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14 David Blankfard followed-up his question to ask about a food truck on someone’s property, like the mobile 685 veterinary clinic, where there was a home base to store supplies and food. 686 687 Michael Harvey responded that this set-up would need a home occupation permit. 688 689 Michael concluded his presentation and thanked the Board. 690 691 Lydia Wegman asked if Michael Harvey could give any report on the public meetings that Planning Staff had held 692 on this amendment involving the Table of Permitted Uses. 693 694 Michael Harvey said that there were several comments made requesting that there be language and definitions 695 included on weddings. Staff is taking these comments under advisement whether to include the term wedding in the 696 “retreat center” category. He noted that there are several members of the public that attended these meetings that 697 are also here tonight, and they may wish to address the Board. 698 699 Lydia Wegman invited the members from the public to speak 700 701 Laura Streitfeld introduced herself as the Executive Director of Preserve Rural Orange, a non-profit in Orange 702 County. She said that she was here tonight because several members of her organization and she have attended the 703 informational meetings and have been following several issues for a number of years, but in particular and most 704 recently, they have been focused on weddings, permitting, and camp retreat centers for weddings, and rural special 705 events permits. She raised the question about whether facilities that are pursuing the status of an event center, may 706 claim an agritourism exemption for weddings. She said that there is a pattern in Orange County; there are at least 707 three facilities that are claiming an agritourism exemption from zoning to run wedding and other events, though it 708 appears that they might have to obtain a Class B Special Use Permit. In one case, there was one facility in southwest 709 Orange County, the Barn of Chapel Hill, that was denied a Special Use Permit three times by the Board of 710 Adjustment, and then based on two appeals, was denied the exemption for holding weddings as agritourism. There is 711 great community concern about the definition of where weddings can be held. She said that it was their 712 understanding, based on their review of notes from previous meetings, that weddings are listed exactly once in the 713 UDO, under “Rural Guest Establishment,” though the word wedding is not defined, nor is event center. Most recently, 714 the event center (Barn of Chapel Hill) that was turned down by the Board of Adjustment, was still able to apply for 715 and receive a Rural Special Events permit. However, she does not see weddings as a permitted use under Rural 716 Special Event permit. Special events, in the definition, appears to say that special events don’t include rural events 717 such as 4-H and horseshoes. She said that she hopes that they can have some clarity about what is already in the 718 UDO and if weddings can fall under Camp Retreat Centers and require a Class B Special Use Permit. Preserve 719 Rural Orange thinks that this would be useful to have this specified as an example in the definition in some way. 720 They have a number of requests for the Board and have prepared a handout to submit them in writing. She read 721 aloud the five requests on the handout (see handout in Board materials) and explained them in more detail. First, in 722 order to help citizens stay on-top of issues before decisions are made (and they do appreciate being able to attend 723 these meetings with the Board and Planning Staff) it would be useful to post public records of permit-related 724 documents as they are filed, as well as any proposed changes to the UDO on the County website accessible to the 725 public well in advance (10 days) so that citizens could sift through these 200 pages to get a sense of what is being 726 proposed and any items of interest. The second request is that the Board would require advance notice to property 727 owners within one mile of applicant property prior to issuing a Rural Special Events permit. Third, they ask that the 728 Board require applicants to list each proposed date, time and duration of event on the Rural Special Events permit 729 application. She said that this point is particularly important to them because they have seen Southeast Property 730 Group, the real estate investment firm that owns the Barn of Chapel Hill, receive a Rural Special Events permit that 731 did note how many times in each month there weddings would be held on-site but there was no mention of which 732 dates the weddings would be held. Because there is no process like a special events permit hearing, they asked for 733 the surrounding community to have an opportunity to weigh-in, ask for conditions, see a site plan, and understand the 734 potential effects an event could have on the community (i.e. up to 150 arriving in a rural community without the 735 community knowing when). The fourth request is for the Board to require advance notice to surrounding property 736 owners within one mile of applicant property, at the time a permit is issued, of each date on the Rural Special Events 737 18