Orange County NC Website
APPROVED 6/12/17 <br />1 that your detailed findings of fact, including finding of fact number nine that all these applications <br />2 are really same, is something that Michael Harvey was required to take into consideration. And his <br />3 concern that he could not consider that leads him to error number two. Because if he only looks at <br />4 what Ms. Brewer wrote after re -doing her application three or four times, after re -doing her legal <br />5 documents with the secretary of state, after re -doing everything to try to cram it into the farm <br />6 exemption to get her permit, then what this Board found and what this Board instructed is those <br />7 applications are really the same, and you have to really look at it and say, is it farming out there? Is <br />8 it a farm use? It may be a bona fide farm piece of dirt, but is there farming going on on it? Is it a <br />9 farm use? And so the second mistake Mr. Harvey made is that he failed to take that into <br />10 consideration and felt constrained not to consider the facts and the reality of what this Board had <br />11 looked at. He then went on to determine that the structure was being used for a bona fide farm <br />12 purpose and he concludes that, again, based solely on her application, Not on the evidence, or <br />13 facts that you found. He so states in his finding, he didn't hide it from you, he said, based on what <br />14 she what she signed on her affidavit it it the structure is for a farm use. He then goes on to say, if <br />15 it's for farm,use we're still not through asking the questions. You know, is it a farm? Ok well look at <br />16 the statute. Is it a non -farm use? We're through. Even if it may be a farm use, even if there's some <br />17 tangible relationship, a person who is engaged in activities on a farm such as this has to be able to <br />18 show that the particular use is incidental to their farming. My ice cream store is incidental to my <br />19 milking cows and making ice cream. My tomato stand is incidental to my tomatoes growing behind <br />20 me. My Walmart is not incidental to whether I have tomatoes growing. I used that argument before <br />21 but I think that's exactly right. We have to determine whether the use is incidental to the farming or <br />22 whether farming is incidental to the use. And what we have here is a situation where we have a <br />23 wedding venue and we're going to grow a few flowers, some of which may be able to be used, <br />24 augment by flowers other people grow on their farms to create bouquets. Weddings and music <br />25 venues are going to actually be the cases where our courts finally give us detail guidance on the <br />26 farm exception because it's very difficult to tie getting married back to any kind of farm activity. <br />27 Weddings can be agro- tourism. I mean that that's that's not incorrect, I could have somebody come <br />28 out and get married in my barn and it'd be incidental to everything that goes on but when I'm <br />29 running a full time business with weddings, trying to have a wedding every single solid weekend, <br />30 that is the business. That is the business. It's not a, it's not incidental to any farming that's taking <br />31 place. And the statute intends. The statute intends that what is agro- tourism and incidental to <br />32 agriculture. If the statute intended that tourism could be done on farms they would talk about agro- <br />33 tourism, they'd just talk about tourism and say, well you know you do anything you want on a farm <br />34 in North Carolina. That's not what our statute says. And so the next mistake that Mr. Harvey made <br />35 was that he determined that this structure as wedding and event center is related to or incidental to <br />36 the property being used for bona fide purposes. He doesn't really tell us how it's incidental but he <br />37 does go in and begin to look at definitions of agricultural and farming and various incendiary <br />38 statutes. He quotes from NCGS section 106 - 581.1, now first of all I want you to understand that <br />39 that particular statute is part of the agricultural development act, and it relates to a statute that's <br />40 designed to get federal funding for agricultural purposes and to give counties some power to do <br />41 that so while the definition is interesting the definition is not a definition that the general assembly <br />42 gave you to help you define what those terms mean under the zoning power, in 153a. Chapter 106 <br />43 is not the same. And so from that point of view that definition, while interesting, is not totally <br />44 controlling. What is interesting about it, however, that it is referenced in the zoning statute as a <br />45 statute to look back at and what is interesting about it is if you look at the actual definition in NCGS <br />46 106 -581.1 what you will see there is that it carries forward this concept of being incidental to. I think <br />47 you have it before you and if you look at 106581.1 paragraph 6 it says when performed on the farm <br />35 <br />