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18 <br />Planning Staff recommended this course of action when the FDPO was amended <br />at the August 28, 1995 BOCC meeting. The abstract for this item states that "Since the <br />Zoning Ordinance now applies to all of Orange County's planning jurisdiction, the <br />requirements of the NFIP could be included in the Zoning Ordinance rather than in a <br />freestanding Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. Inclusion of these provisions in the <br />Zoning Ordinance which would allow for the elimination of the FDPO as a separate <br />Ordinance, will be undertaken in the future during the process of creating a Unified <br />Development Ordinance." The BOCC meeting abstract making this recommendation is <br />also attached. The timeline for integrating the FDPO into the Zoning Ordinance has been <br />compressed due to North Carolina Supreme Court decisions discussed above. The <br />original plan to delay incorporation of the FDPO until the adoption of the Unified <br />Development Ordinance may no longer be an option if the County wishes to participate <br />in the NFIP in 2007. <br />Section 20.2 of the Zoning Ordinance permits an amendment to be initiated by the <br />Board of County Commissioners on its own motion (the ""BOCC"), the Planning Board, <br />or by any person or agency that submits an application. Specifically, Section 20.3.2(b) <br />requires that applications for tekt amendment contain, among other items, a written <br />statement which describes "in detail" changes which the applicant proposes to make. The <br />completed application is then reviewed by the Zoning Officer who causes an analysis to <br />be made of the application and prepares a recommendation for consideration by the, <br />Planning Board and the BOCC. Thereafter, the BOCC and the Planning Board hold a <br />properly noticed joint public hearing on the proposed amendment. Section 20.6.1 of the <br />Zoning Ordinance requires that "Notice of public hearing shall be given by publishing <br />said notice at least twice in a newspaper of general circulation in the County, stating the <br />time and place of such hearing and the substance of the proposed amendment." The first <br />notice must be published not less than ten days nor more than twenty-five days before the <br />date of the public hearing. <br />As mentioned above, the amendment in this case involves not only a text <br />amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to incorporate the FDPO in its entirety, but also an <br />amendment to the Zoning Atlas to incorporate the newly revised FIRM into the Zoning <br />Ordinance. Article 20 requires that additional notice procedures be followed in the case <br />of a map amendment. Specifically, Section 20.6.3 requires the County to provide written <br />notice of the public hearing via certified mail to the affected property owners and all <br />adjacent property owners whose property lies within five hundred feet of the affected <br />property. This notice must be sent no less than fifteen days before the hearing date. The <br />Zoning Officer must certify to the BOCC that the notices were properly mailed. <br />Following the date of the public hearing, the proposed amendment shall be <br />referred to the Planning Board for its consideration and recommendation. The Planning <br />Board then submits its recommendation to the BOCC at a date certain under Section <br />20.7.1. The BOCC shall not consider enactment of the proposed amendment until the <br />Planning Board makes its recommendation or takes no action on the application. The <br />BOCC then makes its decision on the amendment.