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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20081118 - Transfer Station APPROVED 12/1/2008 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TRANSFER STATION SITING WORK SESSION MEETING November 18, 2008 5:30pm The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Transfer Station Siting Work Session on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, and Mike Nelson COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geof Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Laura Blackmon, Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey and Willie Best, and Clerk to the Board Donna Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. 1. Call to Order/Introductions/Opening Remarks Chair Jacobs said that the County Commissioners have been having these Transfer Station Siting meetings before regularly scheduled meetings since early 2008. There was a timeframe that the Board was trying to work within, but it has fallen behind somewhat. He said that the County Commissioners would try and adhere to the agenda tonight. 2. De-Brief and Discussion of Public Comment Meeting Held November 17 Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey provided a brief overview of last night's public comment meeting about siting the transfer station and the three proposed sites. Olver, Inc. provided summary remarks from last night's meeting. There were a number of comments about a waste to energy facility and the option of zero waste. Many speakers indicated that the transfer station should be located in an industrial zone. There was also a concern about the exclusion of smaller-sized sites. Some speakers also thought that the site should be located closer to the interstate or rail. Environmental issues related to sludge were also brought up. Bob Sallach said that there was a sentiment that a transfer station was not a long- term sustainable component of an integrated solid waste management plan. Some of the speakers recommended that the process be delayed to allow the Board of County Commissioners to look at other options, which may include a waste to energy facility. There would have to be a short-term plan to bridge to the long-term waste to energy facility. Commissioner Foushee would like to discuss site size and the proximity to the interstates. Bob Sallach said that one of the key criteria was the ability to screen the site visually and for noise, so buffering was a key point. He said that the buffering was driving the size of the site. Commissioner Foushee asked if the need for buffering would change if the site was in an industrial zone and Bob Sallach confirmed this. Commissioner Gordon arrived at 5:50 pm. Commissioner Nelson asked about how a 90-day delay would affect the timeline. The landfill will run out of space in two years. He said that there is a crisis with what to do with waste. Bob Sallach said that if a decision were made on the site on December 111h, the project could be implemented by May 2011. There would need to be some preliminary site planning in conjunction with the site acquisition and permitting. The process would have to be accelerated. A 90-day delay would prohibit the construction of the facility before May 2011. Commissioner Nelson asked about the possibility of shipping waste to Durham in the short-term, as was suggested by some citizens. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said that he and the Manager met with Durham officials and Durham was willing to receive waste from Orange County, but the excess capacity was about a third of Orange County's waste volume, so it would not be able to take all of Orange County's waste. Another issue is that the transfer station in Durham had some issues when it was developed and it is not efficiently receiving processed waste. There are frequently long lines. The economic analysis of hauling waste to Durham indicates that it would significantly impact the collection services for Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Commissioner Nelson asked about the pros and cons of waste to energy. Bob Sallach said that he was not going to comment on the technology, but there have been no new work to energy facilities developed in the United States in the last ten years. It would be very expensive compared to a waste transfer station. Chair Jacobs asked Planning Director Craig Benedict to talk about the limits of the County Commissioners'jurisdiction in relation to areas in towns that may be industrial or prime prospects for redevelopment. Craig Benedict said that this transfer station is a government facility, so Orange County has a lot of flexibility in locating a transfer station. In the industrial and commercial nodes, those are land use designations, and those are located next to interstates. The present zoning of those areas are left as residential until someone comes in and rezones them to an industrial or commercial category. Orange County does not have jurisdiction of non-residential uses within Carrboro and Chapel Hill planning areas, but there are transition areas. Orange County would have to be an applicant going through the process if it considered a site within the town jurisdictions. Discussion ensued about the economics of transferring waste outside the County. Chair Jacobs asked how long it would take to execute the possibility of looking at 10+-acre sites. Bob Sallach said that 30 days should be sufficient for its GIS study. Chair Jacobs pointed out that if there were a smaller site in Orange County's jurisdiction, it would probably be an undeveloped area and would need a buffer, and Hillsborough has said that it would annex the property to prevent it from being developed. 