Planning Board minutes 040319 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Approved 5/1/19 issues. She requested that the use of Low Impact Design (LID) stormwater management be considered and handed 154 out a paper that compared the system to traditional systems. She related that there was an underground tank on the 155 property and that there was the potential of contamination from it to the adjacent properties.156 157 Michael Harvey reminded the Board that the County has some of the most restrictive stormwater regulation in the 158 area. Developers were required to address both water quantity, specifically how much water was leaving the site, 159 and water quality, specifically the removal of nutrients from the project. This project would also have to abide what is 160 known as pre and post stormwater runoff conditions. What this means is that under current conditions if there was 161 approximately 1 inch of water running off the property in its pre-development state, there can be no more than 1 inch 162 of runoff generated by the property in its developed state. Mr. Harvey further reminded the Board they could not 163 compel or require the applicant to adhere to a specific stormwater design standard. That would be addressed during 164 the stormwater permitting stage based on applicable County and State regulations. While he appreciated Ms. 165 Nathansen’s suggestion that the project use low impact design principles, there was no guarantee the project would 166 qualify for same. 167 168 Michael Harvey reminded the Board that is surrounding wells were already experiencing issues, it would be prudent 169 for those property owners to contact Orange County Environmental Health to ascertain if the wells need to be re-170 drilled. Testing of wells to try and establish a baseline of existing issues, in the hopes of holding property owners 171 within Fairway Hills accountable for potential impacts, was not practical. The assumption that future problems will be 172 the direct impact of this project represented a false premise as development/redevelopment of surrounding lots could 173 also lead to the problems Ms. Nathansen was concerned about. 174 175 Craig Carter expressed concern on the well water table and contamination. He related that several properties had 176 contaminated wells and had to have then drilled deeper and that there had been 3 gas stations there in the past. 177 178 Mark O’Neal of Pickett-Sprouse addressed the concern and advised that the tank had been for heating oil and had 179 been removed, the soil around it was also removed and the remaining soil has been tested and cleared by an expert.180 181 There was additional, general, discussion on contamination issues.182 183 Michael Harvey reminded the Board of existing wells were contaminated, then property owners should take action to 184 work with the Health Department to address those issues. That was a separate issue from the review of this project185 however.186 187 Paul Noe addressed the Board to second the comments made by Linda Nathansen and potential impacts to area 188 wells.189 190 Randy Marshall asked if there was a precedence to require the developer to pay a bond to be used if there was a 191 negative impact on the wells in order to protect the current residents of the area.192 193 Adam Beeman expressed that if you couldn’t determine exactly which property was the straw that broke the system 194 and if a bond was required it would then become even more difficult to have any kind of development in Orange 195 County than it is now and all development would cease.196 197 Michael Harvey addressed the Board and advised that he could not legally require any type of bond to address 198 potential well impacts and that it wasn’t possible for the Board to require same. He further reminded the Board that 199 the presumption this project would be the genesis of future problems was based on flawed logic. There was no way 200 to determine what could or could not happen. From a liability standpoint it would be difficult to determine this project 201 was the sole cause of contamination.202 203