Agenda - 01-22-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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16 1 purposes. She said there also needs to be a farm land trust system to enable the small farmers 2 to buy in, and avoid land being sold to developers. 3 Chair Jacobs said Orange County has an agriculture trust fund and a conservation 4 easement program and both of these are in play to accomplish the things that Council Member 5 Palmer mentioned. 6 7 b. Accommodating Appropriate Agricultural Support Enterprises in the Rural Buffer 8 Perdita Holtz said the boards of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill already 9 discussed this item on several occasions earlier in the year. She said the Joint Planning Area 10 (JPA) documents need to be amended before the County can consider adopting the 11 implementing regulations to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) for Agricultural Support 12 Enterprises in the Rural Buffer. 13 She said the local governments need to adopt the same language in order for the joint 14 planning amendments to become effective. She said the town of Carrboro adopted a resolution 15 that includes a sunset clause for the amendments. She is hopeful that the discussion tonight 16 will lead to a solution where all three local governments will feel comfortable in supporting it. 17 Perdita Holtz said several options for consideration are listed on page 2 of the abstract, 18 and staff is also open to other considerations. 19 Commissioner Gordon said the staff members did a good job of providing some options. 20 She said the sunset provision from Carrboro would automatically have a cutoff where all three 21 boards have to agree to continue with the Agricultural Support Enterprises; and then staff came 22 up with another option where all three entities would have to agree to stop. 23 Commissioner Gordon said the three governments also have to agree to the 24 amendments to the Joint Planning Agreement and Land Use Plan, and Carrboro has also made 25 some changes there. She said it is important to consider these changes. 26 Mayor Lavelle said the sticking point for Carrboro was the sunset clause, and the six 27 suggestions given might provide a way for them to feel comfortable replacing the sunset clause. 28 She suggested that Carrboro needs to talk about this, and then come back to staff and the 29 County to let everyone know their decision. 30 Mayor Kleinschmidt said the Chapel Hill Town Council has discussed this only briefly, 31 but there was some general support for expanded farm uses. He said he believes the rural 32 buffer was set up in a way to help keep it rural, but farmers need tools to be successful, and 33 these have not been provided. He said the town just wants to make sure the farmers are being 34 helped. 35 Mayor Kleinschmidt said a sunset clause is not a good idea. He said creating a date at 36 which this could end would put farmers in much greater jeopardy, as this sets a point at which a 37 vested right must be attained or else value is lost. He said if you are a small farmer hoping to 38 provide value to a future generation, you are going to maximize it well ahead of time and sell to 39 a "McMansion" subdivision. 40 Mayor Kleinschmidt said an annual review and monitoring by staff would be valuable. 41 Alderman Slade said the point of a sunset date is that it would allow an opportunity for 42 review. He said the focus would be on reestablishing the rules that worked if it is found that 43 these current proposals do not work. He said the farmers would have a window to make use of 44 the land at a higher use value, and then this could be grandfathered in.