Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
12 <br />Board of County Commissioners <br />The second area had to do with Office-Assembly and the Conditional Use permit. Office <br />Assembly is a district that exists in Carrboro that could be located within the Town or in the Northern Study <br />Area. If an application were received for the Northern Study Area, it would be presented to the Board of <br />County Commissioners for approval. The rezoning to Office Assembly District would be a legislative decision <br />under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners. A special district was created by the Northern Study Area that <br />was to be more appropriate for this area and that was the Office-Assembly-Conditional Use. That district <br />does not differ too much from the Office-Assembly except for two issues: 1) architectural standards were <br />included that would have it look closer to a residential look, and 2) it limited the total amount of area in the <br />Northern Study Area to 25 acres. <br />The final issue was what a Village Mixed Use (VMU) would look like. The subcommittee <br />recommended a minimum of four-acres per tract and a maximum of 25-acres in the Northern Study Area. <br />Also, only one Village Mixed Use should be approved at any one time, so that the effect could be evaluated <br />before the next VMU proceeded. <br />Lastly, what a Village Mixed Use should look like was at issue. This district could be up to 200 <br />acres in size. It is being recommended that the projects be phased so that before 80% of a project is <br />complete it would be reviewed. After the review, the next project could start. As an example, if a Village <br />Mixed-Use project came in at between 50 and 100 acres, 80% would have to be completed before another <br />one could start. Another issue had to do with the location of the density in a VMU development. The <br />subcommittee recommended that if there are 60 acres of buildable land, the density cannot be spread to <br />adjacent open space land. The subcommittee also suggested reserving a section for Transfer of <br />Development Rights, although they did not recommend wording at this time. <br />In order to facilitate incorporating all of these suggestions into the Carrboro Land Use Ordinance, <br />the amendments were written as specific as possible so that Carrboro could somewhat easily incorporate <br />them into the text of the amendment. The subcommittee suggested reserving the opportunity to present their <br />nine recommendations in order to see the effect of changing the language in the implementing ordinance. <br />The comprehensive recommendation includes a request that Carrboro incorporate the aforesaid <br />recommendations into the text of their land use ordinance and resubmit to the County Attorney and Planning <br />Director for review by May 13, 1999. This would allow enough time for review and consistency determination <br />so that a Board of County Commissioners meeting can be held if necessary. <br />Commissioner Brown asked about including some commentary on annexation for both the <br />Assembly-Office and the Village Mixed Use. She stated that if these are proposed and adopted, Carrboro <br />should annex both Assembly-Office and Village Mixed Use. It is important that they agree to supply the <br />infrastructure and not leave it to the County to provide. <br />Geoffrey Gledhill said that the Board of Commissioners could indicate that they desire annexation <br />to happen but the County Commissioners could not require a linkage between the zoning and the <br />annexation. <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked if Carrboro could be asked if they agree with the principal of <br />annexation of Village Mixed-Use developments and Gledhill said that Carrboro could be asked that question. <br />John Link said it might be more pertinent to ask Carrboro to develop a report on the viability of <br />annexation. <br />Commissioner Brown asked if viability of annexation could be a part of the Conditional Use <br />Application. <br />Q \19990504A.a