PITTSBORO — The town’s board of commissioners dedicated most of its meeting time last Monday to discussions of town development plus an update on Pittsboro’s sewage capacity and general announcements regarding holiday activity and water treatment.
The town will forgo its annual Christmas parade this year, Town Manager Chris Kennedy announced to the board, in light of the coronavirus pandemic’s worsening trajectory and increasing limitations from the state on public gatherings.
“Unfortunately, the odds were just stacking against us,” Kennedy said. “It didn’t make very good sense to try to do something. We looked at a number of alternatives … but it was just becoming too cumbersome trying to figure out a good safe way to have it, so unfortunately we had to cancel that for this year.”
Kennedy acknowledged and lamented the fact that many small businesses count on the parade for exposure during the holiday season. But, he emphasized again, the risk outweighed the potential benefits. He beseeched the public to understand.
“But we’re getting excited for next year’s,” Kennedy said. “Hopefully, it’ll be normal and it’ll be even better.”
In the board’s previous meeting on Nov. 9, the commissioners discussed in a public hearing an engineering report and environmental information document with suggestions for the town’s wastewater treatment system improvement. A follow-up period for town residents to express their opinions on the matter should have ended by last Monday. Instead, Kennedy requested approval to set a new hearing date.
“You may ask why we’re doing this again,” Kennedy said, “setting a public hearing to talk about the same thing again. It turns out it was improperly noticed. I don’t think it was any fault of the town’s, but, nonetheless, we don’t feel like we had the proper two weeks’ notice.”
Out of “an abundance of caution,” then, a new public meeting to discuss the ER/EID was scheduled for Dec. 14. Town residents interested in participating may attend via the Zoom link posted on the town’s website.
The commissioners discussed three development projects last Monday, approving two and tabling one for future review.
• Subdivision south of the N.C. 87 bypass and Burnice Place.
Griffin Farms Townhomes petitioned the board of commissioners to approve a special use permit and a subdivision preliminary plat for a 99-lot townhome subdivision southwest of downtown Pittsboro. It was the third time the commissioners reviewed the developer’s plans since early August. Twice the matter has been deferred without taking action, a pattern the board upheld again last week after expressing substantial displeasure with the proposal.
“I am very disappointed,” Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Baldwin said.
She took greatest issue with subdivision’s lack of a second accessway, an oversight she said would compromise resident safety in cases of emergency.
“I really don’t agree to that particular situation,” she said, “… I know it’s not in the ordinances. But with a development this large, I really think it needs another access.”
Other commissioners seconded Baldwin’s apprehension and supported her calls for amendment. Representatives from the developer, however, expressed frustration with what they interpreted as board indolence.
“Honestly, it’s a little bit disappointing that it’s being tabled,” one representative said. “… This has dragged out a long time…”
• Rezoning 2539 U.S. 64 Business West
In several of its recent meetings, the board of commissioners considered a request to rezone a 3.75-acre parcel due west of downtown Pittsboro. The change would permit the land owners, John and Denise Mitarotondo, to proceed with a rural development project. A much larger plot of land surrounding the parcel in question was already rezoned a year ago, but the 3.75 acres were accidentally omitted from that proposal.
On Nov. 2, the town’s planning board reviewed the request for rezoning and voted 5-1 in favor of approval. The board of commissioners followed suit last Monday, voting unanimously to approve a motion to rezone the land.
• Site plan review, Mosaic Cruizers
Holmes Oil Company of Chapel Hill requested the board approve its site plan to construct a 5,000 square-feet convenience store with five gas station islands in the Mosaic development at Chatham Park off of U..S 15-501, northeast of downtown. The site would also include 32 parking spaces, exceeding the town’s requirement of 25.
In its Nov. 2 meeting, the town planning board unanimously recommended approval of the proposal. The commissioners upheld the recommendation, also voting unanimously to approve with several board-members applauding the site plan.
Commissioner John Bonitz, a clean energy expert, was especially pleased to see electric vehicle charging sites in close proximity to the future Cruizers.
“That’s good easy walking distance to your convenience store,” he said to Edward Holmes, the company’s founder, who attended the meeting, “thank you.”
Pittsboro’s sewer capacity has long been a weak point in the town’s ambitious development plans. For ongoing construction to proceed smoothly, sewage allotment must expand, Kennedy told the board.
“I hope to be in Pittsboro for a long time,” he said, “… but I want all my successors for quite a number of generations not to have to worry about this.”
The town is aggressively pursuing other construction initiatives in its effort to increase Pittsboro’s population more than 10-fold in the next few decades, but Kennedy warned that it must take sewage capacity expansion more seriously in the imminent future.
“We need to consider other types of projects to increase our capacity,” Kennedy said.
The quickest solution would be to purchase extra capacity from nearby Sanford which is in the process of expanding its treatment plant. For a relatively inexpensive sum, Kennedy said, Pittsboro could send an extra million gallons worth of flow to Sanford, a short-term fix that would address the town’s capacity issues over the next four years. After that, more substantial and permanent fixes would need to be made.
“My job as staff is to provide you that silver platter that says, ‘Board, would you like to develop? If you’d like to, you have sewage capacity,” Kennedy said. “I don’t like to come to the board and say, ‘Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to provide a bunch of caveats and conditions on this, so you can’t develop.’”
As things stand now, though, the town is trending toward the latter scenario in which development goals will be stifled by insufficient sewage capacity.
Kennedy’s presentation to the board followed months of investigation into the town’s sewage needs and shortcomings, but did not include specific recommendations for approval. In coming weeks and months, Kennedy hopes to compile more concrete suggestions for the commissioners’ consideration.
“I will get something to you all,” he said, “so that hopefully the board and the public at large can better understand where we stand with this.”
Reporter D. Lars Dolder can be reached at dldolder@chathamnr.com and on Twitter @dldolder.