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.;,°. 3~~ many of those who contacted the Planning Department -Why are the changes occurring .at this time - and - how will the changes affect my ~..;,~,4 taxes? In 1981 the Board of Commissioners adopted a Land Use Plan for the County, a set of policies to guide development in Orange County. Soma of those policies directed certain uses, such as low density residential or industrial, to the most appropriate areas of the County, based on factors such as current land use, transportation access, and environmental constraints. The Land Use Plan itself is not an enforcement mechanism, it provides the necessary justification for any land use regulations that may be adopted. One means of regulation is the Zoning Atlas, where each land use category identified in the Plan corresponds to one or several zoning types. The Plan also designated what are known as activity nodes which are areas of the. County identified as appropriate far commercial or industrial"activity and are usually centered near major intersections or along major transportation corridors. The type of commercial or industrial zoning depends in large part on whether or not the property is in an activity node. At the time the Land Use Plan was adapted, an update after five years was specified. That process, which began with Little River Township in 1986, was completed for the central Townships and Chapel Hill Township with the adoption of amended plans this past July. $ased on data that included hydrology, land use, population and housing growth, and other factors such as the completion of I-.40, several changes were made in the plans for each township. The changes in the Zoning Atlas flow directly from the changes in the plans. The second question asked often of the department regards the effect on an individual's property taxes. There are same rules of thumb that apply. If you increase the restrictions on the land, such as downzoning, generally the assessed value and the taxes will be reduced. If you decrease the restrictions and allow a more intensive use of the land, generally the value, and thus the taxes, will increase. The change in standards for most of the properties involved in these rezonings, however, are slight. Especially those involving a change solely between residential standards or a .protected watershed overlay. There should be little or no direct impact on taxes as a result of these changes, especially for single family lots already developed. Changes might be expected for those parcels which could see a more drastic change in development standards, such as large undeveloped tracts receiving a water quality critical area overlay or tracts being downzoned from commercial to residential. Several changes were made in the recently amended Cheeks Township Land Use Plan that warrant changes in the Zoning Atlas so that the Atlas conforms to the Land Use Plan. The changes in the Plan