Orange County NC Website
74 <br />Approved 11/5/14 <br />539 be written comments only and at the conclusion of that meeting the Planning Board would make a recommendation <br />540 on whether they thought the application should be approved or not, on legislative items. Craig is a little bit mixing <br />541 legislative and quasi - judicial together. Then the item would go to public hearing with the Planning Board <br />542 recommendation. At the public hearing the BOCC could decide, man there's so many people here that maybe didn't <br />543 talk at the Planning Board meeting; we really should kick it back to the Planning Board for them to consider this other <br />544 information that came out at the public hearing. Or, the BOCC could decide this is one of those no- brainers, the <br />545 people who have been on the Planning Board before will remember the discussion about no- brainers, this is a no- <br />546 brainer, we can close the public hearing tonight and we can just vote on it, or they can say, well, you know the <br />547 Planning Board gave us a recommendation, nothing major has come out but I want to mull this over more and the <br />548 BOCC can say let's schedule it for a later meeting. <br />549 <br />550 Loss of recording device /full memory- approximate 7 to 9 minutes lost. <br />551 [There was some discussion about how notices about the Planning Board meeting would be sent via first class mail <br />552 to adjacent property owners and a sign would be posted on the affected property, in the case of map amendments]. <br />553 <br />554 Pete Hallenbeck: It is important that the notifications be a blend of the dry legal requirements of notification and a <br />555 nice human readable, ok guys here's how it's going to work- we're going to have to this meeting here's what you can <br />556 do, this is an opportunity for you, so it explains the process and people know what is going on. <br />557 <br />558 Tony Blake: I have a couple of comments; I don't know how much power we really have. I think we're maybe <br />559 assuming that we have more power than we do here. We are really looking at the UDO and deciding whether or not <br />560 a project meets the criteria of the UDO, we can't just all of a sudden say, no we don't like that, and the second part of <br />561 it is, I think we're all here to represent some part of the County. I represent Bingham because I live there and <br />562 because I have other contacts in the community and it seems to me that we should be part of the notification list for <br />563 any public information session in our area of representation. We should be at least as strongly encouraged to attend <br />564 that public information meeting on behalf of the Planning Board and all the Planning Board members be encouraged <br />565 to attend any public information meeting as that somewhat cloudy crystal because I think you can tell from a public <br />566 information meeting how many people show up as to what kind of a response you're going to get and what the real <br />567 concerns and questions are that need to be addressed up front. I don't really understand the quasi - judicial role we <br />568 have, I understand that we stand up there and give testimony but if our power is limited to interpreting the UDO and <br />569 trying make whatever changes proposed fits within the UDO and it either does or it doesn't and staff is far more <br />570 versed in the UDO than I am. I find their recommendations are pretty bang on. All of what I have to say in a quasi - <br />571 judicial way is hearsay, right? <br />572 <br />573 Pete Hallenbeck: The role of the Planning Board is this oversight, are we meeting the requirements of the UDO. <br />574 Yes, you're right, but that's a level of detail you have to have. I would point out, though, that there's also a document <br />575 called the Comprehensive Plan. If the UDO is the rules, the left brain, the Comprehensive Plan is the heart and soul, <br />576 it's the right brain part of it. There are times when we've reviewed things and it's met all of the requirements but then <br />577 you'll find something in the Comprehensive Plan that's not right and I think it's not power per say but it's a very valid <br />578 role of the Board is to point this out. An example of that is the Comprehensive Plan encourages that all subdivisions <br />579 have sidewalks and yet every time we run into it there is no money for sidewalks and DOT doesn't want it. There is a <br />580 conflict there and we don't have power over that but we can certainly point it out and I think that's also true with <br />581 representing the areas you're from. <br />582 <br />583 Tony Blake: Yeah, but I don't find that to be quasi - judicial in essence. You can point it out in a quasi - judicial hearing <br />584 but it's not some... <br />585 <br />586 Pete Hallenbeck: Quasi - judicial is such a different beast because people get sworn in and there's testimony. It really <br />587 changes the game a lot and our role in quasi - judicial is very strict. <br />588 <br />589 Lisa Stuckey: We're supposed to be the judge in a quasi - judicial, aren't we? <br />590 <br />591 James Bryan: In quasi judicial, it's the governing board- the deciding body that is the judge. From a legal <br />592 perspective, for planning boards' involvement, it's dangerous. Especially, how we have it where you close the public <br />11 <br />