Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
00 <br />APPROVED 11114/2006 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF CONMUSSIONERS <br />REGULAR MEETING <br />October 3, 2006 <br />7:00 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, <br />October 3, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom in Hillsborough, North <br />Carolina. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners <br />Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen Halkiotis <br />COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Rod Visser, Assistant County <br />Manager Gwen Harvey, and Clerk to the-Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff-members <br />will be identified appropriately below) <br />8. Public Hearings <br />a Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation (PEMC) Planned Development (PD- <br />01) and Special Use Permit. Class A <br />The Board held'a public hearing to hear public testimony regarding the PEMC <br />request to amend its Planned Development — Office /institution (PD -01) zoning district <br />and its Class A Special Use Permit to. permit the principal use of a 350 -foot replacement <br />tower at its administrative and operations. center located at 2500 NC Highway 86 South; <br />Hillsborough. <br />Planning Director Craig Benedict introduced this item. This is a 34 -acre site that <br />is home to Piedmont Electric and the request is to replace the present tower with a 320= <br />foot tower with a 30 -foot extension antenna. The process is a two -part process. The first <br />is a planned development rezoning modification, which is a legislative process. The <br />second part is a special use permit, which is a quasi judicial process. This will include <br />swearing in people that will be providing testimony. These meetings are not usually held <br />at regular County Commissioners' meetings, but since this will serve some public safety <br />purposes, the process will be expedited. The higher amount of the tower would permit <br />for co- location opportunities by other providers. He made reference to page 65 of the <br />abstract and bird migration patterns. The staff certifies that the material has been <br />advertised appropriately in accordance with Article 20, Section 6.3, and notices to <br />property owners that are adjacent and within a radius of the site have been sent out. <br />Over 200 notices have been sent out and there have been approximately five inquiries. <br />There is also technical data supporting this application. The process is for the Chair of <br />the Planning Board to jointly chair this part of the meeting. <br />The remainder of this item was transcribed verbatim. <br />Jay Bryan: Thank you, Mr. Benedict, I appreciate that. I'm Jay Bryan, I'm Chair of the <br />Planning Board, and we have members of the Planning Board sitting here to my left, to <br />your right. I welcome all of you tonight for this public hearing. Who is here on behalf of <br />the applicant? State your name please for the record. <br />Robin Blanton: Good evening, I'm Robin Blanton with Piedmont EMC, and as you are <br />aware, we have submitted an application to construct a 350 -foot tower, and that would <br />be the top of the antenna height on the tower. <br />Geof Gledhill: Excuse me. I think that the testimony that this witness is likely to be next <br />as to the legislative and the special use permit. I think you have to swear in and let him <br />start over again. <br />At this time, the Clerk swore in all speakers to this item. <br />