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Page 3 of 11 referred to as the Barn of Chapel Hill. The request was reviewed with John Roberts of the county attorney’s office, and1 after review of Andy Petesch’s request, staff made adetermination that the structure located on this property is 2 classified as a bona fide farm, pursuant to the provisions in General Statutes 153A-340(b)(2)a.Itis not subject to land 3 use regulationsas embodied within the Orange County Unified Development Ordinance. Michael Harvey noted that 4 LeAnn Brown has attached a copy of the Orange Countyletter, within Attachment 1, which is the appeal application. As 5 part of the submittal, LeAnnBrown, who representsseveral adjacent property owners, had requested thechair, under 6 his or her discretion as part of local land use regulations and state statute,to issue subpoenas forrequested7 information. That request has been denied. Per request of LeAnnBrown, the full board has been askedto review that 8 denial and determine whether or not the subpoenas should be issued. 9 Michael Harveyreminded the board that attorneys representing each side, LeAnn Brown and Andy Petesch, have 10 requested that the purposeof the meeting is to review the subpoena request only. The meeting isopen to the public but 11 testimony is limited to the parties that have standing. The decision to issue or not issue the subpoenas is ultimately 12 appealable to Orange County Superior Court within 30 days. 13 14 Michael Harvey then requested that the agenda packet be entered into the record. 15 16 MOTION by Barry Katz to enter the agenda packet into the record. Seconded by Randy Herman.17 18 VOTE:UNANIMOUS19 20 Karen Barrows said the board would give each attorney 10 minutes to address the board. 21 22 LeAnn Nease Brown addressed the board. She asked that the board find that the parties she represents have standing 23 as theboard has found previously that those parties have standing. She said there is a procedure in the Board of 24 Adjustmentstatute that is designed to add a means by which information that may be relevant to a hearing can be25 obtained, and that is a subpoena process. Subpoenas, as a general principle, are a means by which documents or 26 other informationare brought before a tribunal. Admissibility of that information is decided in the context of thehearing. 27 Subpoena is the means by which the documents can be obtained. The issuanceof subpoenasis generally a ministerial 28 act. She said there are case laws in North Carolina to which she could refer but quotedBone v. Broadfor the record. 29 She continued, stating that the word relevant in the statue is informed by howthe word relevant is applied in the rules of 30 evidence. The Orange County Board of Adjustment applies relaxed rules of evidencein its hearings.She noted that the 31 North Carolina General Statues §1-401defines relevant evidenceas having any tendency to make the existence of any 32 fact that is of consequence to the determination of an action more probable or less probable than it would be without 33 the evidence. The comments to note 401 state that dealing with probabilityin the language of the rule hasadded the 34 virtueof avoiding confusion between questions of admissibility and questions of sufficiency of the evidence. It has also 35 subsumed in it the concept of materiality. 36 37 LeAnn Brown continued, stating that N.C.G.S. §160A-388(g),which is a statue that governs the Board of Adjustment, is 38 quoted in pertinent part on Page 52 of the agenda packet in herletter to Chair Samantha Cabe seeking subpoenas on 39 November 7, 2017.What N.C.G.S. §160A-388(g) allows is it allowspersons with standingto seek subpoenas. The40 procedure is to give the Board of Adjustment a written request, which she did by letter. And it provides the chair shall 41 issue the subpoena if it is determined toberelevant material and reasonable in nature and scope and not oppressive.42 The statutealsocontemplates that partiesfrom whom documents are soughtmay file motions to quash subpoenas. 43 There was no motion to quash or modify the request that she filed some six months ago. 44 45 LeAnn Brown reviewed that six months ago sheprovided a letter of appealto the Current Planning Supervisordated 46 October 13, 2017. She noted that Pages 49-51 of the agenda packet outline the errors alleged. The letter to Chair 47 Samantha Cabe that she sent sought five subpoenas to the following properties: Southeast Property Group LLC, which 48 is the legal owner of the property; Wild Flora FarmLLC,which was createdat some point in time,KaraBrewer 49 96