Agenda - 11-23-1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the protection of the public health, the courts have upheld the local authority—county, state, local community--in doing this . And this is what we have, we have the heart for it. In Wake County I made a similar presentation . They take water from the Neuse River . And they are admitting on their watershed package plants and package plants sound good on paper they do everything they are suppose to, but the problem comes with maintenance and so on. And they are faced with the problem too that If they are not going to be very, very strict on their watershed, they have other counties that responsible for the rest of the Neuse River watershed--Its a multi-county position and it requires leadership and courage to maintain the control of development. So my words to you are that we ought to try to develop our regulations, not for the purpose of making development possible, which Is what I read here, for example, it says here that--this is in Section 6(q) "and without a crossing over 50% of the tract would be without access and therefore undevelopable." Maybe that is a very fortunate thing . There is no need for every acre of land in the watershed to be developed . Now because 50% of a pOrticular tract is undevelopable, it may be feasible to have somewhat greater development elsewhere, but there is no need to try to encourage development. There is a need to encourage development In areas outside the watershed . That 's where we need all kinds of housing--low-cost housing , dense housing . We need a mix and we can have very high-class housing also, but outside the watershed . . Inside the water- shed we want to have development that is compatible with water supply and that means very limited densities because the perimeters we use in measuring the impact of an area on a watersupply so many pounds of a pollutant--lead whatever it might be per current mile or so many per dwelling unit--is a function of density of development . And elsewhere this idea about sewers, now I am not a great believer of septic tanks as my mother used to call them skeptic tanks as we have a reason to be skeptical about them. On the other hand while I would like to believe and I did once believe this in Guilford County, in Greensboro, and 1 turned out to be wrong, I was asked if I would come in and speak against a sewer on the watershed there because there was houses that had septic tanks and the septic tanks were giving trouble. So 1 said I wouldn 't speak against the sewers because I think the sewers are better than the septic tanks . But what happened there in Guilford County in Horsepan Creek was that they put the sewer in and I agree with Mr . Rose that I wish this wouldn 't have happened and I trust in you and those that follow you that it will not happen . As a result of that -sewer there has been far more development in Horsepan Creek than would have been the case If the sewer was not built, because the sewer allowed much greater densities . Mayor Porto: Did they have a task force . Mr . Okun : No. I said what you have done is very good . One of the problems with allowing cluster development and allowing sewers is the precedent you set for others on the