Agenda - 09-17-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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13 1 zoning will only apply for enterprises that are not on a bona fide farm. She said the goal is to 2 assist farmers with their land but also to promote small businesses that support these farmers. 3 She would like comments to come back to the Board on what can be done to address some of 4 the issues on the grid. 5 Commissioner Pelissier referred to the questions about revising home occupations. She 6 said there also needs to be a discussion about the arts and culture communities. She said she 7 has heard from a number of people regarding the restrictions, and many counties are less 8 restrictive in their zoning regulations. She said there should be a focus on promoting 9 appropriate scalable businesses in the entire rural area. 10 Commissioner Rich said it would be helpful to see an example of a zoning project. It is 11 more complicated than confusing. She is not convinced that the County needs to have certain 12 businesses in the rural buffer. She would like to know what their partners think about the rural 13 buffer, since there has been no conversation since the 2007 discussion. 14 Commissioner Rich said she agrees with Commissioner Pelissier that there needs to be 15 some consideration of the arts and cultural communities. 16 Commissioner Gordon said she is not talking about bona fide farms. She said it would 17 make sense that if farmers are given a chance to do things that people generally have a 18 consensus about, things will probably move further. She feels that trying for more intensive 19 uses will only make things more complicated. She said she would start with lower impact uses; 20 and if there is a desire to do something in the rural buffer then it is important to talk with their 21 partners. She feels that the conversation should stick with Agricultural Support Enterprises 22 only, rather than opening up everything related to the rural buffer. 23 Commissioner Price said she feels strongly about#1, to ask staff to work on a 24 comprehensive project and get it done. She said the focus should be to make things as easy 25 as possible for people trying to farm. She said there needs to be some conversation with 26 partners on the rural buffer. She said that thresholds, scales and intensities should be looked 27 at. She said she remembers that there was a desire not to have meat slaughtering plants. She 28 said the zoning method choices are too overwhelming. 29 Commissioner Price said this discussion should stick with just farming for now, rather 30 than enlarge the issue to include arts. She said that that issue won't sit within the ASE. 31 Chair Jacobs said he agreed that more work should be done on #1 to make it more of 32 an enabling process. He said it would be best to take out the most intensive uses. He said 33 that the origin of this conversation was Maple View Farms, which technically was not allowed to 34 be where it was built. He gave the history of the store and the process of building and permits 35 in that case. He said it was a struggle to get it off the ground, and now it is a landmark 36 operation. 37 Chair Jacobs said that, for#2, he feels there should be a look at rural buffer; but a 38 conversation should be had with the partners at AOG before moving forward. 39 Chair Jacobs said he is not ready to address #4 until more information is gained. 40 Chair Jacobs said, regarding which categories should not be encouraged, his only 41 thought is the water quality critical areas. He said he has no problem with including the arts. 42 He said, regarding other issues, there have been discussions about differentiating impacts in 43 and to rural areas and urban areas. He gave the example of a proposed Montessori school. 44 Chair Jacobs said it would be a good idea to find a place to engage the Agricultural 45 Preservation Board in this discussion. 46 Commissioner Price said her only concern is that the home occupation is under a 47 different category and she said she doesn't want it to go away. 48 Commissioner Gordon said it is important to let their partners know that that the rural 49 buffer is being worked on.