Developer seeks to loosen rules on county watersheds

By Randall Rigsbee

What attorney Nick Robinson, representing a Raleigh developer proposing a 185-home subdivision called Williams Pond along the Haw River in Bynum, called a “modest amendment to Chatham County’s watershed regulations” would, according to numerous speakers at a public hearing Monday night, open up all the county’s river corridors.

Robinson is representing Bynum Ridge LLC and its plans to build Williams Pond, a gated, 185-home development on 650 acres near Bynum off Bynum Ridge Road.

Part of the development, which would be split by Pokeberry Creek, would abut the Haw River and the developer seeks to build 59 homes in the watershed area, though currently 48 are permitted.

The development would be built in two different watershed areas, one with zoning that allows five-acre average lot sizes, the other allowing one-acre minimum lot sizes.

The developer is seeking a change in the county’s watershed protection ordinance, which is more stringent than state guidelines, to combine both zoning districts so the overall density of the development remains the same but allows more houses to be built closer to the river.

Robinson said the proposal is “sensible, measured, reasonable and consistent with the intent to protect the watershed.”

And even if the county approves the change in the watershed protection rules, Robinson said, developers would still require a conditional use permit for developments along river corridors.

Robinson further noted that Chatham County’s rules are already more stringent than those the state allows, comparing the watershed protection ordinance to speed limits.

more- See Thursday, November 18 paper: Vol 84, No.51

Landowner wants graves relocated

By Randall Rigsbee

More than 100 years ago, Chatham County operated a home for indigent residents and the site near Pittsboro included a pauper’s gravesite where approximately 250 residents were buried.

In the early part of the 20^th century, the county discontinued the home and later sold the property near NC 902 to a private landowner.

The graves were, apparently, forgotten and today the four-acre gravesite is heavily wooded with few obvious signs the property was ever used as a cemetery.

Now, Paul James Wolf, who has owned the property at 163 Falcons Way near Pittsboro for about 10 years, wants to move the graves, which he discovered about two years ago, to another piece of property about a half mile away.

Moving the graves requires the permission of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners and on Monday, an attorney representing Wolf asked commissioners to grant the request.

At first, according to attorney Sean Carton, Wolf and his wife thought the graves were tire ruts.

“It’s in very thick woods, a lot of underbrush,” Carton said. “There are no tombstones to indicate who these people were, unfortunately.”

more- See Thursday, November 18 paper: Vol 84, No.51

By Randall Rigsbee

In late summer, Chatham County commissioners decided to seek proposals from private companies for waste disposal options for the county and soon a committee will begin reviewing the half-dozen proposals the county has received.

When commissioners proposed taking proposals from solid waste disposal companies in June, chairman Tommy Emerson emphasized the county is “not committing to anything. We’re just trying to flesh out the possibilities.”

Commissioners have had an ongoing discussion in recent years about future solid waste options for the county and the proposals authorized by the board last summer are a means of gathering more data.

The proposals will allow the county to study the cost of privatizing the county’s waste management division and waste disposal options.

Commissioners have said their goal is to gather data from various private solid waste companies for an “apples-to-apples” comparison between what those companies can offer compared to the county-operated program.

more- See Thursday, November 18 paper: Vol 84, No.51