Orange County NC Website
69 <br />Tommy McNeill: You said that most people were happy after you discussed this with them. Please share some <br />concerns of the others who were displeased. <br />Glenn Bowles: We will set the Lake Orange discussion over to one side. They were displaced with beavers that are <br />flooding their pastures and woodland. Not only with beavers but also with deer. That was the one discussion I heard <br />the most The Wake Orange discussion deals with items that are not pertinent tonight dealing with flood plains. Some <br />were questioning the accuracy of the flood mapping. The flood map itself is really a contour and has been determined <br />by fairly technical studies done using a Corp of Engineering HEGRAS model for modeling and hydrological and <br />hydraulic characteristics of the streams and coming up with a contour. The flood maps are an approximation of that <br />contour. Some question if that contour is there or somewhere else. There is a process if they believe that it is not <br />there through FEMA which is fairly expensive. <br />Larry Wright: Some of these are in Economic Development Zones like the Efland Cheeks, etc. Then you mentioned <br />also that the zoning ordinances would need to be changed to accommodate these. Would these, the documentation <br />for these development districts need to be changed as well? <br />Glenn Bowles: Those Economic Development Districts have been subject to these same flood regulations. We are <br />taking verbatim text from the map and transferring it into the zoning ordinance. There will be a zoning district overlay. <br />Samantha Cabe: I was not able to be at the last public hearing. What was the rationale the County Attomey gave for <br />the need to incorporate these into the actual zoning ordinance? <br />Glenn Bowles: Our attorney suggested that if we want to be compatible with the 2005 Attomey General's letter stating <br />that communities who have flood maps amend those flood maps should do similar to the way they amend their zoning <br />atlas maps. Geoff was suggesting we go one step further and incorporate everything into a zoning ordinance. <br />Samantha Cabe: Why? <br />Glenn Bowles: He is not here and I can't speak for him. <br />Craig Benedict: We can provide his letter so you can read it. <br />Michael Harvey: The first documentation of the County Attomey making the recommendation that flood regulations be <br />incorporated into zoning occurred- bads in 1995 and assumed that a UDO (Unified Development Ordinance). The <br />rationale at that time was that flood regulations constitute land use restrictions. If you read general statute, the <br />appropriate location for all regulations governing the development of property is a zoning ordinance. The concern was <br />that it did not make appropriate reference to any other mechanism that a county or municipality could utilize to regulate <br />the development of property except that wonderful book we have. As early as 2006 the County Attorney made the <br />determination that we should be done 10-11 years ago and we should do it now. The clincher was the letter from the <br />Attomey General's office that amendments to the flood maps should be processed as amendments to zoning atlas. <br />Mr. Gledhill determined that, given the nature of the regulations and his opinion, there is only one logical place for them <br />and they need to be moved. <br />Samantha Cabe: They may not be enforceable if they are not included in our ordinance. <br />Michael Harvey: I don't share that opinion but we have been told that Mr. Gledhill's legal opinion that the best location <br />for these regulations is in zoning. <br />Judith Wegner. I think this was at the last meeting here but we talked about the Board of County Commissioners <br />wanted to unify development ordinance so this stuff will have to come in anyway so that is part of the policy call they <br />are making. The discussion at the Board of County Commissioners meeting was that in order for people in Orange <br />County to get flood insurance, we have to do this to conform. Isn't there a reference to that? <br />Glenn Bowles: WE didn't receive a formal notice but a verbal notice from the State Emergency Management Flood <br />Plain Mapping Division that FEMA was going to suspend the program because of certain deficiencies in the ordinance? <br />