Orange County NC Website
Public Comment <br />Barry Katz said that he thinks on a practical basis, this is about a zoning from one unit per acre <br />to one unit per three acres. He heard from Craig Benedict that this is Triassic soil and you <br />would need close to three acres to get a perk site. He does not see a dramatic difference <br />between what can practically be done under the proposed rules versus what exists now. <br />Bill Strom asked Mayor Foy how he would envision the Council would proceed at this point. <br />Mayor Foy said that the plan was for the Council to refer comments back to Chapel Hill's staff <br />and to come back with a recommendation. It is possible that the recommendation would be to <br />have another public hearing. He suggested continuing on and having a community meeting at <br />the church. <br />Chair Jacobs asked Roger Waldon about the land use plan update and the decisions that were <br />made. Roger Waldon said that the decision that was made in 2000 was at the end of <br />discussions with the Council. They ended up focusing on the urban boundary and there were <br />some areas in the south that were envisioned to stay low density and not become urban in <br />character. The policy decision was to be the vision for those areas that they would not be urban <br />and therefore would not be in the urban services boundary. <br />Chair Jacobs asked if .92 acres was consistent with "non-urban." Roger Waldon made <br />reference to the area in the vicinity of the church and said that the policy determination of the <br />Council was that it was not envisioned to become urban and will not have water and sewer and <br />will not become more dense. <br />Bill Strom asked what kind of notification would have been given to this community and Roger <br />Waldon said that it was not direct mail notice, but was part of a larger process at that time and <br />they had had a number of print ads. <br />Edith Wiggins said that she remembers that a lot of citizens advocated to putting as much land <br />in the rural buffer as possible. She does not remember any citizens asking them to allow for <br />continued subdividing of the land and giving it to their children. Her reservations at that time <br />were taking more land out that could have been used for affordable housing. The agreement <br />within the Council was to identify more corridors in Chapel Hill and devote them specifically for <br />more affordable housing. She is glad that Mark Chilton has raised this and maybe we need to <br />find out, in light of septic tank requirements, if this is something that we can make modifications <br />in the plan or if it makes no difference. She said that people may not be aware that they cannot <br />subdivide in the future and there should be a real study of what the situation is. She suggested <br />continuing the process, but getting mare information about the conditions. <br />Alex Zaffron said that this does not need to involve all three jurisdictions and Chapel Hill needs <br />to review this issue and the policy decisions that were made. <br />Mayor Foy said that it would be surprising to him if Chapel Hill wanted to reopen discussions of <br />the Comprehensive Plan. He said that what is going on here is that Orange County is going to <br />accept control back. <br />Chair Jacobs said that Environmental Health could look at the soils more closely and share the <br />information with all three boards. <br />Mark Chilton said that there are probably a number of landowners with public right-of-way <br />access issues that would prohibit them from dividing their land anyway. <br />