Joe Hackney and Verla Insko, and Senators Ellie Kinnaird and Howard Lee. Also present was Ellis Hankins, Director of the NC League of Municipalities. Members of the press were also present. Mayor Waldorf welcomed the delegation. She briefly described the topics for discussion, some having to do with bills that might be moving through the short session of the legislature. Discussion of Issues 1. Transportation Issues a. Metropolitan Planning Bill Mayor Waldorf noted that Chapel Hill’s concerns are that if, under the Metropolitan Planning Bill, Durham and Orange County have to merge with Wake County, Chapel Hill does not want to be dictated to by Wake County. She added that the Council wanted to make sure that regional planning is the way to proceed. Senator Kinnaird asked if we were working closely with the League. Mr. Hankins indicated they would be looking at the draft bill very soon. Senator Kinnaird said she believed we must move toward a regional plan very soon, and believes Raleigh is now willing to look in that direction. She said she would hope to come to an agreement with Senator (Daniel) Clodfelter. Mayor Waldorf stated there had already been several meetings with him regarding this issue. She added it would do no good to have am Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) with no funds to carry it out. Mayor Waldorf noted there is now $2 billion of undone road projects in the Triangle. Representative Insko asked if those members of the MPO are united in their opinion. Representative Hackney said it was important for the members of the MPO to work together. Senator Kinnaird agreed, saying she believed the interest is there, and we needed to keep moving forward. Council Member Ward said if we are one MPO it changes the equation, and hoped there was a way to proceed. Mayor Waldorf said Wake County is 1% away from going over budget, but Orange County is 40% away, and she was afraid a merger would mean that Chapel Hill’s funds would go to offset Wake’s budget. Council Member Ward said he believed we should be rewarded for the conservative spending, rather than penalized. b. Support for Public Transportation Funding Mayor Waldorf asked the delegation to help locate additional funding for transit and transportation solutions as a whole. She said Chapel Hill knew about the blue ribbon transportation commission, and would appreciate the delegation letting us know of any information that might be useful. Representative Hackney said they were attempting to find a financing mechanism that would work with a municipal agenda as well as a federal agenda, and hope they would succeed. Senator Kinnaird asked how UNC’s free bus system was working out. Mr. Horton answered that Carrboro representatives at the staff level, UNC staff and Town staff have agreed to put forward a proposal that would allow fare free service with the understanding that UNC would pay a large portion of that cost. He said UNC would pay all costs of routes dedicated to the campus, all campus routes and routes to park and ride lots. Mr. Horton said the Town would pick up some extra costs as well as Carrboro. For the Town, Mr. Horton said, its about 6/10 of a cent on the tax rate. He noted that the Council had discussed it, and would be meeting soon with Carrboro and UNC officials. Senator Kinnaird asked if that would make any difference in the MPO discussions. Mr. Horton answered no. He added that Chapel Hill’s ridership over the next year is expected to be about 3 million, and does not think that will change the way the balance of the transit dollars are spent. Council Member Ward said he would like to see a regional bus system, with Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) directing the local systems. He said that Chapel Hill has a very good system, but this might not be the way to go. Council Member Ward asked for some guidance from the delegation on this issue. Senator Lee said he would not support that until TTA came up with a workable system. He said he had met with Jim Ritchie of TTA regarding how to respond to the needs. Representative Hackney said they would be guided by Chapel Hill, UNC and Carrboro regarding this issue. Mayor Waldorf said TTA serves several hundred thousand riders each year, and they are continually increasing their service. She added she did not believe they were able to run a regional system at this time. Senator Lee said TTA is attempting to be more efficient, and they are doing a good job. He added that until they can get buses on I 40, TTA may not be able to make much progress in getting cars off the road. 2. Growth Management Study Representative Hackney said they were off to a good start. He said a kickoff meeting of the Smart Growth Commission was held in January with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Representative Hackney said there was a second meeting in Charlotte, with Mecklenberg County, with a briefing of the progress Charlotte and the County had made in regional planning. In terms of regional planning, Representative Hackney said they are ahead of many other areas in the State. He said that because they are one area and not several, they are successful. Representative Hackney added that they are not very successful in open space issues. Representative Hackney said a third meeting was held in Wilmington, where