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term in farming is ten years. He said a five or six year sunset is still in the short term. He said <br /> no one that is successful will limit their ability to move something forward. He said being <br /> grandfathered in will just mean you cannot grow larger, and no business wants to be frozen in <br /> time. <br /> Commissioner McKee said he does not see any rush to get this settled right now, but it <br /> needs to be settled in six months to a year. He said this should involve identifying the uses <br /> that the different entities cannot abide. He said he is not interested in leaving the <br /> slaughterhouse in the uses because there is not going to be a slaughterhouse in Orange <br /> County that is of a large enough size to be noticeable. He said some of the other uses may <br /> grow to be a 300 person event or a large complex, but Maple View is the exception and not the <br /> norm. He said most farms are going in the opposite direction and growing smaller. <br /> Commissioner McKee said he would urge everyone to move this forward, but it needs <br /> to be without any discussion of a sunset clause. He said he would never support a sunset <br /> clause. He suggested considering the alternatives to allowing these Agricultural Support <br /> Enterprises, which will be 2 to 5 acre lots with million dollar homes, and more isolation of <br /> wealth in a small area of the County. He said change is coming, and you will not be able to <br /> stop it. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said she appreciates the comments that have been made. She <br /> said the concept of the rural buffer was to have a definite edge around the municipalities so <br /> that in the towns you could provide services and have infrastructure, and then have the more <br /> rural area beyond that, where you do not have the infrastructure of water and sewer. She said <br /> this meant you had to rely on the carrying capacity of the land in the rural buffer. She said the <br /> goal is to keep farmers farming, and the question is how to do this without turning the rural <br /> buffer into something that is urban or commercial and without putting uses in the rural buffer <br /> that need water and sewer. <br /> Town Commissioner Hallman left at 9:55 <br /> Commissioner Gordon said it makes sense to do something that is a little more <br /> measured. She thinks Carrboro's intent with the sunset clause was to take things slowly to see <br /> what happens. She said that was a good motivation, but there are reasons not to have the <br /> sunset provision. She said you need to look at the uses allowed by right, by special use <br /> permit, and by conditional zoning. She said the proposed uses allowed by right are fine in the <br /> rural buffer, and the uses allowed by special use permits have special standards which is also <br /> fine. She said the problematic uses are those allowed through conditional zoning. <br /> Council Member Harrison left at 9:59pm. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said the concern is with a use that goes into the rural buffer and <br /> is so intense that it should not be served by a groundwater and septic system. She said <br /> Carrboro has identified some of these more intense uses. She recommended leaving out the <br /> more intense uses identified by Carrboro, any other intense uses that do not belong on a <br /> groundwater and septic system, and those uses with no specific standards or definition. She <br /> said the category of use called "agricultural services uses" is a catch-all category and she <br /> believed that this use should also not be in the rural buffer. She said that even without these <br /> uses, adding the other agricultural support enterprises would still give the farmers a lot of <br />