8_7_24 Planning Board Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Approved 9.4.24 AGENDA ITEM 9: ZONING ATLAS AMENDMENT (OVERLAY DISTRICT) - To review and make a recommendation 349 to the BOCC on a County-initiated zoning atlas amendment to amend the boundary of the 350 Watershed Protection Overlay District on two parcels located east of Dimmocks Mill Road, 351 Hillsborough within the Hillsborough Township (PINs: 9863-09-3922 and 9864-00-2205). 352 This item is scheduled for BOCC public hearing on September 5, 2024. 353 Patrick Mallett: We've got two more cases on the agenda; I'll handle both of those. They're fairly similar. 354 This is different than your average duck that comes before you. I'm going to give you sort 355 of a brief overview before we start. Both of these involve a staff-initiated rezoning. In 356 both cases, what they're seeking to do and we, the staff, are seeking to do is to amend 357 the watershed boundary lines. There is a process, Orange County has an adopted storm 358 water watershed overlay throughout the county. We have the delegated authority from 359 the state and EMC to manage stormwater, erosion control, stream buffers, approve 360 limitations, whether it's impervious limits or density limits based on the watersheds. The 361 watershed boundaries were also subsequently adopted and decided to create overlay 362 districts for the protected and critical portions of the watersheds on that map. The map 363 was derived at a time when mapping was not as accurate as it is today. It needed to 364 make some general assumptions based on water courses. It is by no means perfect and 365 that's recognized by the state, it's recognized by us and several engineers and surveyors. 366 So, in these two cases it was realized by the property owners that the blue line is in one 367 location, ground truth, that line actually defies the laws of physics, the ridge line is not 368 there, it's here, the water course flows this way and that way, and the ridge line defines 369 the watershed boundaries. So that's the general overview of the two cases that I'm going 370 to go through very quickly. The first one is located off Dimmocks Mill Road, you can see 371 the red star there, southwest of Hillsborough. It's in the Upper Eno Critical watershed, the 372 majority of the property. What you see in blue on this map is the mapped watershed 373 boundary line and what you see in pink off to the left is what is certified by a surveyor and 374 an engineer as the true ridge line on that property. And this would hereby amend the 375 zoning overlay, they're not requesting and we're not requesting to change the zoning 376 districts, it would still be rural residential R1, it would just change the boundary and the 377 distinction between what is in the Upper Eno Critical watershed and the Lower Eno. 378 Future land use designation, agricultural residential, rural residential on the 10-year 379 transition. Our request is to modify that boundary to the area in pink. It only applies, you 380 see an odd jog, the reason being is this property owner applied for that boundary 381 amendment and then went through the process with the state and that, prior to getting 382 here, included a petition by the property owner to us with a survey indicating, with a 383 registered surveyor's seal, recorded this is the ridge line I'm certifying that this is the ridge 384 line that's been recorded. We notified the state about that request. We also notified the 385 Board of County Commissioners, they received that request, it was then passed on to the 386 state and then passed on to the EMC. The state has acknowledged that boundary 387 change so as far as the state is concerned, that pink line is the ridge line. We're going 388 through the semantics of quite honestly just amending our overlay district to correspond 389 with that line. 390 Lamar Proctor: I had a quick question. 391 Patrick Mallett: Sure. 392 Lamar Proctor: Why just this property, why not the adjoining parcels and make it correct all the way 393 through? 394