Zoning process changes jeered

Proposal opposed in Chatham

The crowd was rowdy.

Speakers ignored the county clerk when she told them their time was up. The crowd refused to hold their applause after each speaker. They whooped and hollered for speakers they agreed with and hissed at the one they didn't.

About 150 Chatham County residents filled all 18 rows of seats in the Chatham County Superior Courtroom, and they spilled over into the jury boxes. Most were there to speak out against changing the process developers use to apply for zoning permits. Others were against relaxing watershed rules to allow for more development in Chatham County.

Before the first of two Board of Commissioners' public hearings Monday, County Planning Director Keith Megginson explained that the zoning process proposal mainly would change two aspects of the application process: It would allow board members to speak with developers and citizens outside public meetings, which is currently illegal, and it would stretch the application process from one to two months, giving adjacent property owners more notice of public hearings, and allowing more time at the end of the process for either the developer or citizens to sue if they disagree with the outcome.

Nineteen people spoke on the matter. All were against it. They said they wanted communitywide meetings with developers, not just adjacent landowners.

"Keith did a great job with the pros [of the plan], but he did not tell us the cons," said Mark Barroso, of the citizen group Chatham First. "His plan relies on developers being considerate to neighbors and not lobbying [the board]. I may be cynical, but I think that's naive."

"You know ... that the conditional zoning proposal was brought forward by county planning," said Bill Tessein, "fundamentally to keep citizens out of the mix and to assure all land-use changes and approvals are made under a cloak of invisibility."

Also speaking at the public hearing was Nicolas Robinson, an attorney who represents many developers.

"Some believe the conditional zoning process was a conspiracy by developers to change things to their advantage," Robinson said. "That is certainly not the case with the clients I represent."

Robinson would like to see changes to the zoning process, but not these, he said.

"It does seem overboard to require owner of a one-acre property to spend time and money" meeting with adjacent land owners, he said.

As Robinson took his seat, the crowd hissed.

After the public hearing, the four board members at the meeting -- Carl Outz was not present -- agreed that changes need to be made, but the changes the planning board suggested were not in the best interest of the community.

"I am in agreement with everyone who spoke tonight," board Chairman Bunkey Morgan said. "I like the idea of a community meeting beforehand."

A few hours later, the board heard from about 30 people who spoke on a suggested change to the water ordinance protection act.

The 10/70 provision, as the proposed amendment is known, would allow the county to take as much as 10 percent of land in some watershed areas and fill as much as 70 percent of it with impervious surfaces, such as pavement and roofs.

The discussion lasted past press time, but Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities handed out copies of some citizens' speeches before the meeting.

Judith Ferster of the Orange-Chatham Group of the Sierra Club wrote, "We don't think that this is the right time to invite more pavement and roofing into [the watershed]. It is now clear that Jordan Lake, into which this watershed drains and from which we drink, is impaired."