Agenda - 11-19-1997 - 10a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Provisional Cane Creek Recommendations 10 June 26, 1997 Page 8 Other Development Requirements Other land use and development requirements, such as impervious surface limits, permissible uses, and so forth, would remain as currently specified in Orange County's Zoning Ordinance. Potential Town and Country Tradeoffs It is important that the OWASA Board and elected leaders who influence or implement these changes recognize the long-standing sovereignty issue perceived by many watershed property owners. Bingham Township residents consider OWASA's source water protection initiative an additional burden imposed on the rural community by the demands of urban growth in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Watershed residents, who have no access to OWASA water, will realize no water quality benefits from the sacrifices they must make. The OWASA Board recognizes this view and is sensitive to it. We remain open to considering a range of flexible actions that might offset the perceived loss of rural sovereignty: • Payments-in-lieu for unrealized volunteer fire district taxes that would otherwise be levied on land owned by OWASA in Bingham Township. These are currently estimated to be in the range of$4,000 to $5,000 per year. • Use of OWASA's Cane Creek recreational site and former Stanford house as a County-operated park and nature interpretive center. OWASA would retain control of any water-based activities. (Comment: Orange County's Public Recreation Master Plan identifies the need for a future district park in Bingham Township. Portions of this proposal may qualify for state and federal grant programs. OWASA has made overtures in this direction in the past.) • Sale, trade, or transfer of non-watershed land owned by OWASA in Bingham Township to the Orange County Board of Education for use as a new school site if such a transaction were sought by those with appropriate decision-making authority. • Accelerated or"front-loaded" funding of OWASA's program for purchasing critical land and conservation easements in the watershed, including the set-asise of up to one-third of budgeted land acquisition funds ($150,000 of$450,000 in FY 98) for easement purchases.