By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
At their first meeting following summer recess, members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday discussed future plans to consolidate and centralize county services and create a Southern Orange County Government Services Campus.
The campus would be located on county-owned property off Homestead Road where the Southern Human Services Center, Project HomeStart and the Robert and Pearl Seymour Center are located.
The long-term project would be developed in collaboration with the Chapel Hill Town Council, as the property falls under the town’s jurisdiction.
The commissioners and the town council will work together to formulate a master plan for the campus, and the county got its first glimpse at two proposed plans Tuesday night.
“These 33 acres are a great opportunity for the county to provide services in a very meaningful, compact and convenient way for Orange County citizens,†said Roger Waldon of Clarion Associates, the firm hired to help develop plans for the project.
The county is looking to develop the site with as much flexibility for adding buildings and as much capacity potential as possible, while still preserving some of the property’s natural features, such as a pond and mature hardwood forest.
“We do need to take into account that we have no idea exactly how many buildings we will actually need, and I would like the greatest amount of flexibility possible,†board Chair Bernadette Pelissier said.
To achieve this flexibility, Pelissier and the rest of the board expressed support for a plan that they said had the most options for development and the best traffic-flow plan.
While Waldon said he was happy to receive commissioner feedback, he urged them to engage in a constructive dialogue with the town council regarding the plan to allow both parties to be satisfied and the permitting process to run more smoothly.
“We spend a lot of time talking about moving forward towards high-density, more urban-style development … with the advantage of what will meet transportation needs and accessibility to services, and this past June we passed to place on the ballot a half-cent sales-tax referendum for a transportation plan which focuses more on higher-urban style development,†Commissioner Earl McKee said.
“We’ve been talking the talk, this just gives us the chance to walk the walk.â€