Minutes - 20040909 - Laserfiche WebLink

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elected officials in this area, sa there is mare citizen involvement. He said that even members of the 1991 task force want to participate. Chair Jacobs asked if there would be a recommendation for a TDR consultant and Craig Benedict said by the October 19th meeting. Chair Jacobs said that this person could sit in on this planning process. Commissioner Gordon said that it would be better to have the group to focus on the colored areas on the map which include the 10 and 20 year transition areas, the economic development districts, and the commercial activity nodes. She thinks the Board of County Commissioners should be working directly on the other areas. She said that the initial charge should be on the corridor area. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the planning group in Hillsborough was very focused, but that process was undermined by consultants. He said that he would be concerned about other task forces that lost track of their initial purpose and then people felt that they had been betrayed and the original purpose got lost. He said that it is important for someone to keep a hand on the pulse of this task force to see that it does not go astray. Chair Jacobs suggested that they come back with a map during the appointment process that delineates the area to be focused upon. The map could even go in the advertisement. He said that the issue of water and sewer extension from Mebane is of tremendous interest to people in this area. He would like to begin discussion of the service boundary agreement that might be proposed with Mebane. The staff will come back at the next meeting with a map and a mission statement of the task force. 10. Reports a. Political Sign Regulations and Discussion of Potential Revisions to Sign Ordinance The Board received a report an: 1) enforcement of political sign regulations prior to the November 2, 2004 election based on existing ordinance requirements; and 2) potential revisions and modifications to Article 9 of the Zoning Ordinance -Sign Regulations, for consideration at the November 22, 2004 Quarterly Public Hearing. Craig Benedict said that that there are existing sign regulations and existing political sign regulations. He said that during the primary season, there was a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. He listed some of the existing regulations. The maximum size of any one sign or combination of signs can be nine square feet. They only allow one side of the sign at this time. There is no maximum height to signs. The maximum number of signs far any one property is three. The signs cannot be located in the public right-af-way, which means that they have to be put an private property. The staff is interpreting that the Department of Transportation does not even have maps of every right-of-way that exists. Some right-of-ways go from ditch to ditch, or 10 feet off the pavement. They are considering this to be the operational right-of-way far the implementation of the regulations. Signs go behind the ditch line or at least 10 feet off the edge of the pavement. It may or may not be right-of-way. The existing regulations also say that the signs should not look like traffic signs. The staff will continue to remove these signs because they are traffic safety issues. There is no provision in the ordinance at this time for the timing of the signs. Once someone files for office they can start to post signs. The regulations for sign removal are to remove signs seven days after elections unless there is another primary. Signs cannot be hung from guardrails, telephone poles, or electric poles. Presently, it is required by the code to have a zoning compliance permit for political signs. It is not an exempt sign. The form must be signed and will be available at the Elections Office.