Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 23:13:24 -0400
From: Donna Kelly
Subject: Re: Bd. of Commissioners 6/17/2013
I was shocked when I read Diana Hales’ summary of the 6-17-13 BOC meeting in Chatlist #4678. While I often note minor inaccuracies in her summaries and a bias toward reporting the comments of Sally Kost I’ve never noticed outright fabrications before. She wrote “Bock said he *couldn’t vote for an artist*, so he voted against his motion”. I certainly didn’t hear that statement during the meeting.I even checked the video of the meeting in case I missed it or there was something said that could have been misheard but I can’t find any evidence of anything close to that statement.
The video can be found on this page https://vimeo.com/channels/chathambocmeetings
The EDC discussion begins about 13 minutes into Part II of the Regular session.
The recommendations and link to the applications for all of the applicants is on this page
While eight terms are currently expiring there are actually 15 voting members on the EDC board.While everyone agreed that the six recommended new board members were all excellent candidates there were different
opinions on whether or not to expand the size of the EDC board and how to adjust the recommendations if the board did not want to approve all 10 nominees.
A couple other points I’d like to add to Diana’s meeting summary
Affordable Housing discussion
The county has received $900,000 from Briar Chapel to be used for affordable housing. The Affordable Housing Task Force presented a proposal at the last BOC meeting to use about $250,000 for a short term project to help get people into affordable rental housing and using the remainder for long term housing needs. During last month’s discussion Mike Cross pointed out that the money could only be used to purchase land or buildings. Brian Bock would like to see some way for at least some of this money to address the low income rental needs that have been recognized for years.
The discussion Monday focused on options to address rentals without the county getting involved in property management or rent subsidies. Staff will ask DHIC, a Wake County non-profit that builds affordable rental housing, to do a presentation to the board in August on its programs. Task Force is to look for other rental programs besides DHIC and give that information to staff so they could also be invited in August.
Humane Tethering Discussion
The Board of Health’s Animal Control Advisory committee and staff are in the process of reviewing and updating the county’s entire animal control ordinance. Since there is a lot of attention on animal tethering they
gave an update on this portion of the ordinance and outlined 3 options.
1.A complete ban on unattended tethering. A dog could be tethered while someone is present but could not be left unattended.
2.Time limited tethering.
3.Allow tethering with requirements that result in humane tethering.The current ordinance does not spell out what constitutes humane conditions making it difficult to enforce.
No ordinance will change the mentality of neglect. Animal control will enforce whatever ordinance is on the books to the best of their ability. They recommend option 1 or 3 as a time limited ban would be difficult and time consuming to enforce. The advisory committee recommends option 3.Nine NC counties or municipalities have complete bans while five have time limited bans.The rest allow tethering with or without conditions.
The full ordinance review should be completed in the next few months.
Subdivision Ordinance Amendments
In February 2011, the NC Office of the State Fire Marshal, part of the Department of Insurance, issued a formal interpretation of the 2009 Fire Code which defined the minimum design criteria such as width and load capacity of travelways as it applies to subdivisions.The Office issued a determination in February 2012 that the county fire marshal may accept road widths of less than 20 feet as an alternate material, design or method. The determination also affirmed that preexisting roads do not need to conform to the new standards.
A working committee including the county Fire Marshal, Public Works Director, Planning staff, Storm Water and Erosion Control manager and county manager’s office developed a set of rules allowing more flexibility for minor subdivisions based on local conditions.The proposed amendments incorporate the new code standards to ensure emergency vehicle access but avoid undue cost for small, primarily family, subdivisions.
The agenda for the meeting which includes links to additional information on many of the items can be found here: http://www.chathamnc.org/index.aspx?recordid=7733&page=45
Donna Kelly