AGENDA #4c
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: OWASA Policy Regarding Utility Extensions Outside the Urban Services Area
DATE: March 5, 2001
The attached materials describe OWASA’s proposed approach to requests for utility extensions and hook-ups outside of Chapel Hill’s Urban Services Area. We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution concurring with this policy.
On May 8, 2000, the Council adopted a new Land Use Plan. One of the changes in the new plan was a contraction of the Chapel Hill Urban Services Area south of Town.
This action resulted in a removal of land from the Urban Services Area that had previously been within that area. OWASA has had a policy of not extending utility lines outside of the Urban Services Area. An issue has arisen: What should be the policy for hook-up to existing lines that are currently in the ground in this area?
We have received correspondence from OWASA proposing how the Authority would respond to requests for hook-ups in this area. The correspondence is attached.
The proposed policy re-affirms the prohibition against extending new lines outside of the Urban Services Area. For lines that exist, the policy suggests that parcels that abut such lines can hook onto the lines with private laterals, but only to serve structures that existed on or before May 8, 2000, when the boundary was changed.
The policy that OWASA has proposed here is similar to the one OWASA put in place in 1987 when local plans began prohibiting further water and sewer service in the University Lake Watershed, an area where some limited services had already existed. This proposed OWASA policy, as is the case with all utility policies, is subject to applicable utility law.
We believe that this policy is appropriate and consistent with Chapel Hill’s Comprehensive Plan and related policy decisions. We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution, concurring with this policy.
WHEREAS the Chapel Hill Town Council has established an Urban Services Area, intended to include all areas that will ultimately become part of the Town of Chapel Hill; and
WHEREAS it is the Town Council’s intent that urban services should ultimately be made available to properties within this Urban Services Area; and
WHEREAS it is the Town Council’s intent that urban services (including public water and sewer service) should not be extended outside of this Urban Services Area; and
WHEREAS the Town Council, on May 8, 2000, adopted a new Comprehensive Plan that contracted the Urban Services Boundary south of Town; and
WHEREAS the Orange Water and Sewer Authority has proposed a policy for guiding extensions and connections in this area that is now, as of May 8 2000, outside of Chapel Hill’s Urban Services Area, such policy presented in a letter from OWASA Director Ed Kerwin dated September 14, 2000;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Council finds that the approach to utility extensions and connections, as proposed in a September 14, 2000 letter from OWASA Executive Director Ed Kerwin, is consistent with the Town Council’s intent in establishing and adjusting the boundary for Chapel Hill’s Urban Services Area.
This the 5th day of March, 2001.