Agenda 09-07-1993 - VIII-C - Laserfiche WebLink

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5 involved the granting of a perpetual easement on adjoining property [rather than actual fee simple acquisition] , limiting development and satisfying the impervious surface ratios indirectly. Of the two alternatives, the County Attorney felt that the latter one offered a possible solution to the Fire Department' s problem. Although the Fire Department has not actively pursued such an amendment, recent events have suggested that changes be considered again. One situation involved the proposed construction of a new school located on a site partially in University Lake Watershed. To satisfy impervious surface limits and permit construction to proceed, a solution involving collection and disbursement of stormwater outside the watershed was developed. Although not in Orange County' s jurisdiction, the school situation highlighted a potential problem for the County, given the approval of bond funding for new school construction. More recently, Orange County has been working toward identifying and constructing sites for recycling centers. The difficulty of installing such centers in watersheds was emphasized when a determination was made that an existing "green box" site could not be used because of insufficient land area being available to satisfy impervious surface ratios; While the site in question is existing, the same concern applies to new sites, several of which are to be located in watershed areas. As an example, recycling centers would have an impervious surface area of approximately one acre. To adhere to a 12 percent impervious surface limit, the total site would have to be slightly more than eight acres in size. While the focus to date has been almost exclusively on public facilities, the same difficulties could just as easily be experienced by privately owned, non-residential development. Examples which come to mind are existing churches, community centers or neighborhood convenience stores wanting to expand but lacking sufficient area to satisfy impervious surface standards. The current difficulties are addressed in the State-mandated watershed protection standards which must be implemented by Orange County no later than January 1, 1994 . The original schedule for implementation of the watershed protection standards called for a public hearing in May of 1993 . However, because of pressing nature of other issues, the public hearing was moved back to August 1993 . In the State-mandated standards, localities will have a choice of adopting "low" or "high" density options. The low density option relies on minimum lot sizes or impervious surface limits as the basis for watershed protection. This varies with current County standards which employs both lot size and impervious surface limits. In contrast, the high density option allows greater impervious surface coverage if engineered stormwater controls [wet detention basins] are installed to control the first inch of rainfall. The amount of impervious surface or built upon area is limited to 30 percent for residential development and 70 percent for non-residential in that portion of a watershed beyond a Critical Area. In the case of non-