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1 <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: May 20, 2014 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 7 -b <br />SUBJECT: Addition of the Unified Development Ordinance to the Code of Ordinances of <br />Orange County, North Carolina <br />DEPARTMENT: Attorney's Office PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Codification Resolution John Roberts, (919) 245 -2318 <br />PURPOSE: To codify Orange County's Unified Development Ordinance ( "UDO ") by adding it to <br />the Code of Ordinances of Orange County, North Carolina (the "Code ") as Appendix A thereto. <br />BACKGROUND: On December 17, 1996 the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, <br />pursuant to NCGS §153A -49, authorized the codification of its ordinances into a code of <br />ordinances, subject to attorney approval. Work commenced on this project and in early 2001 a <br />draft code was received by County staff. Further work was performed preparing the Code for <br />adoption; however, for various reasons the Code was never formally adopted. The Code, in its <br />un- adopted form, remained accessible on the County's web site. <br />Even though it was not adopted, the Code was maintained and updated regularly by Municipal <br />Code Corporation ( "MuniCode ") over the years and was treated as a lawfully adopted code <br />which caused confusion both to Orange County staff, who occasionally referenced the Code as <br />the law of Orange County, and also by attorneys and local residents who engaged in business <br />with the County. However, because it was never adopted, the online version of the Code, <br />maintained at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars was not, until 2009, a lawful codification. <br />In April 2009 the Board of County Commissioners employed a County Attorney as its first in- <br />house counsel. One of the initial directives the Commissioners issued to the County Attorney <br />was to bring forward the codification of Orange County's ordinances for adoption. This task <br />was made more difficult by the vast number of amendments made to the ordinances from 2001 <br />when the Code was initially drafted through 2011 when the final draft Code was completed. <br />These issues were ultimately resolved, and on December 5, 2011, the general ordinances of <br />Orange County were codified by the Board of County Commissioners into the Code of <br />Ordinances of Orange County, North Carolina. <br />Due to multiple problems with the complexity of converting the UDO to an appropriate format <br />and also several staff changes and other issues at MuniCode, the adopted Code did not include <br />