On Dec. 18, NNP-Briar Chapel LLC’s Final Plat review is set to move forward without a vote from the Chatham County Board of Commissioners.
That’s because after deciding to delay the decision regarding NNP’s request in October, the BOC decided at its regular session Nov. 16 to neither approve nor deny the request — effectively meaning it will be passed by operation of the law on the 60-day mark since the review was submitted.
The Nov. 16 proceeding followed months of troubles for NNP-Briar Chapel, the company which owns Briar Chapel at Newland Communities and has experienced delays on approval of its Final Plats, consisting of Phase 13 Section 3 and Phase 14. The county has approved approximately 75 or more requests from NNP for preliminary or final plats for Briar Chapel, but the approval of its last two single family residential plats has been delayed by a major issue: wastewater and sewage concerns in Briar Chapel.
Residents of the neighborhood have voiced concerns during public comment sessions over the last few months regarding the odor caused by the plant as well as spillages — with 47,000 gallons of raw sewage spilling from Briar Chapel’s sewage lines since 2016, as of August.
“We were expecting a final decision from the (Chatham County) commissioners on Newland’s final two plats,” a Nov. 20 statement on the StopChathamNorth website read. “Instead of voting to approve or deny, the commissioners simply did not vote … In effect, by not voting they simply defaulted to approve at 60 days.”
StopChathamNorth is an unincorporated nonprofit association representing homeowners within Briar Chapel who do not support a regional wastewater treatment plant within the residential community of Briar Chapel. The group declined to comment for this story and instead referred the News + Record to the above statement.
“We are still trying to find a way to work with Chatham County and the commissioners to get these issues resolved,” Liz Rolison of StopChathamNorth said.
The decision made Nov. 16 not to vote either way was suggested as an option by the county’s attorney, Bob Hagemann. He emphasized the importance of not conflating the concerning things they’d heard from residents with the items required by the county in its subdivision ordinance.
“Nothing I’m going to say about the law is in any way intended to minimize or discount the legitimate concerns that have been raised,” Hagemann said at that meeting, going on to explain that state regulations would better address the concerns with wastewater and sewage spills. “But I’m cautioning you to … not bring those (concerns) into the subdivision plat approval unless we can find an ordinance-based reason for doing so.”
Hagemann told the News + Record that county staff determined the final plats complied with all ordinance requirements, outlined in the pre-2008 subdivision ordinance which is applicable to Briar Chapel.
“During the October meeting, I invited anyone who believed that the plats did not comply with the ordinance to submit their reasoning to me,” he said, adding that StopChathamNorth’s attorney then submitted an argument contending that the developer had not complied with the “public filing of wastewater documents” provision found in Section 7.2 of the Compact Communities Ordinance. Though this is not part of the subdivision ordinance, Hagerman said the SCN attorney argued it was incorporated into that ordinance “pursuant to Sec. 9.3 of the subdivision ordinance.”
But “on October 9, the developer submitted materials to Planning that were determined to satisfy this requirement,” he said.
Old North State Water Company in Briar Chapel and Envirolink, the company which manages its operations, have been plagued with problems of sewer spills in the Briar Chapel community in the last few years. Responsibility for sewage spills legally falls on them, though NNP-Briar Chapel has expressed a commitment to finding solutions at prior board meetings. Hagemann said at the November meeting that he believed all the requirements of the ordinance had been met by NNP. He also mentioned that state regulation can act as a safeguard regarding sewage and wastewater concerns, whereas the board might be limited in its approach.
“This is based on a legal doctrine known as preemption,” Hagemann said. “Specifically, if the State provides a ‘complete and integrated regulatory scheme’ that deals with a subject, a local government is preempted (i.e., precluded) from also regulating in that area.”
Since North Carolina statutes and regulations give the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality the responsibility of ensuring that Wastewater Treatment Plants have adequate capacity before approving sewer extensions, as well as the responsibility and authority to bring enforcement actions for operational violations, Hagemann said it was his opinion that the county is preempted from using concerns over capacity or operational issues as a basis for denying a subdivision plat.
“... Not to mention that the subdivision ordinance doesn’t list WWTP capacity/operational concerns as a basis for denial,” he added.
In its Nov. 20 statement, StopChathamNorth urged residents to continue documenting their concerns, stating that they’d received more than 325 resident complaints since February 2020, with some 225 of those involving odor complaints around the wastewater treatment plant.
“While we regret that our residents are experiencing these issues, we believe this documentation will make a difference in showing that Briar Chapel residents have serious concerns that have been underreported,” the statement said.
If you have a complaint, the statement said, you can call Integra Water’s customer service number at (877) 511-291. They encouraged residents to also email concerns to STOPCHATHAMNORTH@gmail.com, stating that complaints will be shared with NCDEQ and Briar Chapel’s HOA.
If no further action is taken by the Board of Commissioners, NNP’s Final Plats will be approved Dec. 18. Regardless, it is clear that action must be taken in some capacity to address the myriad concerns Briar Chapel residents continue to have with the wastewater treatment plant.
At the board’s October meeting, one speaker characterized the NNP-Briar Chapel troubles as a “pervasive quality-of-life issue for so many of us in Briar Chapel.” Several other residents spoke out against the approval of NNP’s final plats at that meeting.
“The past 10 months of my life have been dominated by issues surrounding the Briar Chapel wastewater treatment plant as an inhibitor to my daily life,” Briar Chapel resident Patricia Van Hoy read at the time. “Once the commissioners approve the two plats, Briar Chapel will have no leverage. Please delay Newland plat approvals until Old North State stabilizes the system and implements odor control.”
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.