OCPB minutes 071013 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Approved 9/4/13 3 Ashley reviewed the existing standards for home occupations in the UDO under Section 5.5.3. then proceeded with 109 reviewing home occupations standards from other local communities in order to determine the next steps. 110 111 Paul Guthrie: What is telecommunications, a person who is employed as a consultant that does all their work by 112 telecommunications, is that under this ordinance? 113 114 Michael Harvey: We have approved home occupations depending on the proposed activity. If someone is truly 115 doing something at the house with the only rationale behind it is that if the neighbors complain, we can legitimately 116 say they obtained the appropriate permit. 117 118 Paul Guthrie: What about artist’s studios that don’t have walk in business but produce? 119 120 Michael Harvey: We have permitted art studios. The biggest complaint is they feel they deserve to have more 121 space and we treat every home occupation the same. 122 123 Pete Hallenbeck: My answer would be that you are employed by someone else and you happen to work at home. 124 The artist is a home business and they are the business owner and they are working at home, that would be the 125 distinction. 126 127 Paul Guthrie: We need to think very broadly about what we are trying to do and what our definitions are or you may 128 spend the full time permitting or helping permit 30,000 home businesses in Orange County. 129 130 Pete Hallenbeck: I would agree with that. 131 132 Ashley Moncado continued presentation. 133 134 Pete Hallenbeck: This comment is from the time I spent on the Efland Small Planning Area and this subject came 135 up a lot. The Efland area had this overlay put onto it. The goal was that Efland is the County’s Town. It is not 136 incorporated but has water, sewer, it can do denser development. There was lot of discussion about what defines 137 home business and one distinction was the concept of professional services and the poster child for thinking about 138 this was the difference between someone who wanted a barber shop and someone who had an engineering 139 consultation firm. The barber shop would have “anyone” come down with a lot of traffic and the engineer would 140 have a lot less traffic. There was some reluctance to try to qualify that one too much but it was a good example 141 down a private road where you could get neighbors riled up. My comments are, the two person limit, I would like to 142 see changed to three but I realize some people don’t like that. I would also see the concept that you could have 143 two people and a third person up to a year. You’ve got a business and it is growing, you hire the third person and 144 keep them for a year, it is time to get a place of business. The square footage limit; Orange County has a 500 145 square foot limit but Chapel Hill has a 750 foot. Orange County could go to 750 and it wouldn’t be too bad. The 146 deliveries limit, I just don’t get, I understand some people love to shop so there will be deliveries. I don’t see a 147 reason to have a limit. The parking is good. Basically you have to have enough room for the employees. I would 148 like to see a set of standard that can be applied for rural districts (R1), rural areas of the county that might be 149 different than the municipalities. 150 151 Paul Gutherie: You don’t mean municipalities? Basically, we are talking largely about outside municipal limits. 152 153 Pete Hallenbeck: Yes. I would also put the rural buffer in with the municipalities just because there is lot in the 154 UDO giving the rural buffer more protection. The idea is to avoid urban sprawl. It is difficult to start listing 155 professions. 156 157 Stephanie O’Rourke: My first thought is about the employees’ requirement. How do you determine that? We have 158 a business but we would only have two or three onsite. 159 160 Michael Harvey: On site. You could have 100 employees but only have two onsite. 161 162