Minutes 04-14-2015 - Work Session - Late

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Allan Clapp said a tri-party agreement is an agreement between the HOA, the Health Department and the developer. He said these types of agreements have typically worked well. Commissioner Dorosin said HOAs are already relied on to maintain open spaces. He said our development model encourages HOAs. Craig Benedict said sixteen years ago, the majority of subdivisions were conventional, two acre lots with on site systems. He said through regulations the conservation cluster design has been recommended. He said, over time, the trend has shifted towards smaller lots with shared open space in the rest of the development. He said now about ninety percent of local subdivisions have this conservation cluster design, with at least thirty three percent open space and an HOA. Commissioner Dorosin said HOAs are already required or encouraged through incentives. He said this structure is already a part of the development model, and having HOAs engaged does not seem unreasonable. He said the HOA fear of not having money to maintain the system is the same fear as not having money to maintain the open space. Commissioner Jacobs said this requires a higher degree of maintenance, responsibility and open space. He said there are debates within HOAs about whether residents want to pay for things ranging from maintaining private roads to maintaining the community systems. He said this is where he finds more potential problems. He said if HOAs are to be more relied upon, then the County may want to have more say over HOA responsibilities. He asked if such oversight is even within the legal purview of BOCC. Craig Benedict showed the Board a copy of the latest edition of Rural by Design by Randall Arendt. He said Orange County is mentioned in the book. The author has visited Orange County occasionally over the past twenty years since his first edition of the book. He said part of the open space and flexible design idea came from Arendt's ideas in the mid 1990s. He said that Arendt currently sees the thirty-three percent open space concept as a minimum. He said Arendt is leaning more towards fifty or sixty percent open space. He added that in some cases the open space could be farmed, forestry, stream buffers, etc. He said that Arendt also suggests lots as small as 10,000 square feet to minimize roads and impervious off site septic systems. Commissioner Jacobs said in the past developers were using the setbacks required in the ordinance as open space and thus offering almost no additional open space. He said this continued until the ordinance was changed. Craig Benedict presented the following slides: Zoning Regulations —septic system (tanks and nitrification fields) • PROHIBITED FROM BEING LOCATED: • Within stream buffers ■ Staff Comment: Section 4.2.2 (1) of UDO establishes a waiver provision where lots created prior to January 1, 1994 or October 19, 1999 (lots in Cane Creek Overlay) can get an exemption from this prohibition. • Within 300 feet of the reservoir in the University Lake Critical Watershed Overlay (tank and field). • Within Cane Creek and Upper Eno Critical area new septic tanks are prohibited within 150 feet of the reservoir. Nitrification fields cannot be within 300 feet of reservoir. ■ Staff Comment: Health regulations only require a 100 ft. setback from a reservoir and 50 ft. from a stream • Within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream.