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an area where you could at least talk about permitting a community kind of system that would be design constructed and regulated by a local entity (OWASA or Hillsborough or Orange County}. This would make the rural activity nodes mean something and separate the uses from residential areas. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to "small scale rural ventures" and asked what was meant by off-season use of farm equipment. Craig Benedict said that this refers to grading operations during the off-season and snow removal. Commissioner Halkiotis spoke about a farmer from Maryland that was setting up a playground for urbanites and city dwellers, until the planning department found out and shut it down. He said that this is a creative idea and there are some opportunities here. Noah Ranells commented that this has been educational for those involved in the process and staff is trying to do a good job. He wanted to avoid making the process complicated. He also mentioned looking at the process used by neighboring counties. Ted Triebel agreed with Noah Ranells in concept and stated that the Little River district wanted the process to be streamlined. Public Comment; Barry Katz said that he recognizes that about 1 % of Orange County's economy is from agriculture. It is not distributed equally among the County, and he believes that the areas that have mast of it would benefit most from the support of these kinds of efforts. He said that it would be nice to emphasize the support of those farmers who are comparatively poor to give them an opportunity. He made reference to attachment 4 on page 16 and said that everything from medium scale rural ventures to services, processing, and industrial seems that it requires the construction of a building. This requires a fair amount of investment and the necessary capital would be difficult far poor farmers to obtain. He said that many businesses fail, and he asked if the farmer could sell the building to someone else. Also, if the neighborhood character changes, the farmer might want to change the items for sale in the buildings to meet the needs of the people in the neighborhood. He asked if there was any entity that would monitor what goes on in these buildings. He said that all of these things will affect the possibilities of a farmer going out to borrow money from a loan entity. He is also concerned about the susceptibility of the County Commissioners to the kind of pressure that could be put on them by individuals who are facing this as a legislative decision rather than as a decision that goes through the normal process. Chair Carey said that there will be other opportunities for the public to comment on any proposal that goes forward. He suggested that Craig Benedict not forward this proposal to the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro yet because there are several revisions needed. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to Noah Ranells' comment and said that he would like to see this in priority order and see if certain things can be moved forward. Some more problematic things could be held up while revisions are made. He would also like to look at whether the large scale rural venture should start out as a class A permit as apposed to going to the Board of Adjustment. He would like to see the pros and cons of this. He agrees that this should came back as soon as passible. He said that if the County Commissioners act on a TDR consultant, the group should be able to look at this and comment on how this might work on a TDR scheme. Commissioner Gordon said that the next time this comes back, she would like the public to be able to comment on the concepts before it is moved forward. It should be a public hearing item ar a regular meeting item. Chair Carey asked the staff to plan on having this at the May public hearing. 2. Transportation Issues