Agenda - 08-21-2007-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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DRAFT-l~OT APPROVED YET 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 She said that the REDA is a pretty good vehicle to strike a balance. She hopes that it will be adopted. She said that this has to be done properly. Bruce Peters said that he represents some neighbors. He was asked to speak to the speedway, go-cart/motocross facilities, and the potential reopening of the asphalt plant. This is a big concern for people that live within a quarter of a mile. He said that if these commercial establishments are allowed to operate without any constraint, mainly noise buffers, the rural residential area will be equivalent to a heavy industrial zone because of the excessive pollution of the air from motors without exhaust systems and the burning of oil and other agents in the production of asphalt. There is also excessive noise pollution. He said that Durham recently adopted a new noise ordinance, in which no construction can take place on Sunday or on weekdays after 6:00 p.m. He said that many neighbors see no reason to change from the present limited use if these operations do not care about giving the air relief from the overwhelming pollution, especially noise. lastly, the neighbors do not have a great deal of concern about some of the County's requirements in detail (i.e., landscaping, signage, parking entrances, etc.) because they do not affect the quality of life or the value of the property. Melvin Stanley was representing Orange County Speedway, but as an interested party and not as legal counsel. He said that the speedway property has been operating as a legal non- conforming operation since 1994 when "blanket" zoning was done. He said that he understood that the County would have a rezoning to make the property more consistent with the existing uses. He said that the interested parties proceeded with the understanding that this was a legal non-conforming use and that it would not be permitted to expand, such has more seats or expanded racetrack. He said that somewhere in this process, they fell through a crack. There was a discussion about the committee that was put together and two of the meetings were held before the speedway representatives knew there was a committee. He said that an application was made to put one member of the speedway staff on the committee, and this was not acted upon. He said that he had proceeded expecting to see some kind of a commercial zoning that would apply that would cover the racetrack. He said that at the last committee meeting, he expressed some fairly strong concerns, in that the specifics that were listed would require that the speedway give up some 70% of the land so that nothing could be done on it. It would also require rebuilding some roads and relighting the facility. He said that this is not economically feasible for the speedway. He asked what would happen if the speedway did not participate in this plan. He said that they do not know what they can and cannot do. He asked for a list of what is permissible and presumed to be permissible with reasonable conditions. He asked if they would be forced to be a part of this plan, or if they could opt out. Craig Benedict said that the new zoning overlay and the conditional use rezoning would be available for someone to voluntarily ask to be included. If an entity wants to remain in its present status with no expansion, then it can do that. He said that the County was not forcing anyone to ask for a conditional use rezoning and be subject to the process. Melvin Stanley asked if there would be a list of potentially permissible uses. He specifically referred to concerts, car shows, and animal shows. He encouraged staff to bring a list that would be sensibly usable, provided that reasonable guidelines are followed. Commissioner Jacobs suggested a word change on goal #5 on page 28. He suggested, "Air quality issues shall be an integral part of any future permit reviewed within the Study Area." He said that, as far as participation in the task force meetings, no one was precluded from speaking. He said that everyone that attended felt quite free to speak. Melvin Stanley said that he did not mean to imply this. A motion was made by Commissioner Nelson, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to refer this item to the Planning Board for a recommendation to be returned to the BOCC no sooner than August 21, 2007. VOTE: UNAr]IMOUS