PB Agenda Packet - April 9 2025 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Cedar Ridge High School is located on a +/-69.58-acre property at the intersections of Orange Grove and New Grady Brown School Roads in Orange County, North Carolina. Orange County Schools is applying for a conditional zoning district to immediately allow for a new structure on the property to support an Agricultural Laboratory, and is requesting a condition to allow for further development of the property as a by-right zoning regulation. The school was constructed in 2001 and has a building footprint of approximately 270,022 square feet (6.20 acres), not accounting for the paved parking areas and walking paths. It was constructed prior to the regulation of stormwater runoff or nutrient management was required in this watershed by Orange County, the regulatory authority. Over half of the property is actively used for school purposes and, outside of the buffered areas on its perimeters and perennial streams, is generally managed and maintained as a lawn of fescue or Bermuda grass with ornamental shrubs. The property is located in the Lower Eno River Unprotected watershed, flowing into the Lower Eno River and, eventually, the Eno River and Falls Lake. There are no NC Department of Environmental Quality-identified “impaired” waters on site or downstream of the property. The property has two perennial streams on it: one identified in a 2000 site plan as Sand Branch, which defines the property’s western perimeter; and an unnamed tributary (“UT”) that transects the property east-west and feeds into Sand Branch. The UT was displayed by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as crossing the entire property but a Surface Water Identification conducted by Orange County Erosion Control and Stormwater staff identified an origin point immediately west of the high school’s football stadium. It is possible that the construction of the campus in 2000 impacted the location and flow status of this stream. No wetlands are documented on site. The only possible wetland soils location is a band of Chewacla, a predominantly nonhydric soil, collocated with Sand Branch and its immediate area. No known Natural Heritage Elements or Element Occurrences have been documented on the property by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program (NHP). Sand Branch and its riparian buffer zone are identified in the 2019 Eno-New Hope Wildlife Habitat Connectivity (Triangle Connectivity Collaborative) Network as a “Higher”-ranked habitat patch and corridor (this is the second-highest classification). The stream and its buffer are protected by Orange County Schools by restricting access with an eight-foot chain-link fence. A site visit identified numerous exotic invasive species within the buffer but the canopy and undergrowth could largely be characterized as mature secondary successional growth. Orange County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan identifies “Resource Protection Areas” (RPAs) as “[l]and designated as Primary Conservation Area which contains sensitive environmental resources, historically significant sites, and features considered unbuildable because of their limitations or unsuitability for development ”. Two RPAs are identified on the Cedar Ridge High School property: one that is the same Sand Branch corridor that is identified by NHP; and another patch on the southeastern corner of the property that appears to be a legacy mixed hardwood tree stand that subsequently was cleared and is being reestablished (Image 1). This is 37