After a technical glitch sent it back to the drawing board, a contentious plan for a new landfill in the southern part of the county has resumed its slow, intractable slog through the county’s development process.
In the meantime, Alamance County’s elected leaders are calling a regulatory change to ensure that future industrial projects address one of the foremost objections that has bedeviled this proposed facility.
At this point, the county’s decisionmakers have more or less lost the initiative against this proposed dumping ground for land clearing and inert debris (LCID), which Kenneth Phillippie wants to establish at 4115 Clapp Mill Road in Alamance County’s Coble Township.
Despite fierce opposition from neighbors, this proposed facility is all but guaranteed a county-level permit as long as it meets the provisions of Alamance County’s ordinance for heavy industrial development.
According to assistant county manager Brian Baker, the latest plans for this landfill have apparently “cured” a road access issue that prevented it from receiving a nod from the county’s planning board earlier this year. Baker told The Alamance News that, once the planning board signs off on the revised application, it will be passed along to the county’s board of commissioners for a cursory stamp of approval.
Yet, the relentless march of Phillippie’s application didn’t prevent a number of the project’s neighbors from pleading their case before the board of commissioners on Monday.
“This [land clearing and inert debris landfill] does not just stop with the acreage in the permit. It’s going to grow and extend further into our communities.”
– Deborah Klar
Among those who appeared before the commissioners was Deborah Klar, who called for new regulations to prevent Phillippie’s facility from expanding beyond its proposed limits.
“This LCID does not just stop with the acreage in the permit,” she added. “It’s going to grow and extend further into our communities.”
[Story continues below photos of landfill opponents.]
Klar’s appeal was reiterated by her neighbors Joe Snyder and Matt Kirkpatrick, who bemoaned the potential impact that the proposed facility could have on area traffic given the relatively primitive conditions of Clapp Mill Road.
“This road wasn’t designed for those trucks. It’s very dangerous. . . You need some good, common sense land use.”
– Matt Kirkpatrick
“This road wasn’t designed for those trucks,” Kirkpatrick said when he got his turn at the microphone. “It’s very dangerous…You need some good, common sense land use.”
Meanwhile, Henry Vines, a Republican contender for the board of commissioners, recalled that Phillippie had recently withdrawn of his application from the planning board’s consideration. Vines figured that the county could avail itself of this opportunity to add new road access requirements to the operative ordinance. Baker nevertheless conceded that Phillippie has already refiled his application for the proposed landfill, which Alamance County’s attorney Rik Stevens said would preclude the county from applying new rules to his plans.
“In the development world it’s called ‘vested rights,’” Stevens elaborated. “Once an application is submitted, the people who submitted the application have a vested right to be considered under the development as it existed when their application was filed and accepted…and if changes occur, they have a choice between the old rule and the new rule.”
The county attorney’s revelation didn’t deter Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, from proposing a rule change that would apply to any future industrial projects.
ON CHANGING THE RULES
“If we can’t solve the issue for the folks on Clapp Mill Road, let’s at least prevent it from happening anywhere else.”
– County commissioner vice chairman Steve Carter
“If we can’t solve the issue for the folks on Clapp Mill Road,” he added, “let’s at least prevent it from happening anywhere else.”
To this end, Carter suggested a modification to the existing ordinance that would limit heavy industrial projects to roads that met certain state level criteria. Baker conceded that the state’s transportation department places all highways and byways into seven categories that range from “interstates” to “local roads.” He added that he isn’t aware of any local government that uses these distinctions as a development criterion.
“It’s an unusual thing to do,” Baker acknowledged. “But it is in our capacity to do.”
The commissioners went on to direct the county’s staff to rough out an amendment that prohibits heavy industries along certain road categories with the understanding that this proposed rule change wouldn’t apply to Phillippie’s proposed facility along Clapp Mill Road.
Meanwhile, commissioner Pam Thompson opined that there may be a simpler way for her and her colleagues to regulate growth provided they have the political courage to do so.
“This is a prime example of why this county needs zoning,” she said.
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