Minutes - 05-15-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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area and is not expected to have any sewer service because it is not in the adapted plan. This subdivision design cannot occur unless there is the provision of public sewer by Orange County. Sewer service is not scheduled to be extended to this area at this time. The area along McGowan Creek is a flooded area of McGowan Creek and would be preserved in the conservation cluster plan. The majority of lots would have open space at the back of the lots. The distribution of lots is 100 lots to the north and 120 to the south of the transition area line. Craig Benedict noted that they researched property ownership in this area since early 1999. He distributed information on the progression of purchases in this area. He also noted that the transition line has been on the map since 1984. Gordon Brown, attorney representing Efland LLC, the developer, said that the recommendations given as the basis for denial were basically legal in nature. He distributed same information and summarized it. He said that there is a notion that since this property is north of the bond sewer property that there can be no extension. He does not know of any provision, policy, or document which prohibits the extension of sewer beyond the original public funded sewer area. He said that he could find no support in the Orange County policies and regulations for the question of the transition area. This subdivision was planned and submitted under the flexible development ordinance, which is very clear that it can apply to developments in all areas except rural buffer. He said that the fact that the land north of the transition line is classified as rural residential does not mean that it cannot be developed as a flexible development project and it does not mean that sewer cannot be run to it. The Orange County sewer policy expressly provides, with one exception, that public sewer is to be discouraged outside of transition areas. The one exception is with clustering, such as with flexible development in order to preserve open space. He said that the subdivision regulations deal with the extension of sewer outside the transition area. He said that this particular piece of property is adjacent to two properties that have been approved under the conservation cluster option and will be provided sewer under the Efland system. He said that there was na particular magic in the fact that we have a transition line that bisects this piece of properly. He said that this particular developer agrees with the Board that there is something anomalous about digging deep wells and pumping water out of our watershed. The developer has made arrangements with Heater Utilities, Inc. to provide the water utilities. He said that this provider goes way beyond minimum state requirements and Orange-Alamance requirements. He said that these arrangements take this project outside of the current discussions between the County and Orange-Alamance. The developer has also arranged an agreement with Heater Utilities, Inc. that after a certain period of time, Heater Utilities, Inc. would deed the system aver to a future provider of water in this area if the County so elected. He said that the policy that this developer has tried to embrace is to maximize the open space in accordance with the positive objectives of the flexible development ordinance. Sixty percent of this project's land area is in open space. He also pointed out that the active recreation space is four times what is normally required. He said that the alternative to this development was to divert to amore conventional 40,000-square foot lot subdivision. He asked the Commissioners to examine this project as a legally permissible proposal and to approve it because it is a superior alternative to what is otherwise allowed under the subdivision regulations. Scott Radway, agent far Efland LLC, spoke about the merits of the plan far McGowan Creek subdivision. There is approximately 24 acres in the flood plain. There is approximately 48 acres of open space that are in a stream corridor. The recreation area would be near the entrance to the project off of Efland-Cedar Grove Road. By phase three, the second recreation area would be included and would exceed the required recreation of the site. Phase eight would include the last recreation area and would be 12-13 acres, which is large enough to contain fields. At this time, there are no plans to take down trees far recreation space. There is a walkway system that would be outside of the NCDOT right-of-way and runs east to west through the entire project. There would also be pathways that connect each of the single-family areas in the project along creek corridors to the common recreation areas and to McGowan Creek. Commissioner Gordon asked several clarifying questions, which were answered by Scott Radway. Commissioner Jacobs asked how many of the lots were outside of the 20-year transition area and Mr. Radway said that there were 112 outside and 110 inside the transition area.