Orange Comprehensive Plan Press Release

PRESS RELEASE Aug. 21, 2007

For more information contact: Allan Rosen, 382-9483, ncprout@aol.com or Kevin Schwartz, 962-0520, kschwartz@unc.edu

Coalition forms to guide commissioners on Orange Comprehensive Plan

CHAPEL HILL -- Leaders of a diverse group of local organizations that have banded together for the first time are set to unveil their plan for keeping the Orange County Board of Commissioners focused on the centrality of compact, walkable, mixed-use, transit-supportive communities as the commissioners move forward on a new planning document with a 25 year horizon to guide how the county will look and feel in the future.

The group will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. Friday in the board room at McClamroch Hall on the Vilcom campus off Weaver Dairy Road to announce and discuss the coalition’s objectives.

The county’s Comprehensive Plan update is intended to guide growth and development through the year 2030. It has not been revised since 1981. The county is set to hold a public hearing about the plan goals at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27 at Gordon Battle Courtroom, 106 E. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough.
The plan update is divided into eight major areas, each known as an element: County Profile, Economic Development, Housing, Land Use, Natural and Cultural Systems, Recreation and Parks, Services (Utilities) and Community Facilities, and Transportation. Commissioners hope to have the plan approved by next August.

The Comprehensive Plan Coalition will discuss what it hopes the commissioners and public will focus on within those eight elements. The coalition was formed by groups with traditionally disparate and sometimes opposing interests, but all are aware of the need to work together for Orange County to have a sustainable future and of the unique opportunity the update provides the coalition to engage in this civic debate.

“Various stakeholders who cooperatively come together to help plan our future can only be in the best interest of Orange County and its citizens,” said Fred Black, Chair of the Community Action Network, one of the coalition partners.

Village Project Co-Chairman Allan Rosen said that his group was excited to participate in the coalition. “The update affords all of us the chance to support a comprehensive plan that is informed by the sustainability paradigm and based on best practices,” Rosen said.

Other partners are: the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, the Homebuilders Association of Durham, Orange, & Chatham Counties, and Walkable Hillsborough. Additional coalition partners are expected to be announced within days.


-30-