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Environment
The Core Value for the Environment is:
A safe and healthy environment with good air and water quality.
ACTION AGENDA
Priority Policy 1: Support the preservation of environmentally-sensitive or ecologically-valuable open space, with fair compensation for property owners of preserved lands.
Action Agenda: After reaching consensus on a set of creteria for different types of open space to be preserved and in collaboration with land trusts and other partners, work with each county to identify the areas most in need of preservation and the tools for land preservation that are most appropriate for that area. Ensure than recommendations support existing regional initiatives such as the Carolina Thread Trail, the Regional Stormwater Partnership, etc. and seek to achieve multiple wins for the landowner, the economy, the community and the environment. Launch a serious regional initiative for land conservation using the identified tools.
Priority Policy 2: While maintaining a "menu" of local actions to improve the environment, develop and implement region-wide initiatives to promote air and water quality and conservation of natural resources.
Action Agenda: Develop and implement a region-wide project aimed at conservation/improvement of the environment in each of four areas: Air, Water, Land/Biodiversity and Energy.
Vision:
Individual, community and regional actions improve air and water quality, preserve biodiversity and preserve habitat, wildlife corridors and ecologically-sensitive landscapes. Residents of the region love and support protecting open space, rural character, views of the surrounding foothills and the trees for which the area is noted. These characteristics contribute to a healthy environment and are conserved as well as valued. Residents can enjoy the region, whether in their own homes and yards, their workplaces, their towns, or the countryside, free from the fear of violence or other crime.
Policies:
Foster effective long-term comprehensive planning based on sound growth principles at local, regional and state levels.
Support compact, mixed use, walkable development in areas already served by public infrastructure for water, sewer and transportation, or where such facilities are already planned.
Promote a multi-modal, fully-functional hierarchical transportation network.
Promote increased regional collaboration on environmental and growth issues.
Promote innovative measures and techniques to address current or potential air quality, water quality and safety impacts of growth.
Support natural resource conservation in addition to measures designed to mitigate natural resource use.
Support the preservation of environmentally-sensitive or ecologically-valuable open space, with fair compensation for private property owners for land left undeveloped.
Ensure clean and adequate water resources to support public, economic and environmental needs.
Adopt a watershed perspective on water resource planning.
Support locally-based and regional, voluntary AND mandatory initiatives to conservewater, energy and other resources.
Use design practices that effectively utilize energy
Improve social welfare and enable public employees to live in or close to communities they serve.
Conserve, rehabilitate and/or redevelop existing urban areas to ensure neighborhood stability and prevent disinvestment.
Support cross-discipline collaboration among agencies to address the safety needs of communities.
A Sampling of Practices:
Zone for more compact and mixed-use development and support transportation improvements that decrease reliance on single-occupant vehicles
Include consideration of environmental components in the small area planning process (e.g., soils, topography, tree cover, perennial and intermittent streams and other waterbodies, biodiversity and endangered species, etc.
Retrofit construction and other diesel vehicles with devices that decrease emissions (ozone precursors, fine particle, greenhouse gas and other)
Promote green building practices and waste reduction (solid, water, energy)
Consider water reuse strategies and initiatives in other areas of the country for use in this region
Engage in active natural resource conservation and decreasing our environmental "footprint" as well as mitigating natural resource use
Promote brownfields redevelopment, adaptive reuse and infill development
Engage in active public education regarding environmental issues the additional fiscal and health benefits of sound environmental practices
With land conservation groups and state agencies, identify and preserve strategic open spaces and habitats
Reduce single-occupant vehicle use and engine idling
Implement best management practices such as low impact development, stream buffers and landscaped and shared parking strategies to protect water quality and provide multiple environmental benefits
Increase public education regarding environmental/heal/safety linkages
Participate in programs such as “problem-oriented policing” and “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design”
Work with economic development partners to promote re-investment in deteriorating neighborhoods
Include workforce/affordable housing in new and redevelopment areas to ensure that persons in the public safety and health care professions can afford to live there and thus strengthen the community
Provide adequate emergency services, including mental health and drug prevention programs
