Toward the beginning of the meeting, the aldermen continued a public hearing that began May 7 with the proposal of several text changes to be made to the land-use ordinance. The proposed changes were initiated by Winmore Land Management LLC, the company behind the Winmore development.
A couple of residents from the Northern Transitional Area spoke in support of some of the proposed changes and against some of the others.
Nancy Salmon of 1706 Claymore Road in Chapel Hill spoke against a requirement of the new text amendments concerning the amount of impervious space required on each lot.
"I am concerned that by making the amount an average per development as opposed to a total, you will disadvantage future developers and give current developers a leg up," she said.
Along with the impervious space problem, the issue of accessory dwellings was a major concern to the aldermen. Accessory dwellings are complexes such as garage apartments or add-ons that allow more than one family to live on a single property.
"People want granny flats; they want somewhere they can have a relative live," Alderman Mark Dorosin said. "I don't think there will be lots of people trying to take advantage of the system, so we should give them that option."
The aldermen decided to approve more than half of the proposed changes. The board voted down the other proposals because of the increase in powers they would allow future boards to wield.
After settling the land-use ordinance issue, the board moved on to the subject of solid waste disposal. Phil Prete presented the board with some suggestions to reduce both the cost involved with waste disposal and the amount of trash the town produces.
In the presentation, Prete established the total amount the town spends each year on garbage disposal at around $1 million. Mayor Mike Nelson found this figure to be staggering.
