Agenda - 11-23-2009 - C2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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�)A� 0.c_h n,en) 13 APPROVED 10/612009 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION September 10, 2009 7:OOp.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a work session on Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building in Hillsborough, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Valerie P. Foushee, and Commissioners Alice Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Barry Jacobs, Mike Nelson, Bernadette Pelissier, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Frank Clifton and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) A motion was made by Commissioner Hemminger, seconded by Commissioner Pelissier to approve adding another closed session item to the agenda — "to consult with an attorney retained by the Board in order to preserve the attorney - client privilege between the attorney and the Board," pursuant to G.S. 143- 318.11(a)(3). VOTE: UNANIMOUS 1. County Regulation of Billboard Lighting County Attorney John Roberts said that this issue involves some outdoor advertising signs on the 1- 40/1 -85 corridor and that lighting is the issue. These signs are owned by Ben Lloyd. He said that Mr. Lloyd petitioned the County several years ago to restore lighting on these billboards and the petition was denied by the Board of Adjustment. There was a subsequent Board of Adjustment hearing on it, and the BOA upheld the denial. The sign company appealed to the Superior Court. At some point during the appeal, the sign company voluntarily dismissed the appeal and did not, within a one -year period, re -file the appeal, and the case died in Superior Court. What is left is the Board of Adjustment's decision that lighting should be denied. There has been some case law decided since that time and the Court of Appeals of North Carolina and the Supreme Court of North Carolina have ruled in a case of Lamar OCI vs. Stanley County Board of Adjustment that a county ordinance that makes illegal an action that the Department of Transportation (DOT) rules to make legal is preempted by the DOT rules. That is part of what applies to this situation. This is a complex issue and involves numerous arguments on both sides. He thinks that there are two options for the Board of County Commissioners to take. One is to hold that this matter has been adjudicated and is disposed of. The Board of Adjustment has the force of the law. The other option is amending the applicable portion of the County Zoning Ordinance to reflect what DOT's rules say. John Roberts said that the difference in the DOT rules and the Orange County ordinance is that DOT says if the lighting was in the past and was depowered then it can be powered again; Orange County's ordinance says that if lighting is depowered then it cannot be powered again.