PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Commissioners hosted its first public hearings since March at its regular session meeting Monday, following months of delayed hearings due to the coronavirus as county staff worked to find the most accessible way to hold public hearings under the board’s hybrid-meeting model.
The board, meeting at the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center, hosted two public hearings regardings requests by Chatham County Emergency Management on a conditional use permit for a new proposed 350-foot communications tower at the Moncure Volunteer Fire Department and a new proposed 300-foot communications tower at the new Emergency Operations Center. Both requests were approved and referred to the Chatham County Planning Board without much discussion from the board or any public speakers.
The hearing of these items came after months of controversy related to the two public hearings for Williams Corner, a 118-acre mixed use walkable community. These hearings had been scheduled for Monday’s meeting, but the developer of the project requested the hearings be indefinitely postponed just a week before, following a sewage spill in Briar Chapel.
At the board’s May 18 meeting — when it was decided to continue to delay public hearings until an accessible solution was found to host them — Commissioner Mike Dasher expressed concern about the potential “ripple effect” from delaying projects on the public hearing docket. At the time, board Chairperson Karen Howard said the COVID-19 situation warranted taking things step-by-step. While scheduling these hearing at their July meeting, Howard said she thought limiting the number of hearings at the August meeting would be wise for the board, staff and public and help ensure fairness throughout the discussions.
“It is disappointing if we’re getting backed up, but disappointing is a pill we can swallow,” Howard said regarding the public hearings on May 18. “We are not arbitrarily choosing. We are in a critical crisis and making a decision that we hope is for the benefit of all of us.”
At the board’s next Aug. 27 meeting, it will host public hearings on requests from Vickers Bennett Group to amend language in the county zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and watershed protection ordinance. At the Sept. 3 meeting, there will be a public hearing for a request by JNNJ, LLC, for a conditional district rezoning request.
There were about ten attendees present at the Agriculture center for the meeting, and Board Clerk Lindsay Ray said 73 people registered over GoTo Webinar, including remote staff and presenters. Monday’s meeting was much shorter than in previous months, with a COVID-19 update as the only board priority of the meeting and only one speaker signed up for the public input session. During her public input remarks, Chatham resident Valerie Broadway called on the board to act regarding homelessness, referencing Chatham’s Salvation Army recent suspension of its emergency financial assistance line due to COVID-19 and potential rises in eviction rates due to the pandemic’s impact on the economy.
“In recent weeks did any of you lie awake at night worrying about where the homeless people were as a hurricane passed by in the wee hours of the morning, or perhaps how they were coping on the days when the heat index was 105 degrees?” she asked the board. “I did.”
Following her remarks, Howard clarified that she, too, along with the other board members, was greatly troubled about the problem of homelessness and looking for ways to provide additional resources in the county.
The meeting concluded with a county COVID-19 update. Interim Health Director Mike Zelek said at county currently has 1,363 cases and 55 deaths — with the majority of deaths taking place at assisted living facilities. Zelek also announced the county’s new online COVID-19 community survey dashbord, which features results from a survey assessing community prevention and impacts related to the pandemic. During her commissioner report, Howard referenced the return to school amid pandemic precautions, and encouraged parents and citizens alike that Chatham would make it through such challenges.
“I just join in with all the parents that are in the position of having to work and help homeschool and deal with all the myriad tasks that come along with trying to parent and navigate a system of education that we’re not particularly well-versed in,” she said. “My hat’s off to our teachers and staff, superintendent, school board and all the parents and kids who are muddling our way through this — we will get out on the other end in Chatham County, and we will be ready and willing and waiting to engage all of these kids, who are going to be just fine.”
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.