Minutes 11-22-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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important document. He asked if the terms within the Comprehensive Plan are the terms that should be used in the UDO also. May Becker said that she agreed with Larry Wright. She feels like the Planning Board has not spent sufficient time on this version of the UDO to figure out if this is really what is best. In particular, she has concerns about several items, including stream buffers, protecting the limited water supplies, and the tree protection ordinance. Commissioner Gordon said that she also has concerns about this most recent version of the UDO document. She made reference to her handouts for the public hearing in which she summarized some sections of the UDO she believed were important, but said that she had not even begun to go through this document. She is particularly concerned about conditional zoning. She is also concerned that this is the only public hearing on this UDO. She said it is a very large document, and it is not easy to understand. It is also more than a consolidation of existing ordinances, and has new sections in it. For example, there is a new section on tree protection. She said when the Chapel Hill Town Council considered its own tree protection ordinance, it took extra time to consider just that one ordinance. She said there needs to be more clarity in the document. She would like the Planning Board to have time to read it and go through it more thoroughly. Commissioner Jacobs said that he has pretty much the same background as Commissioner Gordon in that he has been a Commissioner for awhile and he has been on the Planning Board. He has a lot of respect for the Planning Board and the process. He said that he also came tonight aware of the fact that last week the County got an odd, but respectable request from the Town of Chapel Hill to please provide a copy of the UDO. He said that there should be presentations at all four Towns. He said that staff needs to come up with a schedule to inform the towns about this. He would like a recommendation from the Planning Board after the public hearings. He thinks that there are some complicated issues and some departures from what has been done before. He said that it is reasonable to give more time to make sure that everyone understands the changes. Judith Wegner said that there are a lot of areas to be decided. She said that the Planning Board understands that the goal is to have a single document for county ordinances. Brian Crawford said that there are a lot of development ordinance documents and there are also a lot of things in the UDO that the Planning Board does not like. The goal is for the developer to go to one document and figure out how to get things done in Orange County. The goal is to have a unified document. He wants the Commissioners to understand that the Planning Board is aware that there are things in the UDO that are not perfect. Commissioner Jacobs asked Craig Benedict if he envisioned a way that the County could adopt the UDO and flag sections that have to be refined. Craig Benedict said that there is a bridge document that notes everything mentioned by the County Commissioners, Planning Board, and the public. These things are flagged. In the existing ordinance, it would be problematic to pull things out. Larry Wright pointed out that there are a lot of cross references from chapter to chapter. Steve Yuhasz said that this is just the first phase. He said that if the UDO is not put in place fairly quickly, then the County will never get to the second phase. He said that it would be a huge step backwards to delay. May Becker said that for the parts that are new, the Planning Board has not had enough time to go through it. The board needs more time to sit down and make an informed recommendation. Commissioner Hemminger said that she has never been on a Planning Board, so it is hard for her to digest. She thinks that there is time to spend on making this a document that works. She would like to hear what the public has to say.