Orange County NC Website
recently, they have been looking at water quality issues. He thinks there has to <br />be a move to being mare oriented toward storm water management. <br />Chair Jacobs asked about calculations on average lot size, excluding ten-acre <br />lots. Craig Benedict said that lot sizes are averaging 2.5 acres. The soils in <br />portions of the County are not good for septic systems, which is why those areas <br />are less dense. <br />Commissioner Brawn made reference to the original goals and the idea of air <br />quality, traffic, groundwater, watershed protection and the cast of supplying <br />services. She said that on the other side, we are taking the Neuse River and not <br />using the State's highest recommendations, but using this mixture. She said that <br />these recommendations are probably the absolute minimum for watershed <br />protection. She asked if both could be done. She said that it seemed that the <br />staff was using the comments from the public meetings to make the <br />determination to modify these goals. She does not think there is a balance <br />because there are too many people in the County that want protection. She <br />thinks this is a very significant modification from the comments of these very <br />small groups of people. <br />John Link said that he encouraged Craig Benedict to provide the options and it is <br />not entirely based on the public meetings. <br />Commissioner Brown said that many of the people that attend the meetings have <br />no understanding of what the issues are. The public education piece is very <br />important. She said that a few people in the County {developers and a few <br />property owners} are very opposed to zoning or land use planning, and they tend <br />to drum up some very erroneous understandings about haw this might impact <br />them, and they are the ones that come to the meetings. She will stand for the <br />people in the County that are very concerned about the water quality. Many of <br />these people will never come to public meetings. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that she does not think that the Board ever confirmed <br />the goals. She also could not figure out which set of goals in the packet the <br />Commissioners were to supposed to reconfirm. She asked for mare clarity and <br />thoroughness. She would like to see the goals and the objectives of the goals <br />written out in full sentences. She would like to see a document that states all of <br />the goals, including the ones from the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Committee <br />(CPLUC}. If goals have been deleted, she would like to know why. She made <br />reference to page nine and suggested saying "water resources protection" rather <br />than "watershed protection", because watershed does not bring up the issue of <br />groundwater. She asked that a list of all the goals and an explanation of any <br />deletions be prepared by staff and brought back to the Commissioners for <br />approval. She said that she is not ready to go forward with this. <br />