Orange County NC Website
Approved 4/22/2014 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 11/11/2013 Page 24 of 123 <br /> 1 <br />Michael Buck: Let me start off on a note of conciliation and echo Mr. Gledhill’s comments. From all the research 2 <br />I have done, I would concur whole heartedly that whatever influence you have to prevent such long lag times in 3 <br />the development delays and so forth, I think it certainly…as a resident of the community, I can attest to the fact 4 <br />that it has certainly compounded some of the issues we have felt. Let me say if there was any question, I want it 5 <br />to be clear that I am not challenging the validity of the special use permit in any way. I agree with the special use 6 <br />permit, I want its provisions enforced so if there was any concern or question about that I want to be clear that I 7 <br />am not challenging the validity of the special use permit. I am saying that the plat for Phase IV was invalidly in 8 <br />approved and I am saying it was invalidly approved because it makes representations that were inconsistent with 9 <br />applicable ordinance. It makes it impossible to fulfill the special use permit condition so the enactment of that plat 10 <br />makes it impossible to adhere to the provisions of the special use permit. Implementing the plat I would say 11 <br />introducing defacto changes to special use permit condition and so for these reasons, the Phase IV plat should 12 <br />have not been approved when it was approved. I am going to start by talking about what is the relevant date. 13 <br />We have had some of that discussion already. The SUP does mention two dates, May 20, 1986, the date which 14 <br />the special use permit was approved and then on March 31, 1998, the special use permit effective date and the 15 <br />date on which the land was rezoned. The choice of dates, my contention, and the choice of dates effects which 16 <br />ordinances apply. I would argue the later date is applicable. I would further say that the use of the earlier date is 17 <br />essential to the county’s case. If you do agree with me that the later date is the proper date to use for all the 18 <br />subsequent conversations we will have, I think it is very difficult for the county’s case to prevail. I would like to 19 <br />point out that the use of the later date is not essential to my case. I do believe that you should use the later date 20 <br />as the relevant date for determination of which ordinances apply but even if you disagree with me, I will, using 21 <br />evidence already in the record, I will argue that I can still prevail using the earlier date. What is the evidence for 22 <br />the March 31, 1998 date that I believe is the appropriate date and Mr. Gledhill has already referred us to Orange 23 <br />County Zoning Ordinance 7.6. Additionally, I will point to the special use permit itself. This is a summary of what 24 <br />evidence I am going to get into. I am going to point to the zoning officer’s own testimony to argue for the use of 25 <br />the March 31, 1998 date. I am going to point to the fact that the county has already enforced ordinances that 26 <br />were enacted after March 31, 1998 but certainly after the 1986 date that the county wants you to review and I am 27 <br />going to point out that there is a lack of compelling contrary evidence that precludes our use of an earlier date. I 28 <br />also am open to any questions, I see you have dinner in front of you so I hope that I am clear enough with the 29 <br />presentation that you won’t have to go through your documents. I am going to try to put it all on the board. 30 <br /> 31 <br />Karen Barrows: You said something about page 4, not being valid, what are you thinking of when you say that 32 <br />Mr. Buck? 33 <br /> 34 <br />Michael Buck: My appeal challenges the validity of the approval of the Phase IV plat which took place in 1998 so 35 <br />I am saying the Phase IV plat ought not to have been approved because of the issues I am going to lay out. 36 <br />What is the evidence for the March 31, 1998 date? I am going to point to the exact same ordinance Mr. Gledhill 37 <br />was pointing to and through all the slides, I will highlight where I am getting my information from and put on the 38 <br />screen the actual evidence so this red highlighting will always be the location of the evidence. Attachment H, 39 <br />page 79, “Approval of final plats, plans and reports shall be based on compliance with regulations applying (and 40 <br />this is key) at the time land was zoned to PD status”. It is the zoning date that is critical. What was the zoning 41 <br />date? The special use permit specified, in fact, in three different places, the special use permit tells us that the 42 <br />zoning date was March 31, 1998. I am only highlighting one of them there but you will see that it says, “the 43 <br />change in the zoning of the property and the special use permit effective date are March 31, 1998, the date of the 44 <br />recording of this special use permit. I don’t dispute the fact that conditions were approved in 1986 but the actual 45 <br />rezoning didn’t take place until 1998 on March 31. Additional evidence is highlighted by looking at the special 46 <br />use permit itself. You will see sprinkled all over the last page the dates on which the signatures took place. It 47 <br />was 1998 when the special use permit was put into effect. The other thing you can find in the special use permit 48