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PUBLIC COMMENT: Alan Rosen spoke on behalf of The Village Project. He said that last week he attended the Planning Board subcommittee meeting on the comprehensive planning process, and it seems clear that they have taken their charge seriously. So far, it seems that The Village Project will be supportive of the recommendations. He said that the main reason he is here is to offer comment before the budget process. He thinks that it is important to make an investment in the comprehensive planning process to get it caught up with the small area planning processes. Representatives of The Village Project believe that the Board of County Commissioners need to address staffing needs for the land use element update and the comprehensive plan. They believe that hiring outside consultants is a justified expense that should yield substantial benefits. He said that in some of their investigations in the process, they discovered there was a project that began in 2000 that is now the McGowan Creek development in Efland. This plan started out as a 220-unit plan on 244 acres with 60% open space and ended up being only 17 units with 10+-acre lots. He said that this is a poor outcome for a piece of property this well located. He said that they would encourage the County Commissioners' consideration in investing the resources to bring the comprehensive plan update into the existing uses instead of dealing with so many non-conforming uses. 2. Update an Rural Enterprises Project iAgricultural Support Enterprises) Planning and Economic Development staff will propose draft text amendments to allow far changes to the Orange County Zoning Atlas through a new conditional district rezoning process. This new mechanism would be used to rezone properties for agriculturally related businesses as an extension of the existing Agricultural Services floating zoning district. Staff will respond to questions and requests direction from the Board on how to proceed. Economic Development Director Dianne Reid said that a farmer staff member reminded her that the Orange-Durham EDD was previously known as the Eno EDD. Dianne Reid said that the Agricultural Support Enterprises Initiative was designed to offer farmers supplemental revenue options with agricultural products and services related to farming, and also to allow uses to occur in rural areas. Specifically, this was designed to provide real additional opportunities for local farmers and to provide a clear process -one that is user-friendly and streamlined. She made a PowerPoint presentation. With this project, applicants could decide on a general rezoning or a conditional district rezoning. It would be a legislative decision -the Board would consider zoning and the staff would review the site plan. Craig Benedict said that if someone asked far an AS designation, they would not have to show any plan to the County Commissioners on what exactly they are proposing; it could be any of the uses an the list. He made reference to the Proposed Use Categories and Permitting Requirements Based on Intensity chart and said that the staff came up with the new planning construct called a General or Conditional District. General would be the full list of uses and the conditional district would be a more specific use. This process should be able to go a lot faster than the present one. Tina Moon said that with conditional district rezoning, approval only allows 1-3 uses, so the staff is suggesting a less rigorous approval process. They are recommending a new step for agricultural service districts where projects would be submitted to the Planning Board, the Economic Development Commission, and the Agricultural Preservation Board. At that point, the materials would be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners either at a quarterly public hearing or at a regular meeting (conditional district}. She said that this proposal could cut the process almost in half. There will be a lot of amendments if this proposal is implemented.