Policy 4.3: Capitalize on Strategic Partnerships Different stakeholders in Fuquay-Varina — which include local government, state and regional agencies, school districts, developers, investors, business owners, and neighborhoods — have a shared responsibility for implementing recommendations in the Land Use Plan. This group should work together to identify, prioritize, and fund capital improvements in the community, and leverage their individual investments in the Town to maximize benefits for all. Policy 4.4: Invest in the Town’s Fire Protection Services to Keep Pace with Future Growth Areas targeted for growth and development on the Future Land Use Map will generate needs for new or expanded fire stations to keep pace. Some development areas may require investments in land, buildings, or equipment to accommodate larger facilities, new vehicles, or more personal at the stations. The magnitude and timing of investment should be phased to maintain an ISO X insurance ratings for the Town. Town officials should study the need for new and expanded fire station facilities in the community, and program future capital improvements and personal investments in the Capital Improvements Plan and Annual Budget to keep pace with the location, magnitude, and timing of growth anticipated through 2040. Policy 4.5: Invest in the City’s Police Protection Services to Keep Pace with Future Growth As the population grows, so will the volume of calls the Police Department will respond to, and this may vary by the type and location of development in the community. Hiring new officers and purchasing new patrol vehicles should be priorities for the Fuquay-Varina Police Department to keep pace with new development.
conservation easements, and capital investments should all be explored as ways to increase the Town’s tree canopy. At a minimum, tree preservation and buffer standards should be included in the Town’s LDO to protect mature tree stands. Policy 3.4: Incorporate Natural Stormwater Management Strategies Incorporate low impact or light imprint development strategies to find ways to reduce dependence on complicated infrastructure systems for stormwater management. Explore more sustainable solutions, including natural drainage and infiltration practices. All sustainable stormwater solutions should begin with the least technologically complex actions. The simplest technique is to preserve the existing hydrological pattern of drainage and percolation. This allows the land to handle the water naturally with minimal, if any, human intervention. By following natural hydrological patterns and using them as the framework, sustainable stormwater practices can alleviate much of the need for expensive conventional engineering approaches and will inform the planning and design of communities as a design element. Policy 3.5: Implement a Regional Stormwater Management Strategy Advocate for a Town-wide stormwater management strategy that spans the boundaries of individual parcels to collect and store stormwater in local lakes, ponds, streams, and swales for groundwater infiltration. Policy 3.6: Include New Rules and Standards in the Town’s LDO that Prohibit Development in the 100-Year Floodplain The 100-year floodplain represents the area of land near a water body (lake or stream) that has a one percent chance of flooding in any given year.
Managing the type and intensity of development in the floodplain is widely accepted as good for the environment and financially-responsible for Town government and insurance providers (in terms of the cost to rebuild infrastructure, homes, or businesses that may continually flood in major rain events). Protected floodplains also provide a continuous, natural infrastructure to offset some of the impacts associated with an expanding development footprint (e.g., flood control, water filtration, wildlife habitat, or water supply provisions). Town officials should amend the Land Development Ordinance to designate 100-year floodplains as permanent open space and the spine of a regional green infrastructure initiative. Policy 3.7: Consider Green Streets for Stormwater Management Green streets are thoroughfares that capture, temporarily store, and treat road runoff at its source by incorporating vegetated water catchment and filtration devices in the form of small rain gardens and bioretention systems. Components such as bioswales, infiltration planters, and flow-through planters, and other sustainable stormwater solutions allow plant material to remove impurities before water naturally infiltrates into the soil or into a storage or stormwater system. Water-loving plants as well as plants that are able to remove the impurities while thriving close to traffic and in more urban environments are used in green street design, adding beauty and function. Additional infiltration may be achieved through the use of pervious paving materials for sidewalks and streets. Policy 3.8: Be an Active Community Lead a Town-wide initiative to encourage “active living” in Fuquay-Varina, including plans and policies that promote more walkable development, and programs that increase the frequency and level of daily physical activity for students, families, employees, and seniors.
Supporting Infrastructure
Policy 4.1: Manage Future Growth and Development in Accordance with the Priority Infrastructure Investment Areas Map Investments in infrastructure should be targeted (and prioritized) in accordance with the Priority Infrastructure Investment Area Map and its associated investment tier descriptions. Following the Map will help manage the amount and timing of new infrastructure needed to support future (re)development in the community — understanding finite resources are available to expand infrastructure capacity and, in many cases, infrastructure projects may take ten- to twenty-years to build out when accounting for the time needed to plan, design, fund, and build large projects. Service providers should count on the location and distribution of development change or intensity depicted on the Priority Infrastructure Investment Areas Map to prepare their own long-range master plans and programs, or phase infrastructure improvements to keep pace with development. Policy 4.2: Capital Improvements Plan and Land Use Plan Consistency Statement The Town should ensure recommendations and official maps in the Land Use Plan are the foundation for funding and scheduling capital projects in the Town’s Five-Year Capital Improvements Plan. Highlight a ‘statement of consistency with the Land Use Plan as an important component of the CIP planning process. The narrative developed for the consistency review should be prepared by the requesting department, and reviewed by the Town’s Planning Department, suggesting edits as necessary. The five-year plan should also add a low, medium, or high priority project ranking to the narrative consistent with the plan implementation matrix prepared for the Land Use Plan.
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Fuquay-Varina Land Use Plan
Chapter 6: Policies & Recommendations
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