The Alamance County Board of Commissioners passed a motion to approve the lease of an indoor space to be used as a COVID-19 vaccination site on Feb. 1. The indoor space is 25,000 square feet and is located at 2401 Eric Lane Burlington, NC.
The approval of the indoor space comes after Tony Lo Giudice, the Alamance County health director, told the board that the county’s demand for COVID-19 vaccinations is growing. Giudice said Alamance County Health Department has been allocated 6,850 vaccine doses and has administered 6,869 first doses.
“We’re giving more doses than we’ve been allocated for the wonderful job our nurses are doing,” Giudice said.
The new indoor vaccination site will help with the county’s growing demand and is set to be leased for at least 3 months starting Feb. 1. The lease cost for the space will be $23,958.33 per month and can be renewed on a monthly basis. Funds to cover the lease cost are to be allocated from Alamance County’s pandemic budget.
The county is expected to receive 200 vaccine doses in the next week and an additional 975 doses from the state within the next three weeks. Giudice said he expects the county’s demand for vaccinations to continue to increase with the age-group eligibility shifting down to 65 in the next coming months. For Alamance County, Giudice said he estimates an additional 19,000 people would need to be vaccinated if the age-group eligibility were to be moved to 65 and over. Currently, health care workers and people 65 years and older are eligible to receive the vaccine in North Carolina, but in Alamance County, only 75 and older are able to get the vaccine due to limited supply.
The county commissioners also discussed concerns over an updated land development plan for the county. The updated plan calls for four zoning districts to be created and for the currently unincorporated community of Snow Camp to be included in the new county zoning.
Residents have called for a tighter process around obtaining permits for land development in the Snow Camp area. This comes after the activism group No Snow Camp Mine filed a lawsuit last summer against Alamance County for allowing the issue of a permit for a proposed rock quarry in the area to Snow Camp Property LLC, an out-of-state investment company based in Wyoming.
Ron Spinhoven, a local resident of Snow Camp, said a flawed permit process and lack of oversight by the planning board and commissioners caused the permit to be issued.
“Although some changes have been made to the permit process and the heavy industrial development ordinance, they clearly are not enough to protect and preserve the uniqueness of our Snow Camp community,” Spinhoven said. “Therefore, a small area plan for Snow Camp is necessary.”
Spinhoven, alongside other Alamance County residents, also expressed their support for the county commissioners to issue a six-month moratorium on the land development plan. The moratorium would delay the development of the Snow Camp area and allow the county commissioners and planning department to adjust the land development plan.
After being briefed by Tonya Caddle, the Alamance County Planning Director, about the updated land development plan, the Alamance County Commissioners unanimously approved to hold a public hearing on March 1, about adopting a six month moratorium on the land development plan.