Minutes - 20080211 - Transfer Station

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• Sites not Under Orange County Jurisdiction • Site Located Greater than 3 Miles from a Major Transportation Arterial Bob Sallach said that the first four are clear cut. He said that he understood that 25 acres would be the proposed minimum area in which a transfer station could function. He asked for direction on the exclusionary criteria of sites not under Orange County's jurisdiction. This needs to be qualified. Commissioner Carey said that he would not consider any sites outside of Orange County's jurisdictional lines. Commissioner Nelson said that he thinks that sites should be within Orange County's planning jurisdiction, because if they have to go through someone else's zoning process, then it will be delayed, etc., and the County is facing a situation in which it has to handle the waste in 48 months. Commissioner Gordon said that if they were thinking of any partnerships with the towns, then there might be a co-location possibility and it might affect the site size, etc. Commissioner Nelson said that maybe the solution is in the weighting criteria and not exclusionary. Bob Sallach made reference to Exhibit 7 on page 2 and said that there is a proposed criteria that does not include this issue. Laura Blackmon suggested not being too restrictive up front. Commissioner Gordon made reference to wetlands and floodplains and said that there was mention before of including protected watersheds in the exclusionary criteria. She thinks that this has merit, except for the places within the protected watersheds that are zoned non- residential. Bob Sallach made reference to the watershed map and said that they were looking to use the critical watershed boundaries as exclusionary criteria. He asked if protected watersheds should be under technical criteria. Commissioner Foushee asked staff to look into what Commissioner Gordon is asking on how to consider protected watershed areas. Commissioner Gordon said to exclude protected watersheds except for the sections that are non-residential areas. Geof Gledhill said that he would caution against doing this because there is nothing in this siting process that precludes re-zoning. Commissioner Gordon said that she was referring to the land use map and that it has non-residential areas including activity nodes. The zoning can be changed easily, but the land use cannot. Laura Blackmon said that staff could look at protected watersheds and how this relates to land use. Geof Gledhill verified that Commissioner Gordon wanted to exclude everything in Orange County on the land use map that was designated protected watershed except for non- residential from siting consideration. Geof Gledhill said that this would be hard for staff to determine since the Board has proposed not to exclude the towns. Laura Blackmon said that part of the process is to have the siting process pretty broad and the Board should adopt some exclusionary criteria and then revise those as needed. Commissioner Gordon said that it is a high value to eliminate protected watersheds. Laura Blackmon said that the technical criteria would narrow the sites even further. Commissioner Nelson asked why Bob Sallach chose a three-mile radius from a major transportation arterial as opposed to two miles. Bob Sallach said that a three-mile radius would be a maximum. Commissioner Nelson wants this to be the maximum. He would like the site to be closer to the transportation arterial. Commissioner Nelson said that proximity to a rail line should be included. He also said that the Board was discussing carbon emissions and that this should be taken into consideration