1. In the first chapter, the Form based code is approved in early summer 2014. In 2014 the Town Council created the Ephesus-Fordham district, replacing normal commercial zoning with form-based code (FBC) for nearly 180 acres that include the Eastgate Crossing, Ram Plaza and Village Plaza shopping centers. The FBC eliminated Town requirements for public hearings and public review of development applications and relaxed or eliminated Town standards for affordable housing, setbacks, and environmental protection.
In particular, Resource Conservation District (RCD) standards, which apply everywhere else in Town, were eliminated for this district. As you know, the RCD is an overlay zoning district that limits disturbance of riparian and low-lying areas to preserve water quality, minimize danger and property damage from flooding, protect streams from erosion and sedimentation, and preserve urban wildlife corridors and plant habitats. Responding to Stormwater Advisory Board recommendations, the Council added water quality standards—but not water quantity controls—to the code. The fact that the Code encompassed the lowest reaches of the Booker Creek watershed which contained floodway and flood plain areas received little attention until the final public hearings. The staff touted the idea of a stormwater district that would handle stormwater management and collect fees, until the town attorney found it could not be done legally.
2. In the second chapter, the Town addresses the flooding issue. After the passage of the form based code, residents urged the Town to address the flooding problem. In response, the Town hired a consultant, W.K. Dickson, to conduct a series of sub watershed studies in the Booker Creek Watershed in order to identify ways to reduce flooding and to better manage stormwater. The consultant’s report for the Lower Booker Creek sub watershed located in “Blue Hill”, recommended over $30 million dollars of flood reduction measures for this one subwatershed (there are at least 3 – 4). A subsequent stormwater bond issue, however, asked the public to approve only $5 million, a small percentage of what the consultant recommended for the entire Booker Creek watershed.
3. Next, a water storage pond is planned near Eastgate. WK Dickson (the consultant), town staff and the Chapel Hill Stormwater Advisory Board made creation of a water storage impoundment south of Eastgate and west of the Fordham Apartment project the top priority for use of these stormwater bond funds. Unfortunately, the size of the planned water storage facility was reduced by 20% because of the approval of RAM’s Fordham Apartments proposal. One can surmise that if the project had been reviewed under the normal special use permit process and normal Town regulations applied, the water storage pond would have been built before construction began on Fordham Apartments. In addition, if the Resource Conservation District were in place, the fill placed on the Fordham apartment site would not have been permitted at all. The Stormwater Advisory and several other boards petitioned the Council in the winter of 2017 to put the RCD in the Code before Fordham Apts was approved. Manager Stancil continued to recommend no action.
4. Road planned in floodway. Scant attention was paid to the stormwater impacts of building the Elliott Road extension which crosses a floodway. CHALT tried to convince the Council not to proceed with plans to build it. Kimley Horn designed it and we are concerned this project will cause future flooding on 15-501 and in Ridgefield and other downstream areas of town. Stormwater will be carried in a culvert underneath the road in a situation that should have required a bridge.
5. What happened during Florence? Because the Code in the “Blue Hill District” removed environmental protection standards, i.e. the Resource Conservation District, property owner RAM was allowed to alter the terrain by raising its entire creekside property by 2 1/2 feet— something that would not be allowed anywhere else in Town—thus removing the temporary storage previously offered by the grassy low lying areas next to the Days Inn. RAM met the federal FEMA requirement to limit the downstream rise to 6 inches, but we would expect that our normal local ordinances would not have allowed a project that would add to flooding downstream to residential properties.
Finally: Both areas upstream and downstream of the Fordham Apartment project experienced more severe flash flooding on September 17, 2018 than they experienced during similar weather events prior to the construction and the change appears to have exacerbated the flooding of Chapel Hill homes downstream. In addition the fill allowed on this site by the Code contributed to flooding upstream as illustrated by this video.
This video captures Booker Creek overflowing its banks and pipes underneath Eastgate Crossing and flowing down both sides of Mariakakis stores. When the flood waters hit the newly raised RAM property the stormwater is pushed back temporarily just as at the beach when the waves flow sideways for a time when they hit against higher ground.