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<br /> <br /> 1 <br />Orange County <br />Commission for the Environment <br /> <br />Meeting Summary <br /> <br />May 11, 2015 <br />Richard Whitted Meeting Facility, Hillsborough <br />_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />PRESENT: Lydia Wegman (Vice Chair), Jan Sassaman (Chair), May Becker, Peter Cada, Lynne <br />Gronback, Loren Hintz, Bill Newby, Jeanette O’Connor, Sheila Thomas-Ambat, David Welch <br /> <br />ABSENT: Tom Eisenhart, Donna Lee Jones, David Neal, Rebecca Ray, Gary Saunders <br /> <br />STAFF: Tom Davis, Rich Shaw, Brennan Bouma <br /> <br />GUESTS: Chip Hughes (National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences) <br />_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />I. Call to Order – Wegman (Acting Chair) called the meeting to order at 7:35 pm. <br /> <br />II. Ad ditions or Changes to Agenda – None. <br /> <br />III. Minutes – Sassaman noted there was an incorrect statement on page 1 of the April 13 <br />meeting summary where it said Gronback was still a candidate for appointment to the <br />CFE. Sassaman pointed out Gronback had already been appointed. Hintz motioned to <br />approve the summary as amended; seconded by Sassaman. Approved unanimously. <br /> <br />IV. Proposed Amendment to Impervious Surface Rules – Shaw reviewed the April CFE <br />meeting’s discussion of proposed amendments to the County’s rules that limit the <br />amount of impervious surfaces on developed properties in certain water supply <br />watershed protection areas. He said the rules would allow an increase in the allowable <br />impervious surfaces provided the property owners install an approved infiltration best <br />management practice (BMP) and abide certain other conditions. <br /> <br />Shaw referred CFE members to OWASA’s comments that were generally favorable with <br />the amendments as long as the County would ensure that the required annual <br />maintenance inspections occur and that the program include a process for what would <br />occur if a BMP no longer functioned properly and the owner decided not to repair or <br />replace the BMP. Shaw also noted OWASA recommended that a licensed engineer be <br />required to design the BMP. <br /> <br />CFE members responded to the proposal and discussed possible comments. <br /> <br /> Newby expressed his doubts that such a program would work properly. <br /> Hintz agreed with Newby, noting however that he does not anticipate there would <br />be a large amount of requests to install infiltration BMPs. He asked how property <br />owners would know whether they would need to abide by these rules. He noted <br />the Chapel Hill board of adjustment has forgiven mistakes by homeowners; if the <br />County adopts this amendment the requirements need to be explicit. <br /> O’Connor noted that building permits are needed prior to most construction, so it <br />would be highly unusual for property owners to be uninformed of what is allowed. <br /> Sassaman agreed. He said the County has a unified permitting process. <br /> Davis said the County’s permitting system is called “Permits Plus.”