Orange County NC Website
80 <br /> 8 <br /> the issues and the definitional issues and not get sidetracked by the pleas <br /> for personal sympathy. <br /> In answer to a question from a Planning Board member, Mr. Lloyd said <br /> he was not sure he discussed the uses in great detail with the discussion he <br /> had with Mr. Collins and Mr. Gledhill. Although he thinks the presumption <br /> among them was they were talking about something that would allow <br /> continuation of Mr. Wilson' s business. What they focused on were <br /> possibilities that would allow him to continue the business for a finite <br /> period of time and at the end of that time, the use would stop. <br /> Geof Gledhill said, so that everyone would know the context in which <br /> these discussions took place, this case was referred to arbitration and <br /> mediation. They spent about a half day in mediation in an attempt to reach <br /> an agreement on how to resolve this situation. Mr. Lloyd' s recollection of <br /> the offer is accurate. It was to allow Mr. Wilson to continue his present <br /> use of his property for some period of time. <br /> Geof Gledhill said that any proposed mediation agreement would have had <br /> to come back to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration if there <br /> had been an agreement and there wasn't. It has nothing to do with whether <br /> the property ought to be or ought not to be rezoned. <br /> Grainger Barrett said that the context of this basic issue is a question <br /> of whether there was a manifest error in the Zoning Ordinance when zoning <br /> was applied to this township back in 1981 . He introduced into the record a <br /> copy of the building permit application of 1990 which Mr. Lloyd referred to <br /> above. He outlined the events that led up to the time the building permit <br /> was issued. He also introduced into evidence certain pages of a deposition <br /> of Mr. Wilson in which he states four or five times that he discussed before <br /> the rezoning decision with Mr. Combs the sale of this property. In his <br /> testimony at the Planning Board at the public hearing, he said this property <br /> was used for storing junked vehicles . That is all he said this property was <br /> ever used for. He thinks that this kind of testimony is less than <br /> substantial when it is given to the Board of County Commissioners in this <br /> context tonight. In Mr. Reid' s testimony, the reference he makes are that <br /> all he ever saw out there were junked cars . He makes clear on page 87 that <br /> Mr. Martin, Sr. , actual garage was on Mt. Carmel Church Road where parts <br /> for the repair came from the area in question. He agrees with Mr. Smith that <br /> there is a definitional issue that the Board will have to confront. He <br /> contrasted the definition of a junk yard with that of a body shop. He <br /> suggested that working on hotrods was a hobby and not a commercial activity <br /> of the type being talking about. <br /> Commissioner Willhoit made reference to page 101 of the agenda, affidavit <br /> signed by Mr. Martin in 1984, item 5 where he says he stored numerous used <br /> junked vehicles on the six acres for the purpose of repairing vehicles and <br /> asked for clarification on how that fits. Geof Gledhill said that Judge <br /> Stevens' view was that it did not provide evidence that there was bodyshop <br /> work being done on this property. The problem with noncomforming use is <br /> complicated. There cannot be a noncomforming junkyard use because under <br /> Orange County's Zoning Ordinance, a junkyard is a special use and Orange <br /> County does not recognize special uses as noncomforming. Therefore, there <br /> is no way to make this use noncomforming under the County' s Zoning <br /> Ordinance. <br />