Buffer Zones Breed Controversy

The third draft of the ordinance extends the RCD to 150 feet away from streams, creating a buffer zone that allows no development within that distance from a stream.

Town residents are divided into two opposing extremes on this issue.

The first speaker of the evening, 74-year-old lifelong resident of Orange County Jewel Blackwood, said, "You are taking two to three acres of my heritage."

The ordinance would make a large portion of a plot of land left to her by her father undevelopable despite the fact that Blackwood does not actually live in Chapel Hill's town limits.

But resident Johnny Randall said that 150 feet is not that great of an increase from the existing 100-foot RCD and that the benefits reaped from such a change would contribute to the environment's health.

"I can nearly throw a rock that distance," he said.

"There was a natural heritage here long before (Blackwood's) family was there."

Many conservationist groups sent speakers to the meeting to emphasize the importance of buffer zones and to encourage the council to adapt more stringent limitations.

Karen Morse, conservation chairwoman of the New Hope Audubon Society, supported the change to 150 feet.

"We do not consider these buffer zones to be wide areas of unusable land," Morse said.

She said buffer zones serve as filtration areas and greenways for animal species.

Dave Cook, a spokesman for the Friends of Bolin Creek, said he also supports a 150-foot buffer.

He said, "(The Friends of Bolin Creek's) vision really isn't about an immediate use of a property. ... We're really talking about the children and how things are going to be in 60 or 70 years."

But those with economic interests in land affected by the ordinance did not support the suggested changes.

Town resident Eunice Brock said that the RCD section of the ordinance would affect more than 30 percent of in-town properties and that a buffer zone as small as 50 feet already filters out 90 percent of pollutants in runoff water.

"How much are we going to pay for the remaining 10 percent?" she said.

Town resident P.H. Craig was against the increased buffer, as well as a steep slopes portion of the ordinance because they would have "severe consequences on the tax base. This money is going to have to be made up somewhere else."

Many of the town residents whose land would be affected by stricter RCD boundaries encouraged the town to implement a grandfather clause that would allow homeowners and landowners to have to comply with only the ordinances that were in place when they purchased the property.

James Barrett, a Chapel Hill resident who spent $90,000 purchasing a lot in Morgan Creek with the intent of building himself and his family a home in the future, said he would be unable to build on his lot under the proposed ordinance.

He said Chapel Hill is 90 percent developed and asked, "What is the added benefit of making my lot unbuildable?"

The council and mayor will reconvene next week to discuss issues brought up in Monday's meeting.

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.