3. Review Proposed Timeline for Making Site Selection Decision Bob Sallach reviewed the timetable as proposed, which is shown below: ORANGE COUNTY TRANSFER STATION TENTATIVE IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE COMPLETION ACTIVITY DURATION START DATE DATE BOCC Site Selection 12/11/08 Property Acquisition 2 Months 12/11/2008 2/9/2009 Concept Design 2 Months 12/11/2008 2/9/2009 Site Plan Design 2 Months 2/9/2009 4/10/2009 OC Site Plan Review & Approval 3 Months 4/10/2009 7/9/2009 Permitting 5 Months 2/9/2009 7/9/2009 Facility Design 7 Months 2/9/2009 9/7/2009 Development of Final Construction Documents • Site Preparation Package 1-1/2 Months 7/9/2009 8/24/2009 • General Building Contract 3 Months 9/7/2009 12/10/2009 Advertisement, Bidding & Contract Award • Site Preparation Package 2-1/2 Months 8/24/2009 11/6/2009 • General Building Contract 3 Months 12/10/2009 3/8/2010 Project Construction • Site Preparation Package 4 Months 11/6/2009 3/8/2010 • General Building Contract 14-1/2 Months 3/8/2010 5/20/2011 Gwen Harvey clarified that this timeline is correct only if everything goes well. Chair Jacobs said that there should be some remaining landfill capacity at the time of opening a transfer station. Gayle Wilson concurred with this. Commissioner Carey said that this project is supposed to be financed through the landfill fund, but there is no mention of it in the timeline. Gwen Harvey said that this was part of the capital investment program for the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund. 4. Summary Presentation on Action Items that Follow a Final Site Selection Bob Sallach said that as a consultant, Olver, Inc. needs the Board's direction on how to proceed with the site selection. There is some additional due diligence regarding engineering. Chair Jacobs asked Craig Benedict to outline the process for acquiring a site within one of the municipalities. Craig Benedict said that this would follow a site plan process of Article 14 of the Zoning Ordinance. There are application criteria in there. There is not a public hearing process in the typical site plan process. There would probably have to be environmental or traffic impact statements. Gwen Harvey said that there are provisions that relate only to a transfer station that are rigorous and may mimic what the County would normally do for a site plan review. Bob Sallach said that it would need to go through the State. Commissioner Gordon asked what routes the large trucks would be taking to transfer the waste out of the County. Gayle Wilson said that the Board of County Commissioners would be in a position to dictate the route the trucks would follow, in the contract with the hauler. 5. Public Comment Period Gayanne Chambless said that the site selection has brought communities together and the citizens have learned much. There is agreement that there have been inherent flaws in this process and technology has advanced. She said that there are short-term options such as mandatory recycling at UNC and UNC Hospitals. She said that she hopes that the Board of County Commissioners will pursue long-term options for the County and will be progressive. She asked the County Commissioners to investigate the new technology and to also review the amount of acreage that is truly needed. She asked the County Commissioners to also look at a waste transfer site parallel to a waste to energy site. Margaret Misch stressed her feeling about the difference between short-sightedness and long-sightedness. She said that this station may be a short-term option and that the County should be taking care of its own waste rather than shipping it off to another County or another state. She said that if the County Commissioners are going to choose a site on NC 54, then she is also opposed to having another airport in Orange County. Bonnie Hauser reminded the Board of some of the issues that were raised at the public comment meeting last night. One issue was the contamination and runoff into wetlands from the transfer station. Also, there is no water and sewer in Bingham Township. She said that, no matter how big the site is, there will not be a buffer of traffic, noise, and safety issues that will come from the transfer station. Regarding the issue of transferring to Durham, there would not be more than a 90-day issue if the County Commissioners took 90 more days to study this. She added that the timeline could be shortened depending on the siting. She suggested offering this project out for a competitive bid and getting some other timelines. Regarding waste to energy, based on Olver's