Agenda - 08-24-1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1013 question when Hillsborough Township was initially zoned in 1981. Section 4.2.12 of the Ordinance states that the EC-5 "district will be applied to existing commercial uses in unzoned townships and previously zoned commercial property located in areas not designated as Activity Nodes in the adopted Land Use Plan (emphasis addded). " For virtually every other zoning district, the Ordinance provides that "this district will usually be applied where the following conditions exist. . . Thus it is clear that unlike these other districts, the applicaton of EC-5 was intended to be nondiscretionary. The ordinance mandates the application of EC-5 to all commercial uses not within an activity node which existed on September 2, 1981, and the failure to zone the property on which Autowerks is located EC-5 was a clear violation of the Ordinance. Of course the applicant does not contend that the County' s failure to zone the Autowerks property EC-5 was an intentional violation of the Zoning Ordinance. Rather, it is likely that an oversight or unintentional mistake occurred. Several facts support this theory. As indicated above, the seven acre tract was identified entirely on the Chapel Hill Township map, even though the only commercial activity taking place on the tract was in Hillsborough Township. Since Chapel Hill Township was already zoned, and since that portion of the seven acre tract in Chapel Hill Township consisted of a utility easement, it is easy to understand that residential zoning of the portion of the tract in Chapel Hill Township continued under the new ordinance. Then, since the tract was not depicted on the Hillsborough Township map of existing commercial uses, when previously unzoned Hillsborough Township was analyzed for zoning classification, no thought would have been given to assigning a commercial zoning