HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93008_0882decision to zone the property for a PRD or not. Once thet decisi-n was made the politics
supposedly ended. From that point forward, the decision is to be made on facts. You are
sitting tonight as judges and a jury. You h,.ve to hear the facts; y^u have to listen to
the facts. And I hope that there's no one sitting on this council that is not willing to
listen to those facts. Because if you're not, then I think Mr. Davenport should instruct
you that if you're not going to listen tc facts and make your decision based ^n the facts
you hear tonight, you should excuse yourself.
With that, I ask that you please keep an open mind and listen to the facts before
you, and the facts is what we're talking about. I'd like to now turn it over to Mr. Bill
Hollan.
HOLLAN: I'm Bill Hollan. I've the vice president of RDC, Inc., which is based in
Winston-Salem, NC. We are developers. I've been here before this board on several prior
occasions to discuss this property and proposed development. Our case, as Mr. Walser told
you, is similar to the one that we've just heard, the public hearing on Mallard Head, in
that we believe that the use of a sewage treatment pla�t to serve our property would be
better capable of creating an environment of sustained desirability and stability, as
required under the ordinance. And therefore we come to you again, as Mr. Walser said, not
believe that given the history of the, given this ordinance and the history of our prior
special use permit, we do not have to come to you, but we didn't ;rant anyone to think we
are doing anything underhanded, so we are coming to you to inform you of the decision to
which we have come, or the conclusion to which we have come, as to the most desirable
means of serving this property for sewage treatment.
Like Mallard Head, our proposal would include domestic sewage only, nothing else, no
chemicals, no heavy metals, no dangerous kinds of sewage other than domestic sewage.
Domest+:c sewage most easily treated, the most effectively treated in a treatment plant.
The proposed waste treatment site will not interfere with the proposed well sites or wafer
supply on our property.
We, too, propose to, have contracted with qualified operators, qualified utility, in
the same manner as Mallard Head, to insure that the utility would be properly operated.
We have come to the conclusion that sewage treatment is a better means for providing
for disposing of sanitary sewage than septic tanks after some considerable study and for
the followine reasons.
Sewage treatment plants represent a long term solution to the sewage problem. The
leeching capacity of the soil in septic tanks is gradually used up and the designers cf
the septic tanks say that a septic tank is designed to fail eventually. The state regula-
tians and the county regulations require, for that reason, require that repair areas he
set aside in an amount of land equal to the amount required for the original drain field,
because of this certain situation that the leeching capacity will over time be used up.
This is not the case with sewage treatment plant. The advantages of a septic tank system
from our point of view were that septic tanks were generally uncomplicated. They work
well in situations where they have single houses or a small number of houses connected to
septic tanks not requiring a great deal of attention. But the fact of the mater is that
the sepitc system as proposed for our property with pumps, lift stations, etc., has become
as complicated as a treatment facility, and given these complications and the fact that
the sepitc systems are not subject to the kind of state regulations, federal regulations,
which would be required for the daily attention and surveillant^. !which are required for
treatment facilities, these complications offset any advantages that might be gained
originally from the simplicity of the system.
So with the treatment plant you do have professional management on a daily basis, a
daily monitoring, you have long term records, record keeping, and you are treating the
waste. You are certain that you are treating it. There is no uncertainty as to whether
it is being treated before it goes into the leeching fields and runs out. You knew it's
being treated because it's being tested on a regular basis.
Another problem from the point of desirability and stability of the project in the
community with septic tanks is that the preparation of the drain fields requires massive
clearing of existing vegetation. From an esthetic point of view I think everyone would
agree that the preservation of specimen trees, of vegetation in areas where it can be
preserved is highly desirable. We Would estimate that dozens of acres of our property
would need to be cleared, stripped of all vegetation, in order to provide the drein fields
and the required set-aside repair areas for septic tank drain fields.
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