To be held at the Alamance County Office Building at 6:30pm
Call to Action!!
We urgently need you to raise your voice to advance a sensible small area Zoning plan for Snow Camp.
The recent Planning Board meetings have been dominated by a small group led by Mike Owens, a farmer from Eli Whitney who does not speak for the residents of Snow Camp. He and a small group of farmers are aggressively opposed to the proposed Zoning Ordinance for Snow Camp. This despite hundreds of signatures on two petitions that overwhelmingly demonstrate the will of the community to stop the continued proliferation of heavy industrial development in our community.
We were shocked by the most recent February Planning Board meeting, when a motion was made and passed to recommend not to pursue zoning for Snow Camp, but rather have the subcommittee work within the UDO/HIDO (Unified Development Ordinance/Heavy Industrial Development Ordinance) to see if it can be strengthened to the point where we do not need the zoning ordinance to protect us from heavy industry that would pose a threat to our health and safety in Snow Camp.
How you can help:
It is urgent that we let the Commissioners know that there are HUNDREDS OF SNOW CAMP VOTERS WHO SUPPORT THE ZONING ORDINANCE with restrictions on Class III Heavy Industries. Please consider one or more of the following:
Join us at The Verdict in Graham at 5:30 p.m. Monday, February 21, 2022. Then we will walk to the Alamance County Office Building nearby to raise our voice at the Commissioners meeting which begins at 6:30 p.m.
Join us in person or email your request to extend the moratorium for all Heavy Industry Permit Applications to provide sufficient time for all Snow Camp residents to weigh in on this issue. (The current moratorium expires on February 28, 2022.)
Email:
- County Planner: Tonya.Caddle@alamance-nc.com
- Board of Commissioners: commissioners@alamance-nc.com
1. Ask that the Heavy Industrial Development Ordinance Subcommittee of the Planning Board reconsider the “bare-bones draft” of the Zoning Ordinance that was proposed by county Planner, Ms. Tonya Caddle at the February 10 Subcommittee meeting. (The “bare-bones draft” would remove the overly restrictive rules that were objected to by the small group of farmers that attended the last two meetings.)
2. We want the Commissioners to have the right authority to say “NO” to any industrial permit application that poses a threat to our health, safety or wellbeing in Snow Camp. (According to the County’s Legal Team, this can only happen with a Zoning Ordinance in place)
3. We, the citizens of Snow Camp, want the right to weigh in on any industrial permit application for Snow Camp. (This also can only happen with a Zoning Ordinance)
4. Any industry that threatens our water wells, our air quality and our safety should NOT BE INCLUDED in the Table of Permitted Uses under the proposed Zoning Ordinance. That includes mining, asphalt plants, cement plants and paper mills, and chemical plants.
Class III Heavy industries have no place in Snow Camp.
At the highly contentious Planning Board meetings, even the vocal objectors agreed that we need better protections against the Class III Heavy Industries and that we need more time to work through a solution. As we have painfully learned over the last 2.5 years, the county does not enforce what little requirements there are under the HIDO. Only under a Zoning Ordinance do the Commissioners have the opportunity to say “NO” to a heavy industry permit application. And only then will Snow Camp Residents we have the opportunity to stop the continued proliferation of heavy industry in Snow Camp.
Thank you for your support and participation. Please forward to anyone that may be interested and send any questions to SnowCampCAN@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Jenefer Duane, Founder, Snow Camp Community Action Network
Jane Lea Hicks, Snow Camp Environmental Defense League
