Agenda - 08-24-2009 - E1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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DRAFT 30 Attachment 6 414 and Zoning texts that have to be corrected. This Board has seen several draft versions of amendments to sign ordinances, 415 landscaping ordinances, parking regulations, stream buffer regulations, etc. over the last four years. We have several other 416 projects that we need to begin work on implementing as well, most notably, beginning to implement existing Small Area Plans 417 that have been adopted. I will admit that this work plan is very ambitious. Our ability to complete this project will be based on 418 the Department's ability to retain staff. Our ultimate goal is to make this document more user - friendly and easily understandable. 419 This process will not just involve making cursory changes to the zoning regulations. This process will involve making potentially 420 major modifications to zoning, the Economic Development Design Manual, which is a component of the Zoning Ordinance and 421 Subdivision ordinance in an effort to combine them into one central document and make the existing regulations more uniform. It 422 would also ask staff to identify and incorporate new development regulations. If I can ask you all to begin reviewing the 423 information on page 46. 424 425 Mary Bobbitt- Cooke: I have a question. According to the information I am seeing you estimate the need to spend 10 hours a 426 week to ensure this will get done. It suggests that you just completed a project and now you have 10 hours available now or you 427 will work 10 hours a week more. There is a lot of time carved out of people's work life. 428 429 Michael Harvey: We have all wrestled with that problem; my answer would be this has to be done. We have attempted to 430 identify what our time commitment will be. Again, this is somewhat ambitious. If we don't have staff resources, this may need to 431 be revised. Our catch 22 is that we have several provisions that have to be revised and new regulations incorporated to 432 accomplish what we have been directed to do by the BOCC. 433 434 Brian Crawford: I have lived the LIDO situation in Durham. Are you saying in Orange County, there are inconsistencies such in 435 or Development Ordinances that it is embarrassing or just that it is not efficient in its presentation. My experience with the 436 County next door was an attempt to try to make a pretty document was my interpretation. I didn't see this LIDO help the 437 development process. 438 439 Michael Harvey: I will answer that question as follows, first this is an attempt to make it more user - friendly and address 440 presentation issues. But more importantly we have to eliminate some major inconsistencies through all of the existing regulatory 441 standards. For example, in the Sign Ordinance, I have three different sections that basically give contradictory standards on how 442 a free standing sign should be developed on your property. Finally, we would like to begin implementation of the previously 443 adopted Small Area Plans. 444 445 Mark Marcoplos: You have three conflicting standards; you will go with the most restrictive, why can't you just delete the other 446 two? 447 448 Michael Harvey: It would not be hard to delete the two conflicting sections but that is just one example. The ordinances is 449 replete with similar problems. There are regulatory changes that we believe are essentially necessary. 450 451 Earl McKee: I understand you to say that it would probably take as long to pinpoint and eliminate each item as to work on 452 Unified Development. 453 454 Michael Harvey: If we can do it comprehensively in one shot and we could identify what is being changed and why, everyone 455 would be able to track the proposed modifications, at least in my opinion. We have been authorized to correct the 456 inconsistencies and mold the two documents together. 457 458 Craig Benedict: We are talking basically about reformatting documents that have an understandable numbering system, etc. to 459 at least create a framework so as we make these amendments in the future, it makes sense where they plug in to the master 460 document. 461 462 Michael Harvey: Referring back to the abstract on page 48, under Task Two, staff will actually work closer with the consultant to 463 begin revising existing graphic representation of our standards. Most notably, the subdivision ordinance, we have a lot of 464 outdated design guidelines and elements. 465 466 Larry Wright: When you do have this contractor come in, is there going to be a concerted effort to make sure that all this is 467 coordinated through the Comprehensive Plan? You could end up with the same problem. 468 469 Michael Harvey: Our goal is to clean up the current ordinance we have problems with, initiate the Small Area Plans and make 470 sure we are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. The consultant will be hired to begin working with us to provide better 471 graphics. 472