27 Jul Congruus and the Compact Community Ordinance
“Fearrington Preserve” Has a Wastewater Problem
Posted August 19
On August 16th, the Chatham County Commissioners held a public hearing on an application by Congruus LLC to expand the boundaries of the Compact Community Ordinance (CCO) to include 186 acres of land that they had assembled and hoped to densely develop (Note: they actually have assembled almost 400 acres but the rest already lies within the existing boundaries of the CCO). The agenda for this meeting was posted on July 29th, and it was the first time that anyone on the Fearrington HOA Board became aware of this development, which is located on the other side of 15-501 and stretches approximately from Morris Road up to Andrews Store Road and back to Parker Herndon. I testified against the expansion at the hearing, and several other board members and residents were in attendance to lend support. My testimony can be found here.
I hope it makes clear that the Board is opposed to expanding the boundaries of the CCO because the developer currently has no way to dispose of their wastewater. Moreover, they have indicated that, rather than build their own wastewater treatment plant, they hope to connect to either the Briar Chapel or the FV treatment plant. Although the FHA has no control over the Fearrington plant, which is owned by Fitch Utilities, we know it was not intended to become a regional treatment plant.
Please note that the current issue in front of the Commissioners is not the new development itself; they are only voting on whether to expand the boundaries of the CCO.
Rose Krasnow, Vice President, FHA (vp@fhaboard.org)