Thursday, June 14, 2018

Who knew Davidson's award winning RAP was all about water and sewer?

A marathon Davidson Board meeting kicked off Tuesday evening with speaker after speaker getting up to opine on something that wasn't on the agenda - the resolution clarifying the policy on extending water and sewer for new development.  Commissioners first reviewed the draft resolution at their June 4th work session last week, and it clearly struck a nerve with some.

As mentioned in this story, the RAP was recently awarded an honor by the Congress for the New Urbanism for its thoroughness in implementing urban design.  However, at Tuesday's meeting one would think the RAP is all about water and sewer.  Speaker after speaker, primarily landowners from the ETJ, described this resolution as some sort of attack on the RAP as a whole.  They looked at it as this Board somehow trying to completely take away their development rights.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

All this proposed resolution does is clarify the town's authority over approval of when and under what conditions water and sewer will be extended.  See the meat of the resolution below (emphasis added)

1. Statement of Intent.
As stated in the Davidson Planning Ordinance, Davidson is a livable and walkable community because it chooses to rigorously manage growth. The Town of Davidson intends to permit the extension of water and sewer services so as to provide for managed growth that is in the best interests of the citizens of the Town.

2. Policy Statement.
The Town Board shall consider water and sewer requests for developments that adhere to the requirements of the Davidson Planning Ordinance. In addition, the Board may approve or deny requests based on whether the extension is in the best interests of the community and in compliance with all the terms and conditions of the Davidson Planning Ordinance.

3. Rationale.
In making that determination, the Board may consider factors such as current traffic congestion in the area of the new lines and whether construction of new lines traversing town blocks will significantly increase traffic congestion, extra costs to the Town associated with traffic control during installation, the effect of new lines on the existing natural environment, particularly the loss of trees, other health and safety concerns of citizens in the immediate vicinity of the new lines and/or development, the burden on existing infrastructure of new development which can occur at higher densities with the provision of water and sewer.

4. Applicable Areas to this Policy.
The terms of this Policy shall apply to the extension of water and sewer lines to serve all vacant land, houses, buildings, and all other real property, located within the Town limits, and the Town’s extra-territorial jurisdiction not presently served with water and/or sewer. This Policy will not apply to development projects with previously established vested rights.

Nowhere in the resolution does it say Rural Area Plan or RAP.  It does not change the provisions of the RAP around open space or connectivity.  It doesn't  change the zoning approved by the previous Board to implement the RAP.  It doesn't undo the resolution the previous Board passed on December 13, 2016 that instructed Charlotte Water to add water and sewer extensions in the RAP area to its long term plan as "reimbursable" projects.  (Reimbursable in this case means new development pays for the water and sewer extension.)

So what does this new resolution under consideration actually do?

It does put the development community on notice that the Town of Davidson won't just roll over when a developer claims "by right" ability to build something under existing zoning for an area.  Former Board members repeatedly misrepresented how much power "by right" actually gives developers when they rezoned large parts of the ETJ to more intensive development designations like Neighborhood Edge and Neighborhood General.  One has to look no further than the proposed Potts Street development by Crescent to see this power in action.  While Potts is not in the RAP it is the poster child for what can happen when an aggressive developer has access to intense by right zoning.

Nobody wants to take away the development rights of land owners in the RAP areas.  In fact, aShortChronicle has actually supported those rights, support for the Narrow Passage project being a prime example.  The former zoning provisions prior to the RAP were impractical.  For example, land owners were only allowed to build 6 houses on a parcel of land no matter how large if there was no water and sewer.  At the same time, the Town would also not allow Charlotte Water to even consider water and sewer.  That combination was a very effective means of taking development rights.  However, even that did not totally prevent development.

Narrow Passage mentioned above was approved pre-RAP through the conditional zoning process and originally was planned to use septic systems.  It will now use sewer.  It is a reasonably scaled project that fits in the surrounding area.  Proposals like that in the future would seemingly meet the criteria outlined in the proposed resolution.  Proposals that seek to pack as much density as possible into a project under the zoning granted by the former Board against fierce citizen opposition might not.  Proposals that seek to implement projects that negatively impact the overall quality of life in an area should not.

The policy proposal being discussed by the Board does not eliminate water and sewer in the RAP.  It does place the authority for approving those extensions anywhere in town with the Board of Commissioners - right where it should be.

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