Orange County NC Website
69 <br /> DRAFT <br /> 56 <br /> 57 Michael Harvey: I would also like there to be a motion acknowledging and accepting the changes to the Table of <br /> 58 Permitted Uses that you saw last month to include Retreat Centers in the districts I named. <br /> 59 <br /> 60 Randy Marshall: So moved <br /> 61 <br /> 62 MOTION by Randy Marshall to acknowledging and accepting the changes to the Table of Permitted Uses to include <br /> 63 Retreat Centers in neighborhood commercial, community commercial,general commercial, Economic Development <br /> 64 Buckhorn low intensity, Economic Development Eno low intensity, Economic Development Hillsborough office retail <br /> 65 districts. Seconded by Hunter Spitzer <br /> 66 VOTE: Unanimous. <br /> 67 <br /> 68 Michael Harvey: Let me introduce Mr.James Bryan of the county attorney's office to discuss burden of persuasion. <br /> 69 <br /> 70 James Bryan: I'm a staff attorney here in Orange County. Michael mentioned to me that there were some particular <br /> 71 concerns you have been wrestling with regarding the Table of Permitted Uses. I drafted a memo. The last two pages <br /> 72 are the actual questions that Michael forwarded to me with the answers, but I thought it would be easier to just work <br /> 73 from the beginning. Let's start at the beginning of why staff came up with changes to the Table of Permitted Uses. <br /> 74 There was a court case in 2015, Franklin vs. Byrd, in which the state said all the local governments along with the state <br /> 75 have been doing this wrong for a long time. Zoning is a derogation of property rights and anything ridding of <br /> 76 somebody's property rights is a higher standard than normal stuff,so you have to be clear when you do that. Our <br /> 77 current UDO is written similarly to many jurisdictions in the state where the state says we're going to tell you what you <br /> 78 can and can't do. The Byrd court said, no,you don't tell people what they can do, it's assumed they can do whatever <br /> 79 they want, and you have to tell them what they can't do. You have to very clear and when there's ambiguity it will go in <br /> 80 favor of the property owner. You can think of the Table of Permitted Uses as things you can and can't do. There is also <br /> 81 a middle ground that says these are the different categories and we're going to bump you in to whatever is closest to it. <br /> 82 If you want to prohibit something, you have to be clear about it. An example of how the LIDO was constructed for that is <br /> 83 with the definition of large daycare homes which provides daycare for more than 5 but fewer than 16 children within a <br /> 84 residence. The idea was it was regulating within the definition; 17 children wouldn't be captured by that definition since <br /> 85 it's 5 to 16. Under the current UDO if you have 17 children in the home,we were presuming that you weren't allowed <br /> 86 because you didn't fall under the definition. Byrd flips that and says if you're not a large daycare home,which you are <br /> 87 not with 17 kids,then you're not regulated and not listed in the Table of Permitted Uses so it's assumed that you can go <br /> 88 about your business. Group homes have always been a difficult subset of Land Use Categories because there's state <br /> 89 and federal laws about group homes like halfway homes and addiction centers. Both the state and federal have <br /> 90 particular regulations for group homes through the ADA,Americans with Disabilities Act and through fair housing. The <br /> 91 problem is they overlap. Under the old system where you said, I'll tell you what you can do, it's okay to regulate them <br /> 92 like that. With this one, it's going to be tough to have a very explicit set of uses for that. A lot of other jurisdictions have <br /> 93 added something to their development ordinance which you can call reasonable accommodation which the law requires <br /> 94 for ADA and fair housing. It's a great time to address that because it also addresses the idea that we want broad <br /> 95 categories, so they are regulated. The federal and the states are saying you can't be so broad with these protected <br /> 96 classes, so we're being broad but also giving them an escape of reasonable accommodations. Durham and Ashville <br /> 97 have adopted this, and now staff is proposing this. There are different ways to approach this. You could have very <br /> 98 precise definitions of land use categories to meet state and federal guidelines, or you could develop your own <br /> 99 reasonable accommodation section. It is both common and useful to steal from other jurisdictions as Durham has <br /> 100 already adopted this so go ahead and steal from them. This helps serve two purposes; the first is saving staff time and <br /> 101 the other is when something is complex and can lead to litigation,you look to the court to see whether it is applicable to <br /> 102 you. Durham and Ashville has been untested so it's more of a prospective use. Having it match as closely as possible <br /> 103 influences the reliance on it. Durham's reasonable accommodation has a section on burden of proof which includes <br /> 104 burden of persuasion. When first reviewed with Michael, he had eliminated that section, and I told him if there's any <br /> 105 change that's going to impact how it's relied upon later, maybe it makes a difference, I don't know? Michael stated he <br /> 106 would put it back in, but by putting it back in, it doesn't line up with the rest of our UDO as the rest of the UDO has <br /> 107 different processes for Special Use Permits, Appeals, Interpretations, and others. It talks about what is basically <br /> 108 burden of proof, but it doesn't use the same words in the same way that Durham did for theirs. When reading our UDO, <br /> 109 it has different words for the same process. There's construction, the way the courts are going to read this when <br /> 110 reviewing it which says words have meaning and purpose and when they are done differently in different sections that's <br />