Minutes 03-07-2024 - Business Meeting

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4. Proclamations/ Resolutions/Special Presentations None. 5. Public Hearings None. 6. Regular Agenda a. Amendments to the Water and Sewer Management, Planning, and Boundary Agreement The Board considered a resolution approving amendments proposed by the Town of Chapel Hill to the Water and Sewer Management, Planning, and Boundary Agreement. BACKGROUND: The Water and Sewer Management, Planning, and Boundary Agreement (WASMPBA) is an agreement signed in 2001 between Orange County, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA), and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough. It was last amended in November 2020. The agreement provides a comprehensive county-wide system of utility service areas upon which signatory entities could rely when making decisions related to issues such as planning, land use, annexation, zoning, and growth management. The Town of Chapel Hill received a request from the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro to modify the boundaries of OWASA's Primary Service Area within the Town's planning jurisdiction at the June 14, 2023 Council meeting (Attachment 4). At its November 15, 2023 Council meeting, the Town adopted a Resolution to amend the WASMPBA (Attachment 2). All five signatories to the Agreement must adopt resolutions amending the Agreement before any proposed amendment is incorporated into the Agreement. Materials for the November 15, 2023 Town Council meeting, including a staff report, are available for viewing at: https:HchapelhiI1.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6414722&GUID=5B798FC2-BED6- 47A5-BB9F-24D77186A447 The staff report prepared by Town staff includes links to additional materials. As is shown on the map attached to the Resolution in Attachment 1, the area proposed to be designated OWASA Primary Service Area contains 139 parcels totaling approximately 360.23 acres. The area has been reviewed by OWASA staff and is technically feasible for provision of both water and sewer service (Attachment 4). The map in Attachment 3 depicts the southeast portion of the WASMPBA Appendix A map and shows the extent of the proposed additional OWASA Primary Service Area. The area proposed for amendment is entirely within the Town of Chapel Hill's planning jurisdiction. The majority of the area (approximately 239 acres) is within the Town's Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ)while approximately 121 acres to the southeast of Highway 15-501 is designated "Transition Area" in the Joint Planning Land Use Plan (plan and maps available here). Both ETJ areas and Transition Areas are lands expected to be served by urban services, such as public water and sewer systems, and are zoned and otherwise regulated for land use by the Town of Chapel Hill. Nearly all of the properties within the area of consideration are currently zoned "Residential Low Density, 1 unit/acre". Rezoning of a property within a Transition Area requires a joint public hearing of the Town and Orange County, unless a property is voluntarily annexed into the Town of Chapel Hill, in which case a land use change such as rezoning will be solely within the Town's jurisdiction. As is explained in the Town staff's report (within the link to the Town Council meeting materials), some properties in the area under consideration are already served by public water and/or sewer as they were connected prior to 2000, when the Town's land use plan contracted the urban services area in this general area of the Town's planning jurisdiction.