Orange County NC Website
<br />Adam Beeman: Okay.166 <br />167 <br />Carolyn Poteat: My name is Carolyn Swepson Poteat. We received a letter from the planning board stating that we 168 <br />needed to come to the meeting tonight in reference to Clarence Doby rezoning. What do we need to do?169 <br />170 <br />David Blankfard: The piece of property is zoned in two different ways, and so the County commissioners have 171 <br />tasked us to clean up so that the zoning is uniform for the entire piece of property. You would just need to listen to 172 <br />the possibility of being rezoned as a commercial site. There is not really anything that you need to say or do. 173 <br />174 <br />Carrie Fletcher: I am a homeowner in Orange County as well. I am always concerned about development around 175 <br />my home. What can be done for the citizens on the list nearby that will be impacted in order to keep them informed 176 <br />to quell their fears and make the transition less painful? Is there anything that can be addressed to the 177 <br />neighborhoods and people around so they know what's going on?178 <br />179 <br />Chad Huffine: Yes. As part of the process with planning and the commissioners, a dimension or radius around the 180 <br />property including adjacent properties, would be notified by mail, newspaper, and by signage. The property owners 181 <br />can be located in the packet. They have been made aware as the commissioners meeting approaches in 182 <br />September.183 <br />184 <br />Carrie Fletcher: Can the folks in the back hear? I want to make sure they can understand.185 <br />186 <br />Chad Huffine: They will be notified by the County prior to the public hearings. They will have another opportunity to 187 <br />speak to the County commissioners at that time but also to hear about any developments of what is proposed.188 <br />189 <br />Bal K Sharma: It sounds like some of the neighbors need to be educated about the good and the bad of this 190 <br />proposal. I said commercial is good for several reasons, but at the same time, homeowners are outraged and they 191 <br />need to be convinced why it is good for them. If everyone understands why it is good it will be a win-win for 192 <br />everyone. Everyone needs to be educated on why it is important to the people and how it will also impact everyone.193 <br />194 <br />Patrick Mallett: In North Carolina, most of the process is prescribed by state law on what you have to do. This type 195 <br />of zoning process has to go to a planning board and it needs to make a recommendation. It then goes to an elected 196 <br />body. With most jurisdictions in North Carolina, the notification requirements are far less than what we actually do. 197 <br />Notices were sent out to every property owner that was on the tax rolls and owns property within a thousand feet. 198 <br />We run legal ads, we post signs for both the planning board meeting and the board of commissioners meeting. We 199 <br />also post all the information online so people can come and check our rezoning cases or what's new on the planning 200 <br />portion of our website. If you have a question about this case or anything going on in the area, my door is always 201 <br />open and you can contact me.202 <br />203 <br />Adam Beeman: You said that the area has been intended to be commercial for some time. Do you have a date on204 <br />when that was set in stone for Orange County?205 <br />206 <br />Craig Benedict: Good evening. Craig Benedict, Orange County Planning Director. This area was originally 207 <br />designated in 1981 when zoning went into effect in this Township as Commercial Industrial Activity Node. They left 208 <br />the existing zoning in place as (R-1) residential. You have also heard some of our discussions in the past about 209 <br />leaving it for somebody to ask for a conversion consistent with the Commercial Industrial Activity Node if they wanted 210 <br />to come in in the future. In 1994, the (CITAN) Commercial Industrial Activity Node was changed in land-use to 211 <br />economic development while at the same time, they changed the zoning with the land-use, so the zoning is in place212 <br />just across Buckhorn Road. There are two different ways to do it. You will also notice that in these CITANs, the 213 <br />commissioners have asked us if there are places that we are calling pre-zoned to fix to an area that’s consistent with 214 <br />that future land-use. In this case, the applicant was out in front of us. You may see some other conversions that are 215 <br />even government initiated. The commissioners also noticed that in the 1990's there was housing in the area and216 <br />leaving the (R-1) designation on there allowed those houses to remain as a conforming use, so this was a way to 217 <br />balance the program. This is in transition and may transition to more commercial industrial in the near future. By218 <br />2008, when the comprehensive plan was