website, waste to energy is not part of their practice area, and she has spoken to many experts who have offered to come in and talk to the County Commissioners and the community about waste to energy and the options. She said that many citizens are asking when rural Orange County became the waste site for the municipalities. Richard Taylor said that little effort has been made to talk about where the waste would go when it left Orange County and he suggested using rail instead of trucks. Yonnie Chapman lives in Chapel Hill and he has worked with the Rogers Road community regarding environmental racism. He said that he sympathizes with all of the Orange County neighbors who are concerned about this issue and the impact on their own community. He said that he also sympathizes with the Board of County Commissioners on this tough issue. He said that he feels a crush in terms of time and a tendency to look for a way out as the landfill fills up. The path of least resistance has always led to Rogers Road and he hopes that it does not this time. He said that no community should put up with what the Rogers Road community has had to put up with and it would be a social injustice if this fell back on the Rogers Road community. John McQuire lives in Bingham Township and said that he wanted to remind the Board of County Commissioners that there are alternatives to a waste transfer station and it is more important to drive toward the right decision rather than a quick decision. 6. BOCC Direction and Feedback to County Management and Consultant Chair Jacobs said that the Board had the GBB study done last winter and it was presented with the written report. He would like Olver, Inc. to come to the December 1St meeting and make a presentation of this for the sake of the new County Commissioners. The ultimate recommendation was that the County was on the best course. He suggested doing this in a public venue as opposed to just posting the document on the website. The Solid Waste Advisory Board helped to determine the parameters of this study and it was very comprehensive. Regarding waste reduction, Chair Jacobs pointed out that Orange County has reduced its waste since 1995 at a rate better than any other county in North Carolina. Other counties are increasing their waste generation per capita, and Orange County is decreasing its waste generation per capita. Regarding the timeline, he said that Orange County started this process over a year ago and decided to do it at Rogers Road, but it turned out not to be the right place. So the County Commissioners started over last December and tried to make the process as objective as possible. He said that it seems rushed, but it is not. Commissioner Nelson requested setting up a tour of the three candidate sites. Gwen Harvey said that this could definitely be done with at least two of the sites. There is uncertainty about the third site. Regarding waste to energy, the County Commissioners spoke about this at their retreat last week, but it would take months or years to be educated on this issue. He suggested keeping this on the radar for parallel sites. Chair Jacobs asked that the tours be arranged by December 11th Commissioner Foushee asked if other County Commissioners would like to look at smaller sites. Commissioner Gordon suggested that the three new colleagues weigh in on this since the decision will not be made until they come on the Board. She suggested getting some information from staff regarding the pros and cons of proceeding according to the current timeline versus not not proceeding right away and considering other options. Commissioner Carey said that the decision would be made when he is no longer on the Board. He agreed with Commissioner Gordon that the new Board should decide whether to change the size of the sites. However, this will create an impact on the timeline and would almost be starting over again. Commissioner Carey added that this meeting is his last official meeting as a County Commissioner. Commissioner Nelson said that the Board decided to have a larger site of 25 acres so that there could be sufficient buffering. Also, some citizens have mentioned the old truck stop in Hillsborough as a potential site. If it is not already in Hillsborough's jurisdiction, Hillsborough has made it very clear that it would annex sites to keep the County from siting something. He said that this site does not seem realistic. Chair Jacobs said that it is an interesting idea to look at smaller sites and the Board should have alternative ways to proceed on the agenda for December 11th for the new Board. He would still like to see a presentation of the report, which may shed some light on other alternatives. He would also like to make a list of things that the County Commissioners would require of themselves to choose a site (i.e., how much more of an environmental impact analysis and a traffic impact analysis is necessary, restricting routes, pay-as-you-throw, etc.) 7. Adjourn A motion was made by Commissioner Foushee, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to adjourn the meeting at 7:09 pm. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board