the group toured some new urbanism types of developments. He noted that four work groups would be meeting separately from the Commission while the legislature is in session. Senator Lee said issues are to focus on what has to be done to enhance growth management issues, such as the approach, and what a Smart Growth Commission might do to provide tools in the local governments. He said the second challenge is to look at rural areas and what they can do to make those areas attractive for growth. Senator Lee added he is very optimistic, that they will be patient, and they are trying to involve a large number of people so they have expanded their working groups. He noted these working groups are to include people who are not members of the Commission, and don’t expect them to have any recommendations during the short session, but expect to have some strong recommendations during the 2001 session. Senator Lee said all available funds were sent to the eastern North Carolina because of the floods, and it was a struggle to get funds to carry on the work of the Commission. He added that the level of interest in the legislature is strong. Council Member Evans requested that the delegation look at the litter conditions on the roadways. Senator Lee said a great deal of trash on roadways is paper, but there has been an increase in bottles and cans. He said that debris problems continue, and transportation staff believes it is coming from trucks. Senator Lee said, however, that bottles and cans come from cars. He said he does not know what the plan will be, but will look at that and see how it fits into the overall work plan of Smart Growth. Council Member Evans said it is not just cleaning up the highway, but also keeping the trash out of the landfills. Representative Insko said once there is interest across the State in something like this, she believes it will be easier to move forward. Mayor Waldorf asked about the growth management bill introduced last session that led to the Commission. Representative Hackney said he introduced the bill on the House side, and that Senators Lee and Kinnaird introduced it on the Senate side. Representative Hackney said it would not be taken up in the short session. Mr. Hankins said the major theme of Representative Hackney’s bill was the relationship between city and county officials, adding there is frustration with municipal officials when attempting to work with county officials. Senator Lee said he is interested in what we can do to enhance the effectiveness of regional organizations, and would be very interested in broad based discussions on how people view the values of regionalism. He said there is a need to methodically think about if we have effectively used regional organizations and how they can be helpful to local governments. Council Member Brown said that regarding the MPO and transit in general, that the same kinds of concerns about municipal government be given equal value. Mayor Waldorf said she does not want municipalities to be dictated to by county governments. Senator Kinnaird said she does not believe that that happens now. Representative Hackney said in his bill the counties had no right to dictate to municipalities, and that it had to be a joint process. Council Member Brown said regarding the idea of a bottle bill, that glass is a small component of the waste problem. She asked the delegation to look at how to reduce all waste. Council Member Brown noted she was sorry that the federal government has not looked at this like Germany has. She asked that the State look at it in a comprehensive fashion. Senator Kinnaird said the State was supposed to have waste reduction goals. Representative Hackney said he and Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker had introduced a bill regarding waste management in 1989, but it had been watered down in 1994 and was even less strong today. He said that Orange County and Craven County are the only ones meeting the goals. Senator Kinnaird said the discouraging thing is that some communities make money from landfills, and until they stop making money they have no interest in reducing waste. Council Member Brown said the State of Minnesota requires pay programs from its local governments. Representative Insko said Craven County had cut its waste by about 40% of what use to go to the landfill. She said to get regionalism moving it would take some pretty strong incentives. 3. Clean Elections Bill Mayor Waldorf noted that Chapel Hill had adopted a resolution supporting a Clean Elections Bill. Council Member Strom asked if Cary planned to pay for its own elections. Senator Kinnaird said she did not know what their plans were. Council Member Strom said it was voluntary and they could do it if they want. Senator Kinnaird said elections laws must be uniform across the State. Mr. Hankins said he believes they would need legislation from the General Assembly in order to do this. Council Member Brown said that Home Rule probably does not have a chance. Representative Hackney said there was an issue of uniformity with Home Rule, and it was fair to say that there is enough interest in uniformity that says that Home Rule will not be introduced. Senator Kinnaird said she believes that Home Rule is very unpopular. 