Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Stormwater Permit topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lincoln County approves McDonald’s watershed permit with stormwater controls
Summary
The Lincoln County Board approved Watershed Special-Use Permit 42 for a McDonald’s outparcel, allowing roughly 67% impervious coverage (under the 70% cap) contingent on underground stormwater chambers and maintenance agreements after staff incorporated the applicant’s findings of fact.
The Lincoln County Board of County Commissioners voted to approve Watershed Special-Use Permit 42, allowing a McDonald’s outparcel to use the watershed high-density option that raises site impervious coverage to about 67% from the standard 24% limit.
Planning staff introduced the application as a request limited to stormwater and impervious-area relief for a 1.3-acre parcel on N.C. 16 Business in the Catawba Springs Township. The board was told the use itself was permitted by zoning and had long-standing status; the only issue for the hearing was whether the property’s stormwater controls met the watershed district’s requirements.
McDonald’s area construction manager Olivia Deventi and engineer Oliver Kaya of Boller Engineering described a stormwater approach using advanced underground storage chambers. Kaya said the system captures and treats the first inch of runoff (the “first flush”), reduces pre-to-post flow for the 1-year and 10-year storms, and provides an outfall connection to an existing drainage network serving the Food Lion shopping center. He said the underground chambers are not sized for the 100-year event but provide required treatment and rate control for smaller storms.
Commissioners and residents questioned whether the system would reduce flooding in nearby neighborhoods and across an adjacent golf course after recent intense storms. The engineer acknowledged that no typical underground storage system is designed to contain the full 100-year event and said on-site overland-relief and the tied outlet were part of the design approach. He also noted erosion-control approvals and coordination with NCDOT were already in place.
The applicant’s proposed findings of fact were entered into the record and the board voted to adopt those findings. In a subsequent vote — described on the record as limited to the water/stormwater conditions rather than whether the McDonald’s should exist on the site — the board approved WSSUP 42. Commissioner Carpenter moved to approve; the motion passed with the ayes recorded and the chair announcing the measure approved.
Next steps include any required bonding or financial security (up to 1.25 times the cost of constructing stormwater controls) and follow-up inspection or maintenance per the operations-and-maintenance agreement the applicant provided.
