Click here to open the CCDP 2011 Chatham County Board of Commissioners Voting Scorecard.

Regular Session.  No one absent.  The main item of business was the Public Hearing on the Chatham-Cary Joint Land Use Plan. (See item #3 below.)

NOTE: I did not attend the afternoon Work Session that featured Chatham County's Public Records Policy and Employee Protocol.  This document was presented for a vote (do not know the outcome).  See the Work Session agenda, item 4.

(1) Public Hearing on the Watershed Protection Ordinance (to remove buffers for seeps and springs) will be February 20 at 6 pm, Agricultural Bldg. Auditorium.  Mark your calendars.

(2) Affordable Housing presentation, Bill Leroy. There are 13,600 homes in Chatham that are defined as "affordable" by HUD: of those homes 54% are owner-occupied and the rest are rental properties.  Occupants in 45% of the "affordable" rental properties are paying more than 30% of their income for housing.  The inventory of 13,600 affordable homes in Chatham includes only 8,500 that are valued under $170,000, the rest are above that amount.  The affordable housing supply is adequate in Siler City, but inadequate in Pittsboro.  Which brings us to Briar Chapel.  Briar Chapel said they would set aside 60 of their 2,380 approved lots for affordable housing.  The 60 sites are scattered around Briar Chapel, but there is not much building happening--recession.  There is one affordable unit for sale through a Community Home Trust, but they are having trouble finding buyers BECAUSE the unit has to be listed a full price (not the actual subsidized price) on the Multiple Listing Service that Realtors use. Therefore, they are having a difficult time attracting potential owners, but are now working on a different outreach strategy. The discussion centered around Brian Bock's question of whether Briar Chapel should be held to its agreement with the County on the 60 lots, or should the County take the money for these lots and use it--not on housing--but on social benefits for the poor (he mentioned domestic violence).  Bock does not want the County to be in the housing business, period. Likes "free" market and says County needs to consider more than home ownership as a goal. Although there are social benefits of mixed incomes in a development, the current model is stalled and all those lots set aside for "affordable" housing are empty. Sally Kost said we should not take the money, but try different price points.  Mike Cross said the idea behind the Briar Chapel agreement was to make sure that public workers, such as police, teachers, nurses, and firemen would be able to buy in these communities.  He said we should not dump the agreement, just need more time for economy to turn around. Walter Petty said we are still left with social problems.  No action on this...it will be back when Brian is ready to reveal his plan.

(3) Chatham-Cary Joint Land Use Plan Public Hearing. Lots of speakers addressing what Chatham should do. Most speakers were not in favor of Cary voluntary annexations by developers into Chatham; many concerns about encroachment and huge land disturbances in the creeks feeding Lake Jordan; concerns about Chatham taxpayers building schools for estimated 2,500 new Cary students (25,000 more residents expected in this area); losing protections for Lake Jordan; pros and cons about mixed zone development of commercial and residential around Hwy 751 and O'Kelly Chapel; no Chatham policy or long-term planning for water and sewer in this area; some wanted higher density closer to lake (currently 7,600 acres are rated at VERY LOW density, or 1 dwelling per 5 acres; and 2,900 acres are rated at LOW density, or 2 dwellings per acre).  Some folks LIKE idea of Cary taking over; others said not enough Chatham Co. citizens input; less protection of the Lake feared by most speakers with increasing impervious surfaces from housing/development; heard horror stories about sedimentation when Amberly was being built---and virtually no monitoring by officials; more services required than tax revenues collected.  Jeff Starkweather brought up that the BOC and Cary need a local bill passed by legislature to codify the land use authority and annexation, because that is the only document that matters. One thing everyone agreed upon was to JUST SAY NO to one provision of the Implementation Plan that would allow Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) incursion by Cary into Chatham. That passed unanimously.  Next Step is another public hearing on the plan at the Cary City Council meeting, Tues, Jan 24, 6:30 pm, CARY TOWN HALL, 316 N. Academy St, Cary.