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4 <br />Special use permits take more time to review because of the notice requirements <br />for public hearings. Class A special use permits, in particular, can fake six or <br />more months to review because of the quarterly public hearing process. <br />Part of the purpose of this project is to make it easier to establish agricultural-related <br />businesses, and to a certain extent, the permitting schedule outlined in the rural <br />enterprises project should achieve this objective. Simply clarifying which rural <br />enterprises are exempt from zoning, with illustrative examples that local property owners <br />and planning staff can easily understand, will reduce much of the confusion tradifional(y <br />associated with permitting value-added operations. Staff's recommendatfon for <br />conditional district rezoning offers an innovative mechanism to allow commercial farm- <br />type uses in the rural areas, where they are most suited, without conflicting with the <br />underlining residential zoning classification. Any rezoning application, however, is <br />subject to the quarterly public hearing process, which can be lengthy. The Board of <br />County Commissioners may also wish fo consider an alterative to the quarterly public <br />hearing process to allow rural enterprise applications to be considered more quickly, <br />such as an accelerated process for conditional district rezonings. Planning staff could <br />certainly explore such options, at the pleasure of the Board. <br />3. Who will approve these types of projects? Will the Planning Board and other <br />advisory (related) boards have an opportunity for input? <br />As currently proposed, rural enterprise permits will follow the same approval process as <br />standard development projects. Modified site plans and regular site plans will be <br />approved by planning staff but the more commercial or intense projects will be subject to <br />a Class A or Class 8 special use permit. Class 8 SUPs are reviewed by the Board of <br />Adjustment, Class A SUPs, and requests for rezonings are reviewed b,y the BOCC as <br />part of the quarterly public hearing process. The Planning Board has an opportunity to <br />comment on public hearing matters, and it ma,y be appropriate to ask the Agricultural <br />Preservation Board to comment on certain applications as well. Planning staff ma,y wish <br />to provide annual reports to the BOCC, Planning Board and Agricultural Preservation <br />Board for the first few years after text amendments are adopted to discuss the number <br />and Type of applications that are being submitted and approved. <br />4. Will the proposal direct new rural enterprises to the areas of the county where <br />they are best suited, or will it allow intense agricultural-industrial operations to <br />occur in the residential parts of the county and lead to nuisance-related issues? <br />How will this proposal work in Joint Planning Areas? <br />Staff's recommendation to develop a conditional district process for rezoning property for <br />specific n~ral enterprises speaks directly fo this issue- Unlike general rezoning, property <br />subject fo the conditional district rezoning process maybe used only for a specific land <br />use(s), based on a site-specific development plan.. For example, a property owner <br />would request that his or her lot be rezoned for a feed store. The rezoning application <br />would include asite-specific development plan for the feed store but no other <br />commercial use. <br />Since applications are site specific, the BOCC can consider the suitability of the <br />proposed use based on its location. In other words, the BOCC could approve a rezoning <br />for a composting and grinding operation in a rural area in northern Orange County and <br />deny a rezoning request for the same use in a developed area of southern Orange <br />County near Chapel Hill. <br />is ,,: u_- ~ ;~ ur.t ~~~. ,._.. , i :~r;,. r~~. _.. <br />