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August 23, 1999 <br />Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />Orange County Planning Board <br />Re: Proposed Amendments to the Zoning Ordinance and <br />Subdivision Regulations (Agenda Items 2b and 3a) <br />Dear Commissioners and Planning Board Members: <br />I am submitting this testimony on the proposed amendments referenced above as a former <br />Planning Staff member with 12 years of experience administering the Orange County <br />development ordinances. I am an Orange County taxpayer; however, I do not own <br />property that is subject to the regulations. Furthermore, I do not have plans at this time to <br />provide any consulting services for projects submitted to Orange County for review. My <br />point is that I don't stand to gain anything personally or professionally if the proposed <br />amendments are not approved. <br />Simply stated, I remain committed to land use planning in Orange County. I care about <br />the role of Orange County Government in its service to the residents and to others who <br />choose to start a business or build houses here. For that reason, I spent one -third of my <br />life working for the County reviewing proposed developments for compliance with the <br />adopted regulations. As most of you know, part of my job was to help you, the governing <br />and advisory boards, craft development ordinances with the intent of protecting resources <br />while allowing development consistent with the goals of the Comprehensive Plan. <br />Some parts of the ordinances are considered innovative and have been used as models by <br />other jurisdictions. Other sections are fairly standard, while some provisions need <br />updating. I can't say that I agree with every requirement contained in the Zoning <br />Ordinance and Sub Regs; however, the one single aspect of the regulations that insures <br />complete applications will be processed equally in an unbiased and timely manner is the <br />time frames established for each step from initial submittal to final approval or appeal. <br />The ordinances typically are amended when a need is identified. I don't have any <br />information on the genesis of this particular recommendation to remove all time frames. <br />Is there a fear that some nefarious project will slip through and get approved because a <br />deadline has been reached? I can say from experience that this scenario is not likely. <br />