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district), uses in the Rural Buffer. The County UDO amendments for “ASE within the Rural Buffer” cannot be considered for adoption until after the amendments to the Joint Planning Area Land Use Plan and Agreement are adopted by all three local governing bodies. The analysis that follows for the proposed Comprehensive Plan and UDO amendments presume that necessary changes will be made to the JPA documents before adoption consideration of the Comprehensive Plan and UDO amendments. It is noteworthy that the existing Rural Buffer (RB) zoning district includes the following Purpose statement: The purpose of the Rural Buffer (RB) District is to provide locations for rural residential developments and agricultural, silvicultural or horticultural uses which serve to buffer or separate more intensively planned and/or developed portions of Orange County. Development within the Rural Buffer (RB) District is at very low densities (the minimum lot size per dwelling unit is two acres) and relies on individual wells and ground absorption systems for domestic water supply and sewage disposal, respectively. The RB purpose statement shows that agricultural uses were envisioned to be allowed/included in the Rural Buffer and the amendments made in 2014 to the JPA documents clarified this idea. The policy decision to be made is whether appropriate uses that support agriculture, thereby enhancing the continued viability of agriculture, should also be allowed in the Rural Buffer. The proposed text amendment would add the following agriculturally-related uses/activities as “permitted by right” in the RB general use zoning district, subject to the use-specific standards in Article 5 and the general development standards in Article 6: • Agricultural Processing Facility, Community • Community Farmers’ Market • Cooperative Farm Stand • Community Meat Processing Facility • Non-Farm Use of Farm Equipment • Microbrewery with Minor Events (requires Class B SUP) The proposed text amendment also would allow application of the ASE-CZ conditional zoning district in the Rural Buffer. Conditional zoning districts allow applicants to apply for a rezoning that can be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the suitability of a particular parcel of land for a proposed use(s). Mutually agreed upon development or operational conditions can also be applied to the rezoning action. Conditional zoning districts are a regulatory tool that help local governments allow appropriate uses on a site-specific basis while also allowing the imposition of conditions that may help ease nearby residents’ concerns about a • Winery with Minor Events (requires Class B SUP) • Microbrewery, production only (requires Class B SUP) • Winery, production only (requires Class B SUP) • Rural Heritage Museum (requires Class B SUP) • Rural Special Events 3 13