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E 13 <br /> +� ISSUE PAPER <br /> 'Extension of Seger and Water into Orange <br /> County along U. S. Route 70 <br /> Background <br /> The Department of Transportation and Utilities of the City of Durham <br /> has received a petition signed by nineteen property owners in Durham and <br /> Orange Counties requesting water service. The petitioners own property <br /> along Rillsborough Road (U. S. Route 70) and request extension of water <br /> service from it's present stopping point in Durham County near the Orange <br /> County line across the County lane a distance of some 3000 feet into Fno <br /> Township. <br /> This is an area in which a number of mobile home parks are ,Located. <br /> Several of these have had problems with malfunctioning septic systems and <br /> One of them, Brewer's Trailer Court, has been closed down by the Orange <br /> County Health Department because of contamination of It's water supply by <br /> Individual sewage disposal systems. <br /> Durham has established by ordinance boundaries beyond which it will <br /> not extend water service. In the area in question, t'he boundary is the <br /> county line. Durham also has a polid-y of not extending water lines w5i:hout <br /> also eventually extending sewer service to the same areas. The pat-itioning <br /> property owners have retained a lawyer and are expected to bring their <br /> petition before the Durham City Council in the next several, weeks.. Their <br /> case might be strong enough to change current policy. It is_i--here£or''e <br /> important for decision makers in Orange County to formulate P. positiorn on <br /> this issue for consideration by Durham officials. <br /> Planning Issues <br /> From a land use planning perspective, the petitioner's request raises <br /> several issues. <br /> Health: There is a very real health,threat posed by curr°ene conditions <br /> in this area. According to 1Ir. Jerry Robinson, Orange County Health Depart- <br /> ment Director, several residents of Brewer's Trailer Court became ill from <br /> drinking contaminated water to the point of being hospitalized. The extension <br /> of water service to this area would allow Brewer's Trailer Court to reopen <br /> and insure that several other mobile home parks in the same area have a <br /> potable water supply. <br /> Future land Use: Mr. Robert Peck, Director of the Transportation and <br /> Utilities Department of the Citq of Durham has stated in a letter to the <br /> Orange County Planning Department that if water lines are extended into the <br /> area, it would be logical to provide sixteen inch mains so further future <br /> extensions could be accomodated. <br /> Once these utilities were extended into Orange County, it is not clear <br /> what a new logical boundary beyond which they should xaot be extended beyond <br /> would be. Provision of these utilities to the 1-•85 -- 70 interchange would <br /> open up that whole area to more intensive land use. The highway system <br /> there would make it a logical area for the development of commercial and <br />