Where is Chapel Hill in its quest to review the Town’s stormwater ordinances known as the Resource Conservation District? First, here’s a bit of history:
- In 1985, Chapel Hill established the Resource Conservation District (RCD) as an overlay zoning district to put in place special considerations of protecting stream corridors and the prevention of property damage from floods.
- RCD regulations were significantly modified on January 27, 2003, with the adoption of the new Land Use Management Ordinance was adopted and buffers were extended to over 150 feet setbacks. At the time, some lots were grandfathered which has made it al lot more complicated for homeowners and staff.
Why was a public hearing was opened? Last summer the staff proposed changes because:
- The 2011 Code Studio critique and technical report of Chapel Hill’s ordinances advocated a simplification of the town rules, including the Jordan and RCD rules.
- Passage by the Town of the State Jordan Lake rules added another layer of complexity to the administration and implementation of our ordinances.
The Town has held two information sessions so far. In January the Stormwater Advisory Board invited water quality and ecology experts to a round table. You can watch the presentation of three experts here. On March 20 the Stormwater and Sustainability Advisory Boards along with Greenways Commission members and a member of the Planning Board met to discuss the scope of the review.
All board members present wanted to see the RCD rules simplified (some preferred the term more easily implemented) without any loss in environment protection. Everyone agreed that they supported the broad RCD definition described in the Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO), and there was a desire expressed to link steep slopes was suggested to be part of the buffer width equation.
We heard about a stakeholder process used in Charlotte – Mecklenburg to develop a comprehensive watershed ordinance. There was considerable interest in taking a more comprehensive solution than just considering altering stream buffers. More discussion is needed on this point.
Several people expressed an interest in defining the issues in layman terms and there seemed general support for doing that as we move forward.
Town staff members said that since the public hearing had been opened it would need to be “continued” until May but they probably won’t have anything to propose and it could be continued to a later date. There was a lot of discussion about how we might implement the 2020 environmental goals. Engineering Director Jay Gibson put forward the idea the revisions of the land use ordinance provided time and an opportunity to consider RCD revisons.