Agenda - 05-07-2013 - 6d - Laserfiche WebLink

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34 DRAFT 103 occasions in Orange County even in the less protected watersheds. From our standpoint this is a reasonable 104 compromise, it provides the link we were looking for in terms of referring people to the stormwater thresholds. We 105 are asking the Board to complete its review, you have OWASA's statement and the ordinance amendment has 106 been rewritten to incorporate option c as suggested by the Board. 107 108 109 Maxecine Mitchell: So you're saying that the cutting of trees is part of the impervious surface? 110 111 Michael Harvey: That would be part of land disturbance, as we discussed at the quarterly public hearing when 112 Commissioner Dorosin asked the same question but the simple act of cutting a tree does not mean you are adding 113 impervious surface area to your property. Once you built a house, you build a driveway (gravel), these actions 114 represent the placement of impervious surface area on your property which for the majority of the County is limited 115 based on your location within a Watershed Protection Overlay District. Say you have a wooded area and you clear 116 that for your septic field, you clear additional area for view shed, to support the development of your house, that is 117 land disturbance activities. What this ordinance amendment does is make reference to existing standards that if 118 you exceed this level of land disturbance, you have to do the formal stormwater plan and we will require the site 119 specific development plan with it. 120 121 Pete Hallenbeck: So what we're looking at here is these disturbance limits that we're reviewing on page 18 is that 122 disturbance defined as both the impervious surface and ground that you tear up for some reason. 123 124 Herman Staats: So that I understand, cutting timber is not land disturbance if you don't dig up the roots or bulldoze? 125 126 Michael Harvey: Cutting timber can be in certain circumstances, as defined by erosion control, can be land 127 disturbance. There are situations where it is exempt because it is either a bona fide farm or if you're not disturbing 128 the ground cover. In theory yes, that is true but once you disturb the ground cover then it becomes land 129 disturbance. 130 131 Pete Hallenbeck: Commissioner McKee was curious how this would impact someone who wanted to build a house 132 for parents or children on their land and I've had some emails and worked through some examples. My take is that 133 there is no simple way to sum up the impact of this and say as long as it's only this size house, you're good 134 because the process requires all these different aspects. What does house disturbance footprint, which is going to 135 be an impervious surface plus some area of around it, the driveway footprint, the septic tank, other areas. Also 136 having gone through the process of having built a house in the county, there is a bunch of stuff going on, and my 137 experience was that the sooner you engage the planning department with what you're doing the better because 138 they can walk you through the rules and this is all part of the process of designing what you're doing. I think the 139 best you can do to explain it to people is just make them aware of this process. 140 141 Herman Staats: I remember Commissioner McKee was asking about what someone could do if they got a piece of 142 land, the recommendation that we're making is based on the state law, is that right? 143 144 Michael Harvey: The recommendation you're making is, instead of having the existing standard which says 145 everybody in University Lake has to give you a professionally prepared site plan no matter what, we are basically 146 linking the submission of that site plan to the stormwater land disturbance thresholds we adopted last year. That to 147 us is a universal standard. No matter what we do this is here. It's our position, and you have agreed with it, there's 148 no need to have multiple caveats in the code which is what we have now. 149 150 Tony Blake: The County always has the sufficient cause to ask for one (site plan). 151 152 Michael Harvey: Yes, we do what is called a site assessment now for every project typically before they even apply 153 for a building permit. Site assessment is designed to identify all environmental factors and issues on any given