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Speakers urge Chatham County to require special-use permits, prepare resolution and consider NCUC intervention
Summary
Several attorneys, landowners and organizers asked the county to modify zoning rules, require special-use permits for pipelines, prepare resolutions against the project and file to intervene with the North Carolina Utilities Commission when a docket opens.
Speakers urged the board to use planning and land-use tools to require Enbridge to apply for a special-use or conditional-use permit and to prepare formal resolutions objecting to the project. Several commenters said that local ordinances can require additional review and conditions for intrusive infrastructure.
"I urge you to exercise your power to its maximum extent to require that every less disruptive alternative route is fully exhausted," said Shiloh Dom, an eminent-domain attorney representing statewide landowners. Whitney Schmidt and others asked the county to file to intervene with the North Carolina Utilities Commission and to demand a local public hearing when a certificate of public convenience and necessity is considered.
Speakers asked county staff and counsel to evaluate legal avenues to limit survey access and to document impacts for future state and federal reviews (Section 401 water quality and Army Corps processes). The request included a nonbinding resolution of opposition and audits to enforce any permit conditions, if granted.
