Agenda - 09-08-2014 - C5 - Laserfiche WebLink

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met the application deadline date. Staff's informal polling of local government processes has indicated that most local governments put all applications that were received by the filing deadline on the designated agenda, even if some must get tabled to a future meeting due to time constraints; some will call a special meeting in months that are particularly busy. A small number of local governments limit the number of items that can be placed on any one agenda or informally work with applicants to get permission to place items on a later agenda if the agenda for a particular meeting has gotten very full. Planning Board Involvement The existing practice of holding a joint public hearing (governing body /Planning Board) is also fairly unique (although the Town of Hillsborough also operates this way). With a joint hearing, a quorum of members of both boards is necessary in order to legitimately hold the hearing. Some local governments have the Planning Board make a recommendation on items prior to the public hearing while other local governments have the Planning Board make a recommendation after the public hearing. Either process can work well, depending on the desires of the local government. If a recommendation is made before the public hearing, the Planning Board focuses its review on the technical merits of an item. If a recommendation is made after the public hearing, the Planning Board's recommendation can take into consideration comments made at the public hearing. BOCC input at the September 9, 2013 work session leaned strongly toward having the Planning Board make its recommendation after the public hearing with access to the content of the public hearing and this is how the proposed amendment has been written. Closure of Public Hearings; Rewording of Agenda Headings In April 2014, Planning staff became aware that the BOCC may also wish to, discuss the current process related to closing public hearings and /or how the closure of public hearings appears on the BOCC agenda. The current process, which has not been proposed for changes at this time, is to keep the public hearing open in order to allow interested persons to submit written comments to the Planning Board and to appear before the Planning Board, so long as the person's oral comments are consistent with their submitted written comments. This has been the process for well over a decade, and possibly since the establishment of zoning in Orange County, because it allows people to address the Planning Board but also ensures that comments made after the oral public hearing are documented and the BOCC is aware of additional comments. Because the UDO allows ;written comments to be made after the oral public hearing, the public hearing is held open in order to receive any submitted written comments. Formerly, the public hearing was not necessarily held open to a date -time certain but in the `00s, case law was made in North Carolina which prompted the County Attorney at the time to begin advising the County that public hearings must be adjourned to a specific date /time because failure to do so could result in legal challenges. If the current process regarding allowing written comments is kept intact, a solution to the potential confusion that might result with a planning - related item being listed on the BOCC agenda under "Public Hearings" but with no additional comment accepted 5