Agenda - 06-01-1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

16 M M 8 ff V F_ swat of the Town's extraterritorial planning area, and the urban transition areas. We believe OWASA's service area should be defined as a Chapel Hill - Carrboro urban services area bounded by the University Lake watershed on the west, the Now Hope Creek part of the Rural Buffer area to the north, Durham - Chapel Hill annexation boundary on the east and the Chatham County and Rural buffer boundaries to the south. Defining such a service area would help OWASA make long -range plans for system capacity based on a discrete area rather than based on undefined, unknown and continually growing service area. The proposed service area would also reflect the fact that residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and a few surrounding areas are paying for the cost of acquiring the OWASA system in 1977 and for making major system improvements including purchase and development of the Cane Creek reservoir and expansions of treatment plants. The long -term capacity of the present OWASA water and wastewater system should be kept in place to serve the Chapel Hill - Carrboro area citizens who have and will pay for these assets. In addition, defining the Chapel Hill - Carrboro service area would help provide focus on meeting community needs which already exist, including reduction of inflow and infiltration into the wastewater system, addressing neighborhoods where private septic and well systems will eventually need to be replaced in the urban service area, and other basic system needs. OWASA's capital improvement program documents in past years have shown an emphasis on accommodating demand associated with new development. While this objective is appropriate and consistent with the 1977 Purchase and Sale Agreements, there should be an equal emphasis on meeting the needs of neighborhoods which are already developed but lack public water and sewer service in areas designated for urban'services. We note that defining a Chapel Hill- Carrboro service area would be consistent with the provisions in the 1977 sales agreements that OWASA will meet the reasonable needs of the Towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill for wastewater services. Defining a service area for OWASA based on the principles in the Joint Planning Agreement is the single most important policy matter which should be addressed by the local governments. Such a decision or not of decisions would have important and positive effects regarding the focus and priorities for the Authority. We note that a service area as described above need not preclude contractual arrangements with other jurisdictions under appropriate conditions, which are discussed below.