Planning Board Meeting

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The Planning Board put off all three of the night's big land cases until its 6 October meeting. Fearrington Preserve drew the crowd: 26 people spoke at its subdivision hearing. Two spoke in favor and the rest raised objections. Opponents pointed to flooding on Pokeberry Creek and Morris Road, school-zone traffic and a former swine waste lagoon on the affordable housing parcel. They also argued the five separated housing pods do not make a compact community. The applicant's attorney, Nick Robinson, called much of the opposition false and said approval would let a Pokeberry Creek restoration go ahead. A Home Builders Association representative and a Pittsboro resident backing the 72 affordable units were the two in favor. Late in the evening the board voted to postpone both the rezoning and the first plat rather than run past midnight. The chair said there would be no public input in October.

Floresta Springs, 83 lots off Alex Cockman Road, was postponed as well. Four neighbors and member Elaine Chiosso listed errors in the application, including a form that still checked community septic and an environmental assessment from the withdrawn conservation plan. The board recommended the county's 160D text amendments 11-0, after an attorney for Enbridge Natural Gas said the county has no authority to require special use permits for gas pipelines. It recommended Anthemnet's 199-foot tower with a condition for native plantings at the gate. Whitney Schmidt joined the board at this meeting. These minutes are unsigned and may be a draft.

How the votes went

Agenda and the three consent items (design guidelines, 82 Bonlee Bennett Road rezoning, New Hope Overlook plat extension): approved 11-0. August 4 minutes: approved 11-0. Recommendation to approve the 160D zoning text amendments: 11-0; consistency statement for them: 11-0. Recommendation to approve the Anthemnet tower special use permit, with a native-planting condition at the gate: 10-0-1, Whitney Schmidt abstaining. Postponing Floresta Springs to 6 October: 10-0, Eric Andrews recused as the property's former listing broker. Postponing the Fearrington Preserve rezoning to 6 October: 11-0. Postponing the Fearrington Preserve first plat to 6 October: 11-0. No vote had a dissent.

From the published minutes.

Who spoke

34 members of the public spoke.

1. A resident and aquatic biologist asked for a countywide development moratorium until stormwater is managed better, citing a widened, degraded Pokeberry Creek.
2. A resident asked for a sidewalk and crosswalk linking the Savannah Ridge subdivision in Moncure to Moncure School.
3. An attorney for Enbridge Natural Gas opposed the text amendment requiring special use permits for gas transmission lines, saying state law bars the county from regulating them.
4. A resident on the Pokeberry Creek watershed said the creek mitigation bank is uncertain and outside the Fearrington applications, backed the moratorium, and later asked the board to require full 100-foot viewshed buffers.
5. A Hadley Mill Road resident asked the board to deny Floresta Springs, pointing to the application's community-septic box and other errors.
6. A Hadley Mill Road resident called the Floresta Springs environmental assessment deeply flawed and asked for denial and larger lots.
7. A Hadley Mill Road resident said Floresta Springs lacked a current health director review and that staff had relied on an outdated environmental assessment.
8. A resident off Alex Cockman Road said he found errors in 16 of the 24 Floresta Springs documents posted online.
9. A neighbor on Stone Wall Road presented a petition with 1,220 signatures against Fearrington Preserve.
10. A director of the Briar Chapel Community Association said its board voted on 26 August not to support Pokeberry Creek remediation tied to the project, and urged denial.
11. A resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition said the proposal is five disconnected pods and asked for denial of both the rezoning and the plat.
12. A resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition argued the rezoning fails Finding 1 because no error in the current zoning is claimed.
13. A resident near Vickers Village said the county would need about $18 million to build the 72 affordable units and that flood maps are out of date.
14. A Morris Road resident and former Habitat for Humanity coordinator said the affordable housing parcel holds a former swine waste lagoon and asked for an independent environmental audit.
15. A Baldwin Township resident and former Planning Board member said the plan does not meet compact community standards.
16. A resident said the project would convert 96 acres of prime farmland soils and clear more than 100 acres of forest.
17. A resident speaking for the Briar Chapel Community Association said the plan lacks committed amenities and would push recreation demand onto Briar Chapel.
18. A resident asked that two parcels reached only by Parker Herndon and Morris Roads stay R-1, and questioned spray irrigation on clay soils.
19. A retired soil scientist warned that construction compaction could leave the spray irrigation fields unable to absorb wastewater.
20. A Rickers Road resident asked that spray irrigation be moved away from the creek and the houses.
21. A Morris Road resident said the plan ignores documented flooding and asked for lots redrawn on current flood data.
22. A resident described the 2018 flood that destroyed the Morris Road bridge and doubted the developer's flood assurances.
23. A resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition raised traffic and safety on Parker Herndon, Andrews Store and Morris Roads.
24. A resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition objected to delaying a traffic signal review until 300 homes are built.
25. A resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition raised school bus safety.
26. A Briar Chapel resident speaking for the Smart Chatham Coalition opposed the full-movement connection at Hawk Point Road.
27. A Kentview South resident raised contamination findings in documents released after the nondisclosure agreement ended.
28. A Briar Chapel resident said homeowners there inherited the costs of poor planning and urged lessons from it.
29. A Kentview North resident asked for denial of both the rezoning and the plat and asked supporters in the room to stand.
30. A Pittsboro resident supported the project for its 72 affordable units.
31. A resident described school-hour traffic on Andrews Store Road and opposed the project.
32. A representative of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham spoke in favor of the project.
33. A resident opposed the compact community rezoning.
34. An Andrews Store Road resident raised stormwater device standards and sheriff's patrol capacity in compact communities.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.