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