Orange County commissioners nix charter schools, sports campus. What to know.

Neighbors defeated controversial plans for a new Orange County charter school campus Monday night, but the decision left hope that more ball fields and tennis courts could be built in the future.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 to reject the Lawrence Road project near Hillsborough, which included two schools and recreational facilities, including baseball fields, tennis and pickleball courts, and a skate park on 85 acres.

Western Triangle High School, approved by the state for 600 students, was expected to fill one building. A K-8 school operator had not been identified yet, but Hillsborough developer Jim Parker, president of Summit Design and Engineering Services, agreed to hold the site open for 12 months while the Orange County Schools considered an exclusive right to buy the land.

Monday’s decision to reject the project followed a packed June 6 public hearing at which more than 40 people spoke.

Commissioners Vice Chair Earl McKee, who voiced support for the project, was excused from Monday’s vote because he works for Summit Engineering. A recent change in state law prohibits board members with a family, business or personal relationship — not just a financial interest — from making zoning decisions, county attorney John Roberts said.

State law also limited board members to discussing only the possible land uses Monday, and not potential effects on traffic or plans for building and managing the schools and athletic facilities.

A key factor in Monday’s decision was the county’s lack of a need for new schools.

The latest Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance enrollment report, showed the Orange County Schools district won’t need a new school for at least 10 years. The district has 7,144 students, with room for 1,300 more, it said, and the school board could redistrict students next year to ease crowding at individual schools.

Another 1,142 students attend two existing Hillsborough charter schools, the report said. None of those students, some of whom live in other counties, are included in the capacity report, which determines when the county should plan for new schools.

Future growth, recreation plans

The commissioners also cited the rural character of the Lawrence Road community between U.S. 70A and Old N.C. 10 and the county’s future land-use plans for the community, which is part of a 20-year urban transition area, in rejecting the proposed campus.

Commissioner Jean Hamilton said she studied the county’s future land-use plan and its joint land-use plan with Hillsborough, and found that the dominant land use prescribed for Lawrence Road is residential, with supporting uses, such as recreation.

“It’s something that over time, as water and sewer come, it could be denser, but that’s the intent,” Hamilton said.

The site also fails to meet county goals for a walkable community with public transit and doesn’t match the neighborhood’s rural character, Commissioner Amy Fowler said. The N.C. Department of Transportation would have required turn lanes at the driveways and a traffic light at U.S. 70A and Lawrence Road, but did not approve sidewalks for the project.

“Although I applaud their plan, and I think it has good things to offer, it doesn’t fit the zoning,” Fowler said, urging the developer and his partners to pursue other uses on the site or come back with a different zoning request.

County staff is looking into new baseball fields, she said. The county also has money budgeted to add tennis courts at Fairview Park next year. Commissioner Anna Richards, who agreed with Fowler’s assessment of county plans, emphasized the need for more playing fields to serve young people and recreational sports.

“We take really seriously this need, and I think we have a responsibility to meet that need for our young people, and I think that’s something we’ll take under consideration,” Richards said.

Supporters and opponents of the project

A large portion of the surrounding community also opposed the project, with residents organizing soon after it was proposed.

Over 100 people attended the June 6 public hearing, roughly half of whom wore red shirts in opposition to the plan. Its proponents, many of whom were there to support community athletics, carried small signs that read: “Vote Yes to Rezone.”

Multiple speakers worried that Lawrence Road’s rural character and environment could be at risk from the development. Hollis Chatelain said her nearby home is a designated Audubon bird-friendly sanctuary, where over 60 different species have been spotted.

“Once the bulldozers come in, thousands of animals will be killed,” Chatelain said. “Once they pave over the land for parking lots, once they add chemicals to the athletic fields to keep them green and beautiful, the nesting areas and habitat for the birds, amphibians and insects that are so important for our fragile ecosystems will be lost forever.”

The project also had supporters, including representatives from the nonprofit Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association and Orange Tennis Club, who shared their plans to raise money and build ball fields and tennis and pickleball courts and facilities on the site.

No one likes change, but the land is suitable for athletic facilities to serve a growing community, said Susan Halkiotis, who lives nearby and as a former school board member helped find sites for three county schools.

The requirements for a school site — water and sewer access or perkable land, and a minimum amount of acreage — eliminate much of northern Orange County, Halkiotis said, and Parker is a local developer who has done many things to benefit the community.

“I can’t help but think of a rezoning request from about 25 years ago, when the proposal for what is now the Sportsplex came before the commissioners,” she said. “There were many, many people who opposed it for lots of reasons ... but the commissioners had the foresight and vision to recognize the ultimate benefit to our community,” she said.

Hillsborough officials have long opposed the Lawrence Road project, sending Town Board members Kathleen Ferguson and Robb English, along with the town’s water and sewer board chair, to the June 6 meeting.

The recreation facilities would have had private wells and septic systems, prompting concerns about the effect on groundwater, but state law requires the town to connect the schools to water.

The town was not planning for dense growth on Lawrence Road and has limited water and sewer capacity, Ferguson said. It’s also an equity issue, she and other speakers said, because town residents, in addition to paying already high water rates, would pay to extend water lines down Lawrence Road that benefit only the schools, who as nonprofits don’t pay taxes.