Comment for tonight's meeting - Reject UDO amendments

[Sadie Rapp]

Commissioners,

I will be unable to attend tonight's meeting, and I have just been made aware of one of the agenda items that I must address.

The proposed UDO amendment to remove Planning Board members and county commissioners from the subdivision plan review process is a regressive and high-risk proposal. To lessen the involvement of these boards in the process in any way is irresponsible and unwarranted. We unfortunately find ourselves in an era of precarity in terms of our natural resource availability and our economy. To do anything to reduce the amount of scrutiny or oversight on development applications is to invite further destabilization, and to open the county up to legal risk. 

The current development proposal process in Orange County allows for crucial input from the public, and empowers many different stakeholders to advocate for themselves. It proves that the county has heard and considered many angles on a proposal, which reduces the ability of someone to sue the county for unfair treatment. It saves the county staff from having to be experts on every issue in the county, because there is opportunity to hear from actual experts and it allows us citizens to share our expertise that comes from lived experience. 

I have a great appreciation for how cumbersome and exhausting the current process can be. I understand that empowering your board to be responsible for decisions often invites grievance and frustration (it is regularly a thankless job, but a critical one), and that is a risk of showing leadership and engagement. The fact that public comment to your board is part of the development process is one of the few elements of our governing system that still allows us to meaningfully shape what our community looks like from the ground up, rather than being shaped by what national developers decide it should look like. It is one of the last remaining ways that those without all the money can still have a little influence. PLEASE do not take that away from us.

Thank you for your consideration,

Sadie Rapp

6819 Morrow Mill Rd, Chapel Hill