Orange County NC Website
at every meeting. I'm just going to tell you that's honest to God truth. Everybody always thinks that we're going 348 <br />to end up creating more stormwater on them. The truth is there are State regulations regarding that, and we 349 <br />have to meet that, and the County has regulations involved with that and that's one of the reasons why the 350 <br />stormwater control measures are shown on the plan as they are. Again, the County knows me very well. I do a 351 <br />lot of stormwater work in this County, and we try to be very cognizant of what the County actually needs from that 352 <br />standpoint. The other one that came up was traffic, but again, many of the comments regarding traffic, the DOT 353 <br />outright has stated clearly do not apply. We were told that it is far too heavy a traffic out here, that the road has 354 <br />more traffic than it can bear out there, and again, the DOT is saying that we actually have less than 20 percent of 355 <br />the capacity of the roadway up there right now. So, in their mind, there really was no reason to do anything 356 <br />beyond verify the sight distance, and they have asked for some things regarding clearing some of the trees, 357 <br />making it more appropriate to improve the sight distance where the trees were encroaching on that and that has 358 <br />been handled. So, but those were the major questions, or comments, and the other was to ask again for 359 <br />additional open space beyond what we had preferably saving a group of trees that were in the middle of the site, 360 <br />and frankly, we're already providing almost 50 percent open space which is almost 20 percent more than was 361 <br />required to begin with. Now, admittedly, that open space is down by the stream, and that was one of the things. 362 <br />Well, of course, it's down by the stream. You know, you can't use the stream. Well, that's actually how your 363 <br />Ordinance requires us to set aside open space is to use that open space first, and we would have done that 364 <br />anyway because we would prefer to protect the stream, so we attempted to do those things ahead of time in our 365 <br />design work. 366 <br /> 367 <br />Mr. Koch discussed NCDOT limitations on sidewalk provision and the lack of impact the development may have 368 <br />on safety-improving measures for Miller Road. 369 <br /> 370 <br />Beth Bronson: I just have one more question about the lot size, the requirement for septic and well, is that 371 <br />meeting the threshold of 1 acre? 372 <br /> 373 <br />Phil Koch: This exceeds the threshold. We're staying at the 40,000 square foot mark. We could 374 <br />actually have gone down lower on this. 375 <br /> 376 <br />Beth Bronson: And I would assume that it also was in the report, but that all of the percing has been 377 <br />performed so that you could guarantee 18 homes. 378 <br /> 379 <br />Phil Koch: They do a soil study out there. Nobody's going to actually set the entire perc sites and septic 380 <br />sites up until lots have essentially been agreed on, and then Orange County will go out and analyze each one 381 <br />and tell them exactly what they would have to do to move a line if they feel like there's not enough, but that will be 382 <br />evaluated at that time. 383 <br /> 384 <br />Chair Beeman agreed to accept public comment. 385 <br /> 386 <br />Jamie Cox: I appreciate it. Hi I'm Jamie Cox. You'll see my name on there. We lived at the end of 387 <br />Minnick Road, so we're adjacent to this property, participated in the public meeting, and I am a recovering city 388 <br />planner and a land use and zoning lawyer. I did want to take the opportunity, we've asked the question, and I 389 <br />think it's appropriate and within the authority of this Board to ask the question, will 18, and actually it's 19, wells 390 <br />being drilled there have any negative impact on the adjacent property and our water quality or water pressure? If 391 <br />the answer is “I don't know,” can we please find out? And if the answer is “no,” that's awesome. We love that. 392 <br />And if the answer is “yes,” what is our recourse? This seems like the appropriate time for this body to make that 393 <br />determination. It seems like a lot of wells and a lot of septic tanks in an area where there are historically poor 394 <br />soils and a rural transition. Other than that, we're not opposed to development. We're excited about having new 395 <br />neighbors, and we did ask, just for point of clarification, we did ask that the existing trees, which are – I mean, I 396 <br />love the fact that they're staying off of the non-buildable area. That's awesome. There is an area of mature trees 397 <br />15