Orange County NC Website
2 <br />1 Friends School. The abstract for this item begins on page 1 and extends all the way to page <br />2 144. I am going to review portions of this abstract and the applicant has a brief presentation <br />3 and will respond to any questions that may arise. The background is covered on page 1 and 2 <br />4 of the abstract. The school was originally approved in the 1980's as a planned development. <br />5 Previous modifications had been approved and authorized by the County Commissioners over <br />6 the years with respect to the operation of the facility as well as the operation of the existing <br />7 septic system on site. It needs to be remembered that this school was in existence and began <br />8 operation before the County adopted comprehensive regulations governing the development of <br />9 school operations as are currently articulated in section 5.8.4 of the Unified Development <br />10 Ordinance. <br />11 As this is a new request seeking to expand and modify the County's original approval, the <br />12 applicant is obligated to demonstrate compliance, not only with the provisions of Section 5.8.4, <br />13 but also required to rezone portions of property to conditional use as the planned development <br />14 zoning designation no longer exists. You all remember that the conditional use permit process <br />15 took over the planned development permit review process when the UDO was adopted in April <br />16 of this year. <br />17 The applicant's proposal is to abandon and re-locate the existing septic, the wastewater <br />18 treatment system, out of an existing stream buffer. They are going to be developing a new <br />19 performing arts center, which we are going to look at when we review the submitted site plan in <br />20 a moment. I'm going to call these particular issues out to you. They are looking to develop <br />21 additional recreational fields. They are going to relocating, for example, an existing baseball <br />22 field and developing altemative fields. They are going to do additions to existing school <br />23 buildings. They are going to be installing a new access drive via Mt. Sinai Road, and they're <br />24 going to be developing additional parking facilities. <br />25 As I indicated previously, this involves a rezoning request. They are proposing the rezoning of <br />26 parcels of property from existing Rural Buffer and Planning Development Housing Rural Buffer <br />27 to Rural Buffer Conditional Use. The size of all potential parcels involved is about 40 acres of <br />28 the existing school operation, which is already encumbered under old special use permits to <br />29 allow for the operation of the school. This is a copy of the site plan, which you all have in your <br />30 packet. I'd like to call your attention to several facets and elements of this project to get you <br />31 oriented. <br />32 (Pointing to map) This is Mt. Sinai Road here. This is Friend School Road here. This, denoted <br />33 on the site plan, this black area here is the new performing arts center, which is right outside the <br />34 stream buffer. The existing school buildings show dark areas where there are going to be <br />35 additions. The old baseball field has been moved here. You will note here is the proposed new <br />36 access road off of Mt. Sinai with additional parking here to support the performing arts center. <br />37 We have tennis courts and other recreational areas down in here. We have a building proposed <br />38 next to the existing soccer ~elds and athletic fields, and the wastewater treatment facility will be <br />39 up in this general area. <br />40 As the Board knows, this is a two-step approval process. You are going to be taking action on a <br />41 rezoning request and you're going to be taking action on a Class A Special Use Permit, which is <br />42 a quasi-judicial hearing process according to the provisions of Section 2.7 and 2.9 of the UDO. <br />43 You're going to be reviewing each of these applications simultaneously, but when you take <br />44 action, you are going to be taking action on the legislative component first and the quasi judicial <br />45 portion second. You need to bear in mind that the information in terms of whether or not you're <br />46 going to approve or deny the quasi judicial component, i.e., the Special Use Permit, needs to be <br />47 based on the evidence entered into the record during the various public hearings and the <br />48 testimony offered herein. To review the provisions of the UDO, I'm going to call your attention <br />16 <br />