Orange County NC Website
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: June 23, 2005 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 5-j <br />SUBJECT: OWASA Requested Sewer Easement Across County-Owned property in <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager/Purchasing PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />OWASA Letter with Attachments <br />Aerial Photo/Property Maps <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Pam Jones, ext 2650 <br />Paul Thames, ext. 2300 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider a request from OWASA that the County provide an easement across <br />a tract of County-owned property in Carrboro for the purpose of installing a gravity sewer main. <br />BACKGROUND: Orange County currently owns, by virtue of a 1977 property tax lien, a parcel <br />of land (Pin # 9778975883, TMBL 7.93.F.2, shown on the attached aerial photo-maps) in a <br />residential neighborhood in Carrboro. This parcel, a lot at 106 Hill Street, lies at the southwest <br />corner of the intersection of Broad and Hill Streets. The attached aerial photo/property maps <br />show that there are a number of similarly sized lots (approximately 50' x 150') in the immediate <br />neighborhood that are developable and that do contain dwellings. However, the County-owned <br />lot is encumbered by the 25' setback from the road right-of-way on the east side and by a <br />drainage channel (and a drainage structure on the northeast) with a 30' wide steam/drainage <br />way buffer bisecting the lot on anortheast-southwest axis. Given lot dimensions, setbacks and <br />buffers, the lot could not be considered to be developable without a "Special Exception" from <br />the stream buffer and setback requirements of the Carrboro Land Use Ordinance. Even then, a <br />structure could not exceed 20' in width and the lot would require the use of an approved <br />engineered drainage design strategy to overcome the development limitations imposed by the <br />drainage channel. As of this date, the lot has access to OWASA water lines and service, but <br />does not have access to OWASA sewer lines or service. <br />OWASA is currently in the process of designing modifications to aspects of its sewer collection <br />system in the vicinity of Starlite Drive and Broad and Hill Streets. The modifications involve <br />eliminating two wastewater pumping stations (Lloyd Street and Starlite Drive) with associated <br />force mains and extending gravity sewer lines in the vicinity of the County property. According <br />to OWASA, these modifications will eliminate pump station wastewater spills and overflows <br />associated with power outages and mechanical equipment failures; reduce OWASA's electrica <br />