Orange County NC Website
B. RATIONALE <br />1. Purpose/Mission <br />In accordance with the provisions of Section 2.8 Zoning Atlas and Unified <br />Development Ordinance Amendments of the UDO, the Planning Director has <br />initiated a text amendment to revise existing regulations and definitions of <br />recreational uses. <br />While reviewing an issue with the Attorney’s office it was determined the County’s <br />existing definitions and classification methodology for recreation uses (i.e. relying on <br />the profit/non-profit status of said operation) was not appropriate and inconsistent <br />with acceptable legal practice. The regulation and permitting of recreational uses <br />should be based anticipated impacts of said use rather than on its ‘tax status’. <br /> <br />2. Analysis <br />As required under Section 2.8.5 of the UDO, the Planning Director is required to: <br />‘cause an analysis to be made of the application and, based upon that analysis, <br />prepare a recommendation for consideration by the Planning Board and the Board of <br />County Commissioners’. <br />Recreational uses are defined as follows within the UDO: <br />• Recreation Use, Non-Profit: An indoor or outdoor recreation use owned by a <br />not-for-profit corporation, according to the laws of North Carolina. <br />• Recreation Use, Profit: An indoor or outdoor recreation use owned by an <br />entity other than a not-for-profit corporation. <br />Recreation Use, Non-profit land uses are allowed, through the issuance of a Class B <br />Special Use Permit (i.e. reviewed and acted upon by the Board of Adjustment) in: <br />1. All residential zoning (i.e. Rural Buffer (RB), Agricultural Residential (AR), Rural <br />Residential (R-1), Low (R-2), Medium Residential (R-3, R-4), and High <br />Intensity(R-5, R-8, and R-13) districts. <br />2. Commercial zoning (i.e. Local Commercial (LC-1), Neighborhood Commercial <br />(NC-2), Community Commercial (CC-3), General Commercial (GC-4), and Office <br />Institutional (OI)) districts. <br />3. All industrial (i.e. Light Industrial (I-1), Medium Industrial (I-2), Heavy Industrial (I- <br />3)) districts. <br />4. Within a Master Planned Development Conditional Zoning (MPD-CZ) district. <br />Recreation Use, Profit is allowed within the Community Commercial (CC-3), General <br />Commercial (GC-4), and Light Industrial (I-1) zoning districts as a permitted use (i.e. <br />administrative review and approval by staff). <br />Within the Buckhorn and Eno Economic Development districts both Recreation Use, <br />Profit and Non-profit land uses are only allowed within both the Low and High <br />Intensity general use zoning designations with the review and approval of a <br />Conditional Use (i.e. rezoning and Class A Special Use Permit) application by the <br />BOCC. There are specific recreational land uses, including a golf driving range, <br />4