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Article 2: Procedures Section 2.3: Comprehensive Plan Amendments Orange County, North Carolina – Unified Development Ordinance Page 2-5 (3) In response to a change in the policies, objectives, principles or standards governing the physical development of the County. 2.3.3 Initiation of Amendments (A) An amendment to the Comprehensive Plan or portion thereof may be initiated by: (1) The Board of Commissioners on its own motion; (2) The Planning Board; (3) Application, by any person or agency, which accurately and completely sets forth the reason(s) for the proposed amendment as prescribed in Section 2.3.2(B); or (4) The Planning Director.3 (B) Once initiated, all amendments shall be referred to the Planning Board.4 2.3.4 Classification of Amendments 5 Amendments to the Comprehensive Plan or portion thereof are classified as "principal" or "secondary" amendments. (A) Principal Amendments Include (1) Additions to or modifications of policies, objectives, principles or standards; (2) The creation of new activity nodes or additions to existing activity nodes which exceed ten acres in land area; or (3) Proposals for new freestanding plan areas or additions to existing areas that exceed 100 acres in land area. (B) Secondary Amendments Include (1) The expansion of an activity node where the additional area is contiguous to an existing node and does not increase its land area by more than ten acres; (2) The expansion of a designated plan area where the additional area is contiguous to the existing plan designation and does not increase its land area by more than 100 acres; (3) A correction of an error or omission; or (4) Revisions to any factual or descriptive material. 3 (1) through (4) are currently (A) through (D). This section has been reformatted on the advice of the Staff Attorney. 4 These proposed revisions here and on subsequent pages incorporate the discussion the Planning Board had in October, November, and December 2014 and which the BOCC discussed on May 12, 2015. The cadence of the review process would be revised to have the Planning Board make its recommendation prior to the public hearing. Notices would be mailed to nearby property owners and a sign(s) would be posted; this revision will notify nearby property owners of potential changes much earlier in the process. Although the Planning Board meeting would not be an official public hearing, the public could address the Planning Board (the existing requirement for written comments only is not proposed to continue in this revised process) and the Planning Board can take all public comments into consideration when making its recommendation. 5 Staff proposes that this entire section (2.3.4) be deleted because it is relevant only in conjunction with Section 2.3.7. Rather than limiting “principal” amendments to being heard “generally” only once per year (as Section 2.3.7 does), staff proposes that any Comprehensive Plan amendment could be heard at any of the quarterly public hearings. Deletion of this subsection will cause the renumbering of subsequent subsections in Section 2.3. 67