Orange County NC Website
Excerpt of Minutes lAttachmenM <br />DRAFT <br />1 MINUTES <br />2 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD <br />3 JANUARY 8, 2014 <br />4 REGULAR MEETING <br />5 <br />6 <br />7 MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Hallenbeck (Chair), Cheeks Township Representative; Maxecine Mitchell, At -Large <br />8 Bingham Township; James Lea, Cedar Grove Township Representative; Herman Staats, At- Large, Cedar Grove <br />9 Township; Paul Guthrie, At -Large Chapel Hill Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township Representative; Tony <br />10 Blake, Bingham Township Representative; Johnny Randall, At -Large Chapel Hill Township; <br />11 <br />12 <br />13 MEMBERS ABSENT: Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At -Large Chapel Hill <br />14 Township; Vacant- Hillsborough Township Representative; Vacant — Eno Township Representative <br />15 <br />16 <br />17 STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor, Perdita Holtz, <br />18 Special Projects Coordinator; Ashley Moncado, Special Projects Planner; Tina Love, Administrative Assistant II <br />19 <br />20 * * * * ** <br />21 Agenda Item 8: Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Text Amendment — Home Occupations: To <br />22 make a recommendation to the BOCC on Planning Board — and Planning Director — initiated <br />23 amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to change the existing standards <br />24 for home occupations, modify and clarify existing regulations and definitions associated with <br />25 home occupations, and allow for the exemption of special events organized or affiliated with <br />26 a government or non - profit agency. This item was heard at the December 4, 2013 Planning <br />27 Board meeting. <br />28 Presenter: Ashley Moncado, Special Projects Planner <br />29 <br />30 Ashley Moncado reviewed abstract <br />31 <br />32 Paul Guthrie: First the disclaimer that I give every time that we in our household have an interest in small business. <br />33 1 have had a lot of questions with this and I have one particular thing that I want to raise which is not new but I want <br />34 to raise it again. That is for minor home occupations, no matter whether you have one customer per year or 500, <br />35 you have to pay $90 to the planning department for the privilege of having a license. I have real problems with that <br />36 with certain occupations those defined as minor home occupations. I have a little bit of problem but not as much <br />37 with the requirement of a plot plan if it has to be done professionally. I had suggested earlier that it should be <br />38 sufficient in residential home to use what is on the GIS system as a sketch of the property and indicate on that <br />39 whether or not that would be viable. I would hope there could be some accommodation especially for extremely <br />40 small line of business so that it doesn't become a big paperwork jungle in order to file. <br />41 <br />42 Pete Hallenbeck: Well, Mr. Harvey do you have a comment on that? <br />43 <br />44 Michael Harvey: As I've indicated before, a plot plan is a simple drawing that you can use the GIS map system, it's <br />45 actually listed that way in the Unified Development Ordinance. It's not a professionally prepared site plan. The $90 <br />46 dollar fee is a one -time application fee. There are application fees for everything you have to do and this is a one - <br />47 time fee that you have to pay. I don't believe it is burdensome and I don't believe it is unnecessary and I believe we <br />48 are within our right to charge the fee. <br />49 <br />50 Paul Guthrie: I'm not going to follow with the natural comment other than to say, I believe that to be a burden on <br />51 people trying to start a small business in a residence and I think as a matter of public policy, giving the nature of the <br />52 changing of the economics in this society, that we ought to be very careful about how we do this. That was one set <br />53 of comments. My personal opinion and I think everybody has heard me before on the record, my personal opinion <br />54 is you will have massive ignoring of this. What will come will be selective enforcement. I'm not comfortable with <br />W <br />