QUESTION: Was it appropriate for three of Alamance County’s five county commissioners to participate in a community meeting that some residents had organized in Saxapahaw in opposition to a pair of controversial new subdivisions?
ANSWER: It wasn’t exactly the Met gala. But this week’s night gathering at Saxapahaw’s Bethlehem Presbyterian Church was apparently an occasion to see and be seen for a number of state and local government leaders.
Among the distinguished guests who attended this get-together were state senator Amy Scott Galey and state Representative Dennis Riddell – both of whom received mention in the advanced publicity for the event. Also on hand were county commissioners Sam Powell and Ed Priola as well as Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance County’s governing board.
[Story continues below photos of commissioners who were at the event.]
Sponsored by a grassroots community group, this Monday afternoon powwow concerned two massive residential developments that have recently been proposed in the county’s southeastern reaches. But according to Allen, the nature of this grassroots event had effectively ruled out the possibility of an open meetings violation for her and the two other commissioners who were in attendance.
“I was there; Sam Powell was there; and Ed Priola was there,” Allen recalled in an interview Tuesday. “But if we don’t stand to the side and talk, or leave the room by ourselves. it’s not considered a quorum.”
Under North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law, a majority of any elected or appointed body may only transact public business within the confines of an official, properly-noticed public meeting. The law specifically excludes “social meeting[s] or other informal assembl[ies]” from its requirements – unless, that is, those shindigs are “called or held to evade the spirit and purposes” of the Open Meetings Law.
In the case of the get-together in Saxapahaw had been organized by the opponents of the two aforementioned developments.
Dubbed Morrow Mill, the largest of these two projects has already been submitted to the county’s staff-level technical review committee that will ultimately have purview over the subdivision request. The plans that are currently before the committee call for 541 single-family homes on 440-acres between Morrow Mill and Austin Quarter roads.
The county’s technical review committee has not yet received any official submission for the second development, which has been christened Hunter’s Ridge. Even so, a preliminary “sketch” that the county’s planning department has received for this project shows north of 400 single family lots on nearly 375 acres off of Austin Quarter Road.
In both of these cases, the developers behind the two subdivisions have indicated that they plan to use community wells and septic systems to serve their proposed sites – which are outside the reach of any municipal water or sewer systems.
In light of their scale, these two developments have sowed a fair amount of angst among neighbors about their impact on the local water table, the potential for ground water contamination, and the burden they’d place on the state-maintained roads in this part of the county. Yet, the county’s board of commissioners has consistently informed these concerned residents that neither they nor the county’s planning board has any role in the approval of these developments.
Allen recalled that she reiterated this point when the organizers of Monday’s gathering invited her to attend the event.
“I explained that because we don’t have countywide zoning, this won’t even come to the commissioners.” “So, I thought that it was worthwhile to have state representatives, and I suggested they give them a call.”
In the end, the event’s organizers were able to secure the commitments of Galey, who represents Alamance County and a portion of Randolph in North Carolina’s state senate, and Riddell, whose district in the state house comprises southern and eastern Alamance County.
[Story continues below photos of members of the General Assembly who were present.]
Allen recalled that both of the state legislators spoke at the event after about an hour or so of remarks from concerned residents. The chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners said that her own role was limited to introducing these dignitaries – as well as her fellow commissioners, who spent more time in front of the microphone.
In any event, Allen said that she and her fellow commissioners could do little more than explain their lack of authority over the two proposed subdivisions. They were, however, able to refer concerned residents to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality with their concerns about the effects these developments may have on the local water supply, which is already endangered by drought.
Allen added that the event drew a capacity crowd of about 100 people to the Presbyterian church that hosted the gathering.
“That church was full,” she recalled, “and they had pulled out extra seats to fit everyone.”
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