[Durham INC] Fw: heraldsun.com article

Thu Aug 13 21:00:18 EDT 2009

See today's HS article at the botton of this email, particularly the excerpts immediately below. Given what we're up against wrt Joe Bowser and Michael Page, and their seeming influence on Brenda Howerton, it is imperative that as many citizens as possible attend the Board of County Commissioners' public hearing on the Jordan Lake Boundary Changes on September 14 (Monday, County Admin Bldg, 7 PM)

1) "The rezoning the county is considering would allow the would-be developer of the N.C. 751 site, Southern Durham Development Inc., to cover almost 116 acres of the 165-acre project site, provided it installs catch basins and other runoff-prevention measures. 

Without it, the present buffers would allow hard surfaces on only about 15 acres of the site."

and

2) "Earlier in the week, County Commissioner Joe Bowser said Durham loses out on jobs and tax revenue when it sets watershed rules that are stricter than those of neighboring counties. 

"A lot of people don't understand how much of our land is just laying there," he said. "Really there's not a lot of usage because of these big watershed areas. Other communities are pushing closer and closer and are reaping the economic benefit we're not getting." "

* Commissioner Bowser has argued that the state of NC only requires half mile critical buffers. With the state of Jordan and Falls lakes, and Durham's EXTENSIVE bill to clean up its tributaries (which are the most polluted), how in the world could a Durham County Commissioner even entertain the thought of reducing protection for these watersheds?

And what neighboring areas is he talking about? Chapel Hill and Chatham County have far more protection than Durham does -- either through buffers (including intermittent streams) or through impervious surface requirements, take your pick.

Thanks for marking September 14 in your daily planners, and for making every effort to be at that BOCC meeting.

Sincerely,
Melissa (Rooney)

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1191460.cfm 

Activist has own ideas on buffers

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun 
gronberg at heraldsun.com 
Aug 13, 2009 

DURHAM -- A local attorney and political activist wants officials to change how they establish protective buffers around regional reservoirs like Jordan Lake, by getting away from the idea of measuring them by a fixed radius from the water's edge. 

Instead, the city and county should tie the buffers to readily identifiable and hard-to-dispute landmarks like property lines, ridgelines and roads, Tom Miller told the Durham Planning Commission this week. 

State law gives officials the flexibility to do that, so long as they make sure that any buffers are at least half a mile from a lake's edge, said Miller, who's one of the most vocal members of the People's Alliance and a couple different neighborhood groups. 

As the current controversy over Jordan Lake's boundary shows, setting buffers relative to lake borders that themselves can change invites repeated squabbles, he said. 

Unless the City Council and County Commissioners amend Durham's watershed protection law to put the buffers on firmer footing, "we're going to be changing these lines over and over again," Miller said. 

Planning Commission members -- who unanimously urged elected officials to settle the present controversy over a proposed development along N.C. 751 by paying for an independent survey of the lake's boundary -- indicated that they like Miller's idea. 

They also said the City Council members and county commissioners who sit on the panel that has oversight authority over amendments to Durham's land-use laws, the Joint City/County Planning Committee, should consider it. 

Miller's comments to the Planning Commission came as the advisory board weighed the county's potential move to change lake buffers in a way that would favor the N.C. 751 development. 

The yearlong controversy over the project turns on a privately commissioned survey that placed the lake's border farther to the west than officials thought when they set the buffers. 

Environmentalists have produced their own survey that would justify placing the buffers farther east, so far east in fact that they'd cover some existing neighborhoods. 

The buffers determine how much paving and hard-surface construction developers can place on a property. 

The rezoning the county is considering would allow the would-be developer of the N.C. 751 site, Southern Durham Development Inc., to cover almost 116 acres of the 165-acre project site, provided it installs catch basins and other runoff-prevention measures. 

Without it, the present buffers would allow hard surfaces on only about 15 acres of the site. 

The company's lawyers have sued to overturn that limit, arguing that a 2006 ruling from former City/County Planning Director Frank Duke was all their clients needed to get out from under it. 

Miller said the company is barking up the wrong tree on the legal front, as it's relying on an expansive definition of property rights. 

"No one has a right to the zoning on their property," he said during Tuesday's Planning Commission hearing. "You own your car; you do not own the speed limit." 

It's not clear whether elected officials would go along with Miller's ideas on how to set buffers. 

Earlier in the week, County Commissioner Joe Bowser said Durham loses out on jobs and tax revenue when it sets watershed rules that are stricter than those of neighboring counties. 

"A lot of people don't understand how much of our land is just laying there," he said. "Really there's not a lot of usage because of these big watershed areas. Other communities are pushing closer and closer and are reaping the economic benefit we're not getting." 

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