February 1, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The things they dislike are “too many” houses and traffic, the subdivisions with endless cul-de-sacs, Wal-Mart and a decaying downtown “because the life got sucked out of it.” They worry that more national developers will come to town and build subdivisions with no trees and no character.

            They even came up with at least two possible slogans for the town – “Where history meets the future” and “Remembering the past and looking to the future” – during the ice-breaking portion of last Thursday’s initial consensus-building session about the land use plan.

            Consultant Glenn Harbeck asked each of them to draw a shield, divide it into thirds and draw figures or icons illustrating what each of them liked about the growth, what they disliked and what the role of government is for growth.

            They then got down to the hard work.

            Harbeck said this session was about how to go about preparing the plan. “In reality, the process is more important than the product,” he said. “You can have the best plan in the world, but if you have not involved the community, if you have not brought in all the interests, you’ve wasted your time.”

            He then helped steer them to understanding what a steering committee can and should be and do.

            A steering committee, Harbeck said, should be no more than 15 or 18 members – more cannot fit around a conference table comfortably – and its members should be chosen from a matrix to ensure a balance of age, gender, and distribution within the community. The matrix should be accompanied by a town map with a star placed for each member.

            Commissioner Margaret Jones Stinnett said she is all for having people involved, “but we’ve got one hundred different communities. How do you squish together one hundred different opinions?” She also said town committees tend to be made up of “always the same thirty people.”

            The answer, Harbeck, said is active recruitment, face-to-face requests to help.

            “We’ve got to figure out a way to get into the subdivisions,” Commissioner Frank Drake said.

            Harbeck also said the steering committee should not vote on different items. “What you want is decisions by consensus.” Everyone should be able to voice their concerns and work them through. Agreement is reached when everyone is nodding their heads.

            Two of the committee members should be members of the planning board, charged with reporting the steering committee’s progress back to the planning board.

            When the steering committee finishes its work, it will send the proposed plan directly to the town board.

            The town’s existing land use plan was first prepared in 1987, then readopted in 1995. The plan needs to be redone, Planning Director Chip Russell said, because of all the changes.

            “In 1995 we barely knew what our ultimate boundaries were.” Now the town has agreements with its neighbors, Rolesville and Raleigh, about the areas each will eventually serve. “Now we know what’s left to be developed. We’ve seen what has happened in the last ten to fifteen years. “There’s not an infinite amount of land anymore.”

            Russell said the questions now are: How do we make the best of the available land? What do we want it to look like?

            Everyone got up from their seats to look at the map illustrating the undeveloped land in the town’s service area. Areas colored with teal are where development may not happen for more than 10 years; areas in pink are the short-term service areas where development is expected in five to 10 years.

            Russell said he wanted the mayor and commissioners involved from the beginning to “give us direction and tell us the things you want in the plans. I want you to give us enough to build a framework for this plan, hire a consultant and work with the citizens to give you the plan you want.”

            Ten years ago, Russell said, the town board was not involved from the beginning. When it got to the point of the commissioners reviewing, “it was hack, hack, hack, hack.”

            The process will probably take about a year, Harbeck said. It will take 30 to 45 days to assemble the steering committee. The next step after that will be a large joint meeting with the steering committee, the town board and the planning board for an orientation about what a land use plan is and a brainstorming session for what they want it to look like in the end.

            “I’m as impatient or more so than Margaret,” Commissioner David Camacho said. Stinnet had expressed concern that a year is much too long. But, Camacho said, a year is probably realistic if they want a thorough job. “People can only meet so often, but if we rush it we’re not going to get all the input we should have.”

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington asked if, during the year, the town board could use what has already been gathered in terms of facts or decided and act based on those.

            Yes, Harbeck said. “You can start implementing any actions you’ve identified, but you can’t do anything with a policy because you haven’t adopted it [the land use plan}.”