Orange County NC Website
Tina Moon said that they have not pursued this specifically <br />Chair Jacobs said that there were some meetings years ago before Chatham County lost its <br />case, but they have not discussed it as part of this. He is not sure if the County has much <br />purview based on what the courts have ruled. <br />Craig Benedict said that bona fide farms are exempt from their zoning regulations. <br />Joal Hall Broun asked if there could be a bona fide farm and a bed and breakfast associated <br />with it and if there would be an opportunity far a farmer to do this or if there would be more <br />constraints. Craig Benedict said that there would be no more constraints. <br />Bill Strom asked about application of these for the entire County, including the rural buffer. <br />Craig Benedict said that the rural buffer would be within Grange County's planning jurisdiction. <br />Bill Strom said that there is a wide range of uses and there needs to be some distinction in the <br />categories. Same of the uses would be great in the rural buffer and some would seem <br />problematic. <br />Craig Benedict said that they are not suggesting that all of these uses will go in every zoning <br />district in the County. The next step in the process is to scale these uses appropriately for <br />different parts of the County. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that this is a change from the uses currently allowed in the rural <br />buffer and she did have some concerns about this. She would like more oversight over same of <br />these proposed uses and the degree of oversight could be different for different zoning districts, <br />depending on density and other factors. <br />Mark Chilton said that he agrees with Commissioner Gordon. He said that he is glad that the <br />County is looking at this because of the reports of a bad outlook for farming. He said that the <br />Maple View Farm Ice Cream store has been a great development and a positive impact an the <br />quality of life in southern Orange County. He said that he has talked with people that are from <br />Chapel Hill and Carrboro and are interested in doing alternative agricultural activities and one of <br />the challenges is to get soil to the point that it can produce. He asked if it would be possible to <br />write development rules in some way in Orange County that would allow people to divide lots to <br />smaller lot sizes than is currently allowed in the rural buffer, provided that the smaller lots would <br />never be permitted to have a dwelling and would be used as a small scale farming operation. <br />He said that these types of activities would be more compatible with the rural buffer. <br />Jim Ward asked if retail and wholesale greenhouses would fall under this spectrum. Craig <br />Benedict said that wholesale greenhouses would fall under bona fide farm. They are trying to <br />define when it becomes not primarily a wholesale use. If it is outright retail sales, it would be in <br />a commercial node. <br />Chair Jacobs said that he thought there was a category for winery with six events, and he thinks <br />the wording is too restrictive. He also thinks that composting under agricultural services is too <br />restrictive. He would like to figure out where bed and breakfast should go and put it on there <br />because it will be a common question, just like greenhouses. He asked what happened to <br />greenhouses on this list. <br />