Orange County NC Website
73 <br />Approved 11/5/14 <br />485 Craig Benedict: Maybe it doesn't have to go here afterwards. There are differences between the legislative and <br />486 <br />487 Lisa Stuckey: But wait, because they were saying they wanted to give people a third or fourth opportunity to speak <br />488 without question when it came back, as a former member of the school board, every time you hold a public hearing, <br />489 you will get people to come and the more anxious they are about the outcome, the more they will come and they the <br />490 longer they will talk. It is just a lot of time. I am not passing judgment on whether or not they should be allowed to, <br />491 it's just a tremendous amount of time for the boards. <br />492 <br />493 Craig Benedict: There could be different processes for legislative versus quasi - judicial. The reason we have a <br />494 process now to just have written testimony after this public hearing is because you're trying to set a point in time <br />495 where the record is closed, let's make a decision, and if we keep on opening things up very late in the process then it <br />496 doesn't end. That was part of the reason, especially for quasi - judicial matters, for legislative matters, the <br />497 Commissioners can choose to let them hold it in three minutes, don't repeat what we've heard here. They can <br />498 diplomatically say that. <br />499 <br />500 Lisa Stuckey: It won't work. <br />501 <br />502 Craig Benedict: Also it shows in the agenda package that the Commissioners, when they have this public hearing <br />503 over here, they can do three things; they could close the public hearing, this is what we are suggesting as potential <br />504 options. They could close the public hearing this night and they can set a date to make a formal vote on it, or if it is <br />505 contentious they could send it back to the Planning Board to return then for a date certain, or one that has never <br />506 worked well in the past is they can actually decide that night, close the public hearing and say we have enough <br />507 testimony to decide. That has always been a lot for them but over the many years there's been a few where they <br />508 thought that were very simple, one was actually a school site for the Orange County school that was an SUP and <br />509 they needed to get it built and they wanted to approve it there but the process didn't allow them to do that at that <br />510 time, to vote the same night. It had to go back. <br />511 <br />512 Bryant Warren: So you're talking about on the public hearing that is joint now it will not be a joint public hearing, it <br />513 would be just the Commissioners? <br />514 <br />515 Craig Benedict: That would be just the Commissioners and as the Chair said, we would suggest the Planning Board <br />516 attend here or they could watch it on Granicus or they could watch a video of it or they could look at the minutes. <br />517 (referring to board) This would not be a formal, this isn't the formal public hearing here, it's just a point where we can <br />518 let people know in a neighborhood information meeting that the Planning Board is going to be hearing this item. It is <br />519 what's called a Planning Board hearing, formal hearing will always stay with the Commissioners that's what state <br />520 laws says. <br />521 <br />522 Bryant Warren: I don't think you're going to get as many people showing up for just a public hearing with the <br />523 Planning Board as you're going to get to show up for the Commissioners and Planning Board combined. <br />524 <br />525 Craig Benedict: It's true, the Planning Board and staff may be able to answer some questions here at this pre - <br />526 meeting. At this crystal ball meeting. Even at this point here, we're going to be educating the public because that's <br />527 what the Commissioners suggested. Let them know about what process we're going through, is it legislative, is it <br />528 quasi-judicial let them know what levels of input there are, is it going to be formal expert or can it be anecdotal i.e., <br />529 we don't think that fits the neighborhood. We can do a lot of education here, having something early where the public <br />530 can be invited. It probably would be a lot more attendance at Planning Board meetings than you've had in the past. <br />531 It still goes to the formal public hearing, let's call that the legal public hearing. Then the Commissioners have the <br />532 opportunity to decide at that point to bounce it back or to themselves two weeks hence. <br />533 <br />534 Perdita Holtz: This Planning Board meeting where he crossed off formal review, the Planning Board recommendation <br />535 meeting, where there would be notices that actually went out and the property would get posted with a sign to let <br />536 people know that the Planning Board meeting was happening, it would not be a formal public hearing, it would just be <br />537 a Planning Board meeting with changing the way we notify the public about Planning Board meetings so that people <br />538 would know the Planning Board meeting was happening, they would be able to come and speak, it wouldn't have to <br />10 <br />