{"id":7318,"date":"2014-01-01T11:21:37","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2014-01-01T11:29:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:29:30","slug":"nash-county-nc-has-agendas-and-minutes-for-many-local-boards-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/nash-county-nc-has-agendas-and-minutes-for-many-local-boards-online.html","title":{"rendered":"Nash County, NC has agendas and minutes for many local boards online"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nA county\r\n\r\nno bigger<\/a> than Lowndes County has\r\n\r\nagendas and minutes online<\/a> for\r\nits Board of Commissioners, Board of Health, Local Emergency Planning Committee,\r\nBoard of Adjustment,\r\nBoard of Elections,\r\nSocial Services Board,\r\nand yes, its Planning Board.\r\n\r\nWhy can Nash County, NC afford this yet Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter\r\nsays Lowndes County can’t afford to put agendas and minutes online for\r\nthe Greater Lowndes Planning Commission?\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAnd if a county can require a solar farm to follow stormwater management\r\nand numerous other regulations, why can’t a county require a natural\r\ngas pipeline to follow local regulations?\r\n\r\nIt can<\/a>, if its elected officials actually stand up for their citizens.\r\nAnd why can Nash County, quite a bit north of Lowndes County,\r\ninstall solar farm after solar farm while there are none in Lowndes County?\r\n

\r\nThe Nash County online documents also include the details of what the\r\nvarious boards were considering, such as in the\r\n\r\nAgenda and Minutes of the Nash County Planning Board 21 October 2013<\/a>,\r\nwhich include this item:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
    \r\n
  1. \r\n\r\nConditional Use Permit Request CU-130901 (Previously Tabled Item).\r\n<\/strong>\r\n
    \r\nMade by Chris Killenberg With Community Energy Solar on Behalf of Castalia Solar LLC to\r\nDevelop a Solar Farm on an Approximately 22.91 Acre Portion of Two Tracts Located on\r\nthe West Side of N NC Highway 58 and South of NC Highway 56 in the A1 Agricultural\r\nZoning District.\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nAnd not just the agenda item, also\r\n\r\nextended discussion in the meeting<\/a>, including:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMr. Tyson stated that the subject site currently includes an\r\nabandoned residence at 10608 N NC Highway 53 that may need to be\r\ndemolished in order to construct the proposed solar facility. Most\r\nof the land area in the front oi the site is cleared while the rear\r\nportion remains woodland. The subject site is not located in a\r\nregulated floodplain or a protected watershed area, The property does\r\ninclude several streams that would be subject to buffer\r\nrequirements, however, the submitted site plan shows no development\r\nactivity proposed within the required 50 foot wide riparian butter\r\nareas. The site is located in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin so the\r\ndevelopment of the proposed solar farm will be subject to stormwater\r\nmanagement regulations regarding disturbed area and impervious\r\nsurfaces.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\n\r\nAnd the PDF for that meeting includes\r\n\r\nthe board packet item<\/a>, which includes:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe Planning Board voted to table this permit request at its\r\nprevious meeting on September 16, 2013 until the applicant submitted\r\na revised site plan meeting the requirements of Appendix 1 of the\r\nNash County Uni\ufb01ed Development Ordinance. The applicant has\r\nsubmitted a revised site plan prepared by Barrow & Barrow, P.A.\r\nProfessional Land Surveying that is designed to meet the relevant\r\nordinance requirements.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nThat’s right, the Nash County Planning Board made an applicant\r\ngo back and revise its site plan until it met the county’s\r\nUnified Development Ordinance.\r\n

    \r\nWhich includes wetlands protection:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nThe revised site plan defines a 22.91 acre project boundary area\r\nlocated at least 100 feet lrom the nearest adjacent property line\r\nand containing a 13 acre fenced facility including the solar panel\r\narrays and trenslovmer stations. The proposed development is shown\r\noutside the 50 foot wide riparian buffers surrounding the adiacent\r\nstreams and wetland areas.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nDevelopment Standards for Solar Farms:<\/strong>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n<\/a>\r\nUDO Article XI, Section 11-4.72(3) establishes the following required\r\ndevelopment standards for solar farms:\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\n\r\nThese are apparently the standards they adopted\r\n\r\n3 October 2011 before they approved the Sandy Cross Solar Farm<\/a>.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe Nash County board packet also includes\r\n\r\na site plan<\/a>,\r\n\r\na site map<\/a>,\r\n\r\na photograph<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nanother photograph of the site<\/a>,\r\n\r\nfront and side view schematics<\/a>,\r\nand\r\n\r\nand an example photograph of a similar solar installatation<\/a>.\r\nNash County citizens, unlike Lowndes County citizens,\r\ndon’t have to\r\n\r\nfile open records requests just to find a development is in an aquifer\r\nrecharge zone<\/a>.\r\n

    \r\nWhy can Nash County put its agenda packets online and Lowndes County can’t?\r\nWhy can a county make all sorts of requirements for solar farms,\r\nwhich neither use water nor emit pollutants,\r\nand not for a methane pipeline that would dig underneath a river\r\ninto the porous limestone aquifer below?\r\n\r\nIt can<\/a>, if its elected officials actually stand up for their citizens.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

    \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A county no bigger than Lowndes County has agendas and minutes online for its Board of Commissioners, Board of Health, Local Emergency Planning Committee, Board of Adjustment, Board of Elections, Social Services Board, and yes, its Planning Board. Why can Nash County, NC afford this yet Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter says Lowndes County can’t […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,8,2,20,88,6124,6687,21,23,24,3,55],"tags":[258,7365,7364,8704,8701,8699,5799,8702,8710,12,7,8734,7363,562,158,6076,8711,8713,7366,6597,8714,6966,8700,6,8727,932,328],"class_list":["post-7318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia","category-government","category-law","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-natural-gas-2","category-pipeline-2","category-planning","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-transparency","category-water","tag-bill-slaughter","tag-castalia-solar-llc","tag-community-energy-solar","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-impervious-cover","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-nash-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-north-carolina","tag-pipeline","tag-planning","tag-renewable-energy","tag-riparian-buffer","tag-sabal-trail-transmission","tag-solar","tag-spectra-energy","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-watershed","tag-zoning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1U2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7318"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7326,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions\/7326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}