4. Stormwater Utility Bill Mayor Waldorf reminded the delegation that Chapel Hill is interested in being authorized to collect stormwater utility fees, and said she understood that this was in progress in the short session. Mr. Hankins offered his thanks to Representative Hackney for helping to get this issue passed. He said we need this bill, and it should be approved. 5. Local Initiatives a. Increase in the Spending Limit on Projects Constructed by Town Staff Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said the statutes now limit what we can do with our Public Works forces, and we have a couple of projects that are limited because of this. He said that crews must work at night, or contract out to someone in the private sector. Mr. Karpinos said if we could raise the limits we might be able to do some of this work in house. He added that this would be for short periods of time for limited projects. Senator Lee asked who would be in opposition of this. Mr. Horton said no one that he knew of, adding the he believes that the private sector (downtown businesses) had been very supportive. Mayor Waldorf asked if this could be taken care in the short session. The delegation generally agreed. b. Allow Use of Video Traffic Code Enforcement Mr. Horton said there is continuing interest in this issue. Engineering Director George Small said they would soon come to the Council with a proposal. He noted there were two areas that would allow the Town to supplement police enforcement. Mr. Small said it would be an opportunity to educate the public, would supplement police resources, penalties would be a civil fine, and they would get a picture of cars passing through red lights of committing other traffic offenses. He said they have contacted other localities who use this, and it appears to be successful. Mr. Small said there was not a great deal of revenue generated from this, but it was enough to support the system. He said if the Town received enabling legislation, then we would like to study the issue before moving forward. Senator Lee said he was in favor of this. He noted he sees violations of red lights every day, and it was impossible to place police at every intersection. Senator Lee said if motorists know they are being filmed, they would be less likely to violate the light. Representative Insko asked if there is any evidence that more accidents occur because of this. Mr. Small said one of the things that would be done would be to create statistics such as this. Representative Insko asked if the Council had discussed this issue. Mayor Waldorf said a previous Council had, but not the current Council. Representative Hackney said it had been shown in other localities to reduce the running of red lights at intersections, but the civil penalties are imposed on the owner of the vehicle, not the driver. Therefore, he said, until that issue is resolved he did not believe it was a fair practice. Representative Hackney said the owner had a right to appeal if they were not driving. Mayor Waldorf said the Council would discuss this issue in greater detail. c. Expand Authority to Issue Parking Tickets on Private Property Mr. Karpinos said that State law now says that an owner of private property can ask the municipality to allow parking on private property. He said we had dealt with this type of issue on the UNC campus, and now had a zoning ordinance that limited this in the historic district. Mr. Karpinos said Chapel Hill has some property owners who state that they could not keep their tenants from parking in their front years. He said the theory would be that the Town could enact an ordinance that would allow us to place tickets on cars parked in private front years, adding we could then cite these cars with a traffic violation. Senator Lee asked how would we get around the problem if there comes a time when someone parks on the property legitimately. Mr. Karpinos said that each specific location would require a request form the owner as to what type of ordinance they would like the Town to enact. He said to be effective the Town would have to set limits as to what was allowed in particular areas. Mr. Karpinos said we would have to place signs to inform drivers about fines. He said when the issue of rental licensing was debated, the issue of people parking in front yards became an issue as well. Mr. Karpinos said that property owners and residents stated that tenants parked in front years, essentially making the front yard a parking area. The delegation said they would be happy to support the Town in this regard. 6. Phone Service Mayor Waldorf stated the Town was receiving an increase in complaints from certain areas of Town regarding phone service. Mr. Horton said the key thing is to alert the delegation that after we have done more work on clarifying the problems, we would come back to them and say we have done all we can do through the normal process, and wanted to alert the delegation that we are now moving forward with this, and would be coming back to them to push ahead. 7. Billboard Moratorium Council Member Foy said his purpose in bringing this up was that the billboard moratorium was about to expire, and he believed it should be a permanent policy or at the least extended. Representative Hackney said this moratorium passed without too much debate, and it was possible it might be extended until the legislature’s long session. Representative Hackney said a significant number of billboards are planned to be placed the moment the moratorium expires, and it was important that no lapse occur, because once they were put up they would remain. Council Member Foy asked was there anything that Chapel Hill could do. Representative Hackney said he would like Chapel Hill’s support, because some parts of Orange County were not supportive. Mayor Waldorf offered to introduce a resolution to the Council in support of the moratorium. Council Member Wiggins asked if property owners made money from billboards. Senator Lee said yes, and that some are significant. Mr. Hankins added that Representative Hackney had been a primary supporter of the moratorium. Senator Lee asked if the League was looking at this. Mr. Hankins said no, but he could put it before them.
8. Other Issues a. Carolina Power & Light – Nuclear Waste Council Member Foy said he wanted the Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) proposal for nuclear waste at (?) Shearon Harris to be kept in the forefront, and that a more open process be followed to keep everyone informed. He said he believed Orange County would continue to oppose this, but CP&L does not appear to want a public process. Council Member Foy said he believed all should know about the safety and health issues involved. Senator Kinnaird said she supported this. Representative Insko said the strongest case is to store waste on site where it is produced until a better process for long term storage is developed. She said real problems exist. Council Member Foy said if it was not stored on site, then transportation to other locations becomes a liability. b. 2002-2008 Transportation Improvement Plan Mayor Waldorf said this Monday she and others met with NCDOT regarding the 2002-2008 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). Mayor Waldorf said the meeting was started with a statement that they wanted to amend the current TIP to add $8 million to widen I-40 between NC 147 and I-540, which would be a principle benefit for Wake County. She said the discussion at the MPO meeting this past Wednesday was that we need to bargain very hard for something else, adding the issue that was identified as most important was high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on I-40. Mayor Waldorf said she wanted the delegation to know of this issue, and said she was very unhappy about this proposal. Senator Kinnaird said this was discouraging, and it bothered her that green space disappears more and more each year. She said that beautiful stands of trees disappear each time something like this occurs. Council Member Ward said an additional insult was that if NCDOT does continue with this matter, we will lose even more right-of-way, and it would be difficult to retrofit. He said if we are forced to do this, we might put ourselves in a position that HOV lanes would become impossible. Senator Kinnaird said the last time widening took place, we were promised that HOV lanes would be next, but here we are again. Senator Lee said he was disgusted with the current approach to transportation, adding that we think only of highways and must get people to think more broadly. He stated he was not suggesting the HOV lanes are the answer, but they are certainly better than building more general travel lanes. Senator Lee stated he would initiate a conversation with NC Department of Transportation Secretary David McCoy to discover what was the driving force behind this proposal, adding it may well be federal dollars. Representative Insko said that leadership for these large projects requires support in the Governor’s office, so that level may be where we need to start. Senator Lee said he wanted to know what was driving this issue, noting that there was a big interest in getting the I-540 roadway completed. Mayor Waldorf said she was not pleased with what this was doing to transportation funding and population growth, noting that an announcement regarding this issue was scheduled for May 10. Council Member Ward said it was evident that if the Town does not support this, there might be long range repercussions. Mr. Horton said the danger was that cuts would be made on other planned projects. Representative Insko said that Wake County may be the driving force behind this proposed widening. Senator Lee asked if the Town was interested in being in the same MPO with Wake County. Council Member Ward said yes, if we get funding incentives to participate and have the type of voting arrangement to allow the smaller municipality to be heard in an appropriate fashion. He said there is a real advantage in solving this problem from a regional perspective. Mayor Waldorf said she believed the bill would say that the structure would be such that no one county and all its municipalities could have more than 49% of the vote, or something similar to that, to be worked out through the MPO. Representative Insko asked if the 49% would be enough. Mayor Waldorf said that was our suggestion. Senator Lee said that if the NC League of Municipalities was supportive, it would get Senator Clodfelter’s attention. He added that the League needed to be on top of what was happening, and that others involved in the process were working together. Mayor Waldorf adjourned the meeting at 9:05 a.m. |