Agenda - 02-28-2011 - C.1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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187 Approved 2/2/11 359 Perdita Holtz: It almost sounds like in A, the General Standards, you want to make it dear that everything requires approval of 360 some sort of permit or approving document in order to do the uses permitted by right. Not just if structures are proposed but also 361 in general, you want everyone to know they need to get the approval of the planning department in order to do this. 362 363 Shannon Berry: Basically all activities require approval of the site plan and all applicable permits which would be Erosion 364 Control, etc. 365 366 May Becker: I guess the term "permitted by right'. For example, if you want to build a house then you would say you have the 367 right to do that however, why would a pond be permitted by right. 368 369 Perdita Holtz: The use is permitted but without mitigation. 370 371 May Becker: The ponds have been added as permitted by right. So you are saying the ponds have been defacto existing 372 permitted by right or something else even though they are listed as permitted by right. I am asking if this has gone on so 373 productively for years, why does it have to be put into this document? 374 375 Shannon Berry: I think ponds permitted in a buffer, provided siunnwater ordinances are permitted based on site plan approval. 1 376 don't think what Terry was saying that they have allowed ponds all over the place in stream buffers. 377 378 May Becker: That is my concern. If they are going to do that now by right. 379 380 Terry Hackett: We have thousands of ponds on streams in Orange County. They are ponds not for stormwater management 381 most of them were probably created as farm ponds at one point. There is a whole permitting process they would have to go 382 through. This specific issue is stormwater ponds and they would not be allowed in the stream. That is something we would 383 never approve and the state doesn't allow or the EPA. This would be something where for space constraints, this stormwater 384 pond in order to treat the impervious surface that belongs to this property encroaches into this stream buffer, we are saying since 385 that pond encroaches in stream buffer, you have to establish a buffer around that too. 386 387 Craig Benedict: (Provided a picture of the example.) In the Unified Development Ordinance, we are balancing a lot of different 388 interest in the context of a bigger picture. In Orange County, all of these issues we have going on here, we are stricter than the 389 state for the Orange County watershed protection. We have some of the strictest requirements of any county in North Carolina. 390 The nutrient loads are being monitored by both the Neuse River, Jordan Lake and Falls Lake rules. We do monitor TMBL with a 391 stream monitoring process. We are still not being more liberal than the state. When you combine these things, we are doing 392 more for water quality in North Carolina than any other county. 393 394 Mark Marcoplos: I would like to second Larry's preamble just so that it is read, they understand the goal of these things are to 395 enhance the quality of life while protecting the waters and streams so that when someone comes along and finds a loop hole, at 396 least that is there and we can go to them and say, that was not the intent. What is stream bank stabilization, is that a potential 397 loop hole? 398 399 Terry Hackett: That is basically where you have possibly a degraded stream bank from erosion, or excess flow. It allows you to 400 come in there and stabilize that bank by various means and those would have to be submitted in a plan and approved. Typically, 401 when you talk about stream bank stabilization, anything below the ordinary high water mark also has to be approved by the 402 Corps of Engineers and the State of North Carolina. It is to eliminate in stream erosion. 403 404 Mark Marcoplos: So it could be rip rap or wood? 405 406 Terry Hackett: There are various different methods, but what we would certainly prefer to see is plantings but sometimes it 407 actually it takes engineering to re -slope the bank and put in a stabilization. 408 409 Pete Hallenbeck: I would like to clarify two things. Is there currently an ordinance in Orange County that prohibits repetitive 410 fertilizers in stream buffers? 411 412 Terry Hackett: Yes. In the Neuse stormwater ordinance. It allows for fertilization once for the establishment or reestablishment 413 of vegetation. 414 415 Pete Hallenbeck: If someone says I have this wonderful lawn 20 feet from the stream, they are not allowed to fertilize that every 416 year? 417 418 Terry Hackett: That is correct. 7