NC govwatch

← All meetings

Planning Board Meeting

Chatham County · Planning Board
Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 6:30 pm · Old Agriculture Building, 65 E. Chatham Street Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312

Regular meeting Zoning text amendmentAppointments and personnelComprehensive planElections and districtsEthics and transparencyFarmland and open spaceHousing and affordabilityState legislative agendaSubdivision and site plans

Agenda document Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved IVApproval of Minutes - December 3, 2024 Approved 6-0

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Chatham County's Planning Board recommended cutting the first phase of The Conservancy at Jordan Lake from 322 lots to 163 on 7 January 2025, and dropping the per-phase lot counts from the development schedule altogether. The developer's argument was that the total lot count and the ten-year deadline do not change.

The board also planned its year, including updating its code of ethics and implementing the Unified Development Ordinance if that became possible.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

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

The recommendation carried 5-1, with Colbert opposed. Hers was the argument worth reading. The per-phase lot counts are the only accountability the county has as a ten-year project runs, and dropping them leaves nothing to measure against. She pointed to Briar Chapel, approved in 2005 and finished in 2024, nineteen years in which the developer controls the community, and asked that the item be tabled so the applicant could come back with numbers it could actually meet.

Those who voted for it said construction delays happen, that materials and weather are outside anyone's control, that the ten-year deadline is unchanged, and that a project moving slowly is not obviously a problem for the county. The chair asked whether the motion could be amended to keep benchmarks as a range rather than exact numbers; the mover preferred to leave it and let the board table the item if it failed.

The commissioners approved the revision on 25 February.

How the votes went

The development schedule revision was recommended 5-1, Colbert opposed. The agenda and the December minutes were approved 6-0.

From the published minutes.

Speaking at this meeting

Chatham County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (8)

Procedural · 3Discussion item · 2Staff or committee report · 2Minutes approval · 1
  1. III Approval of Agenda
    Procedural
    Approved 6-0
  2. IV Approval of Minutes - December 3, 2024
    Minutes approval
    Approved 6-0
  3. V Public Input Session
    Procedural
  4. VI.1 Development schedule revision: The Conservancy at Jordan Lake Phase 1, 322 lots to 163
    Discussion item Housing and affordabilitySubdivision and site plans
    A request by counsel for The Conservancy Real Estate Group to cut phase one from 322 lots to 163 and remove the per-phase lot counts from the development schedule, off Old US 1.
    Recommended for approval 5-1, Colbert opposed
  5. VIII.1 Update from the Planning Board liaisons
    Staff or committee report Farmland and open spaceZoning text amendment
    The Agriculture Advisory Board's work on the development ordinance, and the Pittsboro downtown advisory council.
  6. VIII.3 Discuss the Planning Board officer election
    Procedural Appointments and personnelElections and districts
  7. VIII.4 Planning for 2025: the ethics code and implementing the development ordinance
    Discussion item Comprehensive planEthics and transparencyZoning text amendment
  8. IX Planning Director's Reports
    Staff or committee report State legislative agendaZoning text amendment
    Implementing the development ordinance under Senate Bill 382.

Other recent meetings of this board