Orange County NC Website
Commissioners or when it’s withdrawn after the public hearing’s been noticed and 168-388a clearly 1 <br />indicates despite the appeals indication that the Board Of County Commissioners simply has their authority 2 <br />delegated inaudible Class B SUP from the Board Of County Commissioners. It’s actually the opposite. 3 <br />That authority is granted to the Board of Adjustment by statute if one is created and it specifically says the 4 <br />ordinance may designate a Planning Board or governing Board to perform any of the duties of a Board of 5 <br />Adjustment in addition to its other duties and designate specialized Boards to hear technical appeals. So 6 <br />that’s not a delegated responsibility that can somehow fit under the heading of the Board Of County 7 <br />Commissioners. Now moving on to the key issue here, as I addressed before, of what is the use here? How 8 <br />do we define the use? We’ve already talked about this jurisdictional issue looking too far into the future. 9 <br />You would be rendering an advisory opinion as to the uses there. One thing I do want to not and I’ll get into 10 <br />this quickly; none of the cases that Ms. Brown relied on in her argument dealt with agritourism. They dealt 11 <br />with bona fide farm issues but did not deal with agritourism and that makes a difference once you look into 12 <br />the definitions and we’ll get into those definitions in just a moment. So again we’ve gone through the claim 13 <br />in the email. The question is they determined that these activities that are proposed based on the affidavit 14 <br />and the building permit application are exempt. And the staff themselves, under tab 10 of my notebook, has 15 <br />created a very helpful brochure that really gives a great outline for doing the analysis that’s required here. 16 <br />And I’ve tried to outline in some different colors here to kind of move from step one to step two to step 17 <br />three. Step one is simply just deciding if you’re a bona fide farm. And again we talk about those 5 factors 18 <br />that are sufficient evidence to show bona fide farm. Ms. Brewer’s presented 3 of those. Those are under 19 <br />tab 17. Interestingly it goes on to say, “ Does the County have the right to question or reject any of these 20 <br />methods?” and the answer is a resounding no. State law does not give local governments the authority to 21 <br />question, interpret, or challenge the evidence submitted substantiating a parcel of property as a farm. And it 22 <br />also states, and this is part of 153a-340, please note a farm operation can include multiple parcels of 23 <br />property that are either adjacent to or separate from one another. They don’t even have to be in the same 24 <br />County. Which is part of the analysis here in terms of the scope of the operation. The Caswell County 25 <br />property is included in that as if this is one operation, in one place. The second step here addresses the 26 <br />non-farm versus the bona fide farm purposes. Do farms have to comply with any plan use regulations? 27 <br />Generally, no. These are broad exemptions but any number of uses and activities on a property that is 28 <br />otherwise used for bona fide farm purposes may be regulated and restricted by the County. There’s some 29 <br />examples given: commercial activities unrelated and adding no value to a bona fide farm activity, purely 30 <br />recreational and/or cultural activities unrelated and adding no value to a bona fide farm activity. Those 31 <br />could be subject to County regulation. And then it references the definitions of farm activities. Bona Fide 32 <br />farm purposes include the production and activities relating to or… And this is where it was cleared during 33 <br />Ms. Brown’s arguments. She focused almost entirely on that word incidental. But that is not relating to “and 34 <br />incidental”. It is relating to “Or incidental”. So if it’s relating to it doesn’t matter if it’s incidental or not. That’s 35 <br />an either one qualifies, not… This is the language and this is under tab 1 of my notebook. 153a-340 36 <br />subsection b2: Bona fide farm purposes include the production and activities relating to or incidental to the 37 <br />production of crops, grains, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plant, dairy, livestock, poultry, and 38 <br />all other forms of agriculture as defined in 106-581.1 subsection 6. So there under the rules of statutory 39 <br />interpretation if there is an “or” then only one of those needs to be complied with for it to be satisfied. If 40 <br />there’s an “and” both have to be satisfied. The pamphlet goes on to say that NCGS 106-581.1 further 41 <br />expands the definition of farming agriculture to include marketing and selling agricultural products, 42 <br />agritourism, etcetera. What is considered agritourism is the next step. Although Ms. Brown is correct that 43 <br />there is no direct citation length between 153a-340 and section 99E-30 but, again, rules of statutory 44 <br />construction require that the statutes be read in comparison with the other statutes so they’re read 45 <br />consistently. And the liability section lowers the bar of entry for liability concerns with respect to agritourism. 46 <br />Again, consistent with the idea that these are broad exemptions that they are trying to make it easier to do 47 <br />these operations. Not try to be restrictive. Any activity carried out on a farm or ranch that allows members 48 <br />97