ORC minutes 090617 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Approved 10/4/17 10 Michael Harvey asked if anyone had any concerns about the amendment. 476 477 Tony Blake said that he wanted to discuss the amendment with some farmers who live around the Haw River who he would 478 be seeing soon. He wants to run this amendment by them. 479 480 Michael Harvey said that there is inherently no difference in what the County currently does, other than the elimination of the 481 Overlay District. 482 483 Tony Blake said that he suspected that the farmers would worry that they would be under more restrictions than they already 484 are, even though he knew that was not the case. 485 486 Michael Harvey said that this is not changing the level of complexity of the flood standards but just removing the Overlay 487 District. 488 489 Tony Blake said that he knew of a farmer who had grazing land within a floodplain along the Haw River. 490 491 Michael Harvey said that this amendment would not restrict his ability to use his property as a grazing area. 492 493 Tony Blake said that farmers may want to know if they can still keep storage, let their animals graze and mend fences on their 494 properties. 495 496 Michael Harvey replied that this would all still be allowed; they would not be allowed to build a barn in the floodplain, but he 497 thought that there would likely not be a farmer to build a nice barn in the floodplain. 498 499 Randy Marshall asked if OWASA was prevented from spraying in a floodplain areas. 500 501 Allison Reinert asked if he was referring to the spraying of bio-solids. 502 503 Michael Harvey said that if they would be spraying on farm property, he would have no legal authority to prevent them from 504 doing so. There is a measure in Article 4 on Watershed Protection Overlay Districts that prohibit bio-solid dispersal. However, 505 if the property is a farm, this measure would not be enforceable. 506 507 Tony Blake asked if OWASA would be allowed to spray on the land they own. 508 509 Michael Harvey said that since OWASA is a public utility company, he does not believe he would have the authority to restrict 510 this activity. Similarly, the Planning Department could not tell Piedmont Electric that they could not erect metal polls (instead of 511 the wooden polls) in their planning efforts for future use. Wrapping up his presentation, Mr. Harvey said that this amendment 512 was authorized by the public officials to move forward; they had no comments on the Overlay District elimination. 513 514 Kim Piracci asked if BOCC members were aware of the provision to take away BOCC authority from allowing hazardous 515 waste via SUP. 516 517 Michael Harvey said they did not have any concerns. He said that he does not see this as controversial but the biggest 518 challenge is getting this amendment change passed by November 17, 2017. The Planning Department was only notified of the 519 new maps in July. 520 521 Tony Blake asked if FEMA has contact residents that will be affected by flood map changes. 522 523 Michael Harvey replied that FEMA has already done public outreach and that the Planning Department also has already held 524 2 community meetings at different locations. Most of the issues identified were in the urban areas, though there was one at 525 Corporation Lake in Orange County’s jurisdiction where the data was wrong, but FEMA recognized the error and fixed it. 526 527