Agenda - 08-20-2002 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

3b orange County Board of Commissioners Page 4 August i5, 2002 Rural Buffer. This can be done without a Joint Planning public hearing and without approval by either the Town of Chapel Hill or Carrboro. Although Chapel Hill and Carrboro do not have a "vote" on this procedural change, both Chapel Hill and Carrboro should be provided copies of the proposed community meeting and notice requirements for their recommendations. 4 . In the interim, Orange County can provide notification of proposed developments in the Rural Buffer and, on a voluntary basis, conduct community meetings concerning the proposals. That is, if the County Commissioners (1) want there to be community information meetings for developments in the Rural Buffer, prior to or as part of a formal application process and (2) want notice to residents in the area of proposed developments, they can administratively direct the establishment of a procedure to do that . Notifying residents in the area of a development can be done by Orange County without ordinance authorization provided there are funds to do so. However, in the absence of an ordinance requirement for participation of the developer in a community meeting, the developer' s participation would be voluntary until it is an ordinance requirement. It is my opinion that most if not all developers will participate in such noticed community meetings, whether required by ordinance or not. 5 . A number of the persons speaking at the July 10, 2002 Planning Board meeting expressed concerns about the availability of groundwater. The groundwater reports and data available to the County may, with further technical and other work, become a basis for requiring site specific groundwater analyses for future developments, particularly in areas where scientific data indicates that there is a paucity of groundwater. However, until the analysis on this point is taken to another level, I do not see a rational basis, a health, safety and welfare basis, for the County refusing to allow subdivisions in areas of the County with lesser amounts of groundwater. For the most part the groundwater concerns are that you have to go deeper to get to the groundwater and you don't get as much. Even where this is true, 125 feet deep wells can be very productive within sight of 500 feet deep wells that are marginally productive. However, I see nothing in the data to indicate that there are places in Orange County where there is no potable groundwater. Because of the fragmented rock groundwater system prevalent in Orange , County, the well issue is one of where, how deep and how much. Therefore, an appropriate health, safety and welfare response is