Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
and representatives from the farming community involved in this project. This project has Bane <br />to the Agricultural Preservation Board and the Planning Board. There are three examples <br />included in the materials of farm-related businesses -Reba and Roses (retail garden center), <br />Wizard's Cauldron (industrial use in agricultural/residential area), and Maple View Ice Cream. <br />These businesses are assets to the County. <br />Tina Moon said that one of the first key things they tried to do with this project was to clarify <br />what a bona fide farm is. She made reference to page one of the matrix (attachment 4) and <br />pointed out representative examples of a bona fide farm and representative examples of <br />accessory uses related or incidental to a bona fide farm on page two. They anticipate that the <br />bulk of the new uses that will be seen will fit on the left side of the continuum. She pointed out <br />the middle and end boxes now speak to commercial or industrial type uses, whether or not they <br />are in an existing commercial district. This is an important issue. One of the mast challenging <br />aspects is defining the threshold of where farming activity becomes commercial in character and <br />may need to be in a commercial zone, and how to make it consistent with the land use policies <br />and residential districts. <br />After considerable research of other successful jurisdictions, staff would like to introduce as <br />anew planning construct for Orange County the idea of conditional district rezoning. This would <br />allow the agricultural-related businesses to occur in the residentially zoned districts in a way that <br />would be consistent with the land use ordinance. <br />Craig Benedict stepped forward to the maps and painted out a possible option for <br />conditional district rezoning. He provided examples for changing R1 to Community Commercial <br />and the possibility of an agricultural service district. Craig Benedict explained that what we do <br />not have is conditional district rezoning. He said that rezoning is legislative and followed the <br />defined review process which would take 6 - 12 months. <br />In summary, Craig explained that staff is looking for a request to proceed along these <br />concepts, developing text amendments to the zoning code that would allow for this different type <br />of method. Some amendments for public hearing could be prepared as early as May. <br />Commissioner Gordon made reference to the matrix and said that there are some pages <br />under zoning district where it says residential, rural activity node, commerciallindustrial, and <br />new ar revised district needed. If it says residential, it says AR, R1, RB, but it does not say new <br />or revised district needed. She asked what this means. Tina Moon gave an example of a <br />country store use and said that this is a new proposed use. It would not be allowed in a <br />residential district currently, but it would have to go through the rezoning process to became an <br />agricultural service district. This is why it is listed as new district needed, AS, agricultural <br />services, ar the agricultural services additional district. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked several other clarifying questions that were answered by Tina <br />Moon. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis commended the group, but said that he thinks there is an element <br />missing. He made reference to the three examples (Reba and Rases, Wizard's Cauldron, and <br />Maple View Farm} and said that all of them have come before the Board at one time or another <br />and County Commissioners had to get involved for the enterprises to ultimately achieve an <br />opportunity to go ahead and carry out their business. He thinks that Reba and Rases is one of <br />the finest agriculturally-based enterprises in the world. He remembers when Churton Grove <br />was just being built, that people were complaining about Reba and Roses and the piles of mulch <br />because their children were on Reba and Roses' property and it posed a danger. He said that <br />the children should stay on their own property and respect the rights of other people. He said <br />that The Wizard's Cauldron had a hard time because everyone was afraid that the operation <br />would destroy the watershed. All of the oils brought in were organically based and there were <br />no chemical additives. This owner had to cross the border to Caswell County. Regarding <br />