Orange County NC Website
1 <br />Larry Wright: I would like to ask for a point of order. I think I would like to clarify for the record at this time if this is a 2 <br />formal public hearing or a hearing open to the public and on page 20, item B, it states “the hearing, while open to the 3 <br />public is not a public hearing where non-applicants are allowed to address the board for present arguments and 4 <br />testimony, etc.” Our attorney is Mr. Bryan and I am going to refer to him. 5 <br /> 6 <br />James Bryan: This is a public hearing that is open to the public. They can come and observe but only those that are 7 <br />parties of standing can offer testimony. 8 <br /> 9 <br />Larry Wright: Parties of standing would be those which we have…page 27 through page 36... 10 <br /> 11 <br />James Bryan: They would have to prove standing. Normally, you would either have special damages or the property 12 <br />owner so any special use permit that the property owner that owns the property has standing and anybody who has a 13 <br />loss in value or other special advantages. 14 <br /> 15 <br />Larry Wright: So maybe they could introduce that…the reason they have standing when they come up and state they 16 <br />have been duly sworn. That is how we handle that? 17 <br /> 18 <br />James Bryan: That will be good. 19 <br /> 20 <br />Larry Wright: Is the board amenable to that? 21 <br /> 22 <br />Anthony Taibi: I am Anthony Taibi, counsel for the landowner at the pointed issue and simply if the board is going to 23 <br />hear witness testimony later, I would like to be permitted to cross examine any witness. 24 <br /> 25 <br />Larry Wright: Okay. 26 <br /> 27 <br />James Bryan: Since I have been here, I don’t think we have done an appeal like this. We have done mostly SUPs 28 <br />and maybe a variance but this is an appeal of the zoning administrator and also particular to this case is that we have 29 <br />had a request for a subpoena. How a subpoena works is that there is statutory authorization that the Board of 30 <br />Adjustment may issue a subpoena. You first go to the chair and have a written request and that was given to the 31 <br />chair. The chair denied that request so now it goes to the entire board and the board has to make a decision on that. 32 <br />That is the overall framework. I would suggest proceeding through four different parts to go step by step particularly 33 <br />because I haven’t had a lot of these. The first one is to make a determination about jurisdiction. There is a recent 34 <br />case in Warren County where the staff, which is who you make the appeal to… you fill out a form and pay money to 35 <br />make an appeal and it goes to staff. Staff is not allowed to make a determination beyond that. Whatever is filed and 36 <br />whatever is paid for gets sent to the board. So the board has to make that determination who has standing and who 37 <br />has jurisdiction. The first question is, is this a question we can answer, jurisdiction. The next one is standing. Is the 38 <br />right person asking this question? As we mentioned before, the property owner decision affecting standing. We can 39 <br />get into details later. Usually it is financial loss if it has a financial impact on your property that would stand. The third 40 <br />one would be the subpoena. Get to that before you get to the final step… the case on the merits. The case on the 41 <br />merits can be done a number of different ways. I get the inclination that you are going to ask the zoning administrator 42 <br />for a brief synopsis on what is going on and then usually allow the appellant to make their case. Then it is the same 43 <br />having both sides put on their evidence allowing cross examination and so forth. 44 <br /> 45 <br />T.C. Morphis: T.C. Morphis, I am here for the appellants. We would like the opportunity to make an opening 46 <br />statement at the pleasure of the board. 47 <br /> 48 <br />Larry Wright: First we are going to be looking at jurisdiction. I would like to ask the question of the subpoena, how is 49 <br />that relevant to this meeting? Is that for another meeting? 50 <br />4