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presented by Planner Don Belk for the purpose of receiving public comment. Mr. Belk stated that the Land Use Plan is a part of the County's Comprehensive Plan. It guides the County's policies on growth, establishes land use goals and objectives and seeks to influence the location and pattern of development. The Zoning Ordinance provides for changes to the Land Use Element and Land Use categories in the following situations: ¦ because of changed or changing conditions in a particular area or areas of the county, or ¦ to correct an error or omission in the Land Use Plan, or ¦ in response to a change in polices, objectives, principals or standards governing the physical development of the County. The applicant, Apex Northwest Partnership, submitted an application to amend the Land Use Plan. The property proposed for the amendment lies in Hillsborough Township, north of Hillsborough between NC 86 and NC 57 and north of Rocky Lane (SR 1622). It is also west and north of the Mars Hill Baptist Church property. The property is currently undeveloped and contains two (2) tracts totaling 390 acres. The larger tract is owned by Apex Northwest Partnership and is 313 acres in size. On the southern portion of the property is a tract owned by Eva Brown and Wayne Powell and it contains 78.11 acres. There is a significant portion of this property that lies within the existing Rural Industrial Activity Node which is focused on the intersection of Coleman Loop Road and NC 86. A Plan Amendment was approved in January 1985 which extended the 10-Year transition area into the southwest quadrant of this activity node. Eighty-five (85%) of the Powell and Brown tract lies within this Land Use Plan category and 15% of the Apex Northwest Partnership tract lies within that plan category. The property, for the most part, is zoned for Agricultural-Residential (AR) which permits residential uses at a density of 1 unit per acre or a minimum lot size of .92 acres. This amendment to change this area to a 10-Year Transition Area could possibly result in an extension of urban services which would impact the rural Industrial Activity Node. Ultimately, because of the higher density uses that would be permitted in a 10-Year Transition Area another change to the Land Use Element could be necessitated in order to change the Rural Industrial Activity Node to a higher intensity classification such as a Commercial Industrial Transition Activity Node. A 10-Year Transition Area is described in the Land Use Element as land located in areas that are in the process of changing from rural to urban and are suitable for urban densities and located in an area that should be provided with public utilities and services within the first 10-Year phase of the plan. The amendment proposed by Apex Northwest in their application would expand the 10-Year Transition Plan category to land currently designated as Agricultural Residential and Rural Industrial Activity Node. It would also allow the potential rezoning of property to higher density residential uses in the future. Changes to the land use categories require comparing the proposal with criteria to determine the suitability of certain locations to contain certain land uses. The land use categories help the Commissioners to make decisions about the most appropriate distribution of land throughout the County. Requests to change the location of land use categories require that the proposed change be filtered through the locational criteria in order to evaluate the suitability of the area which contains potentially different land uses. That determination is the most important step in the analysis of an amendment to change the land uses. The locational criteria used to make this determination are land slope, hydrology, flora and fauna, soil conditions, public services and utilities, transportation system, energy use, existing land uses, agricultural and forestry, population density and historic and cultural features. In the analysis conducted for the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners, a table was provided that listed each criterion along with the determination of whether the area being evaluated was compatible for the requested land use category change. The point to be made about the analysis is that although there have been discussions about a school and/or a park site, those discussions have not entered into this analysis. The staff evaluation of the locational criteria is focused on the existing conditions and trends and not on development proposals. The areas of noncompliance are listed below: Q:119990221d.c