Agenda - 02-19-2015 - E1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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55 solar array public hearing, he is definitely opposed to having these items on the Commissioner's regular meeting schedules. He said it is very hard to predict what will generate a public reaction, and it is hard to plan when there is no way to know when something may blow up. He said it is reasonable to have the Planning Board comment after the Commissioners have a public hearing. He said the rest of this just makes things more complicated. Chair Jacobs pointed out on page 85 that staff states the Orange County's typical review timeframe of 4 -5 months compares favorably to other North Carolina local governments. He said the current process is not a burden to the development community. Commissioner Dorosin said, as someone who has been pushing this kind of change, he takes Commissioner Jacobs points well. He said his original concern with the current process is that a public hearing is held and comments are taken, then these are sent to the Planning Board for a meeting and discussion. He said the Planning Board comes back with its recommendations, and then another Public Hearing is held with no actual public comments. He said the renaming of this hearing is fine, but what is missing in the proposal is the fundamental sequence of things. Commissioner Dorosin suggested that the Planning Board should have a public hearing or open meeting with notices to invite the public and take comments. He said after this the Planning Board can submit its recommendation to the County Commissioners, who will then hold a public hearing with public input. He said the public hearing could then be closed, and a vote would be taken. He said this sequence would maximize the opportunity for public input. He said whether this is done in one meeting or quarterly is a different question, but that is not the main issue. Commissioner Rich agreed with Commissioner Dorosin's suggestion, and she said this is the way she has done it in the past. She said she also agrees with Chair Jacobs. Commissioner Pelissier said she is not sure where she stands on the sequence, but her main concern is the timing. She said she does not want to base everything on the one meeting that took four hours for the special use permit. She does not think this would happen if the changes were made to the special use permit process. She said part of what motivated this was the issue of not having quorums, which could be addressed by not requiring the Planning Board to be part of the public hearing. She said there were also grave concerns that some of the simple projects had to wait so long for approval because they had to wait for the quarterly public hearings. She said the goal is to balance having a process that is not onerous but allows for public input. She is interested in having greater opportunity than quarterly public hearings. Commissioner Gordon said she has no objections to changing the process. She wants to follow the principles of making sure the public has enough notice to find out what is going on and to formulate their comments. Commissioner Gordon said there should not be a minimum of 8 hearings, but there should be a maximum of 8 hearings. She referenced information on page 96 regarding the potential meeting dates, which stated that there were only seven months when hearings were feasible, and she said this information seems to point to no more than 8 possible dates. She said there was also information stating that if these hearings are part of the regular meeting, the required notice is only 4 days, which is worse than the usual 10 days for public hearings. She agrees with Chair Jacobs that it makes the meetings unpredictable if you have public hearing items that have to be scheduled in. Commissioner Gordon said she did not even think about the internal timing changes until she saw the information about publishing notices prior to attorney, chair and vice -chair review. She said this change would not be wise. She thinks it would be a good idea for the Commissioners to have some kind of review of the advertisements for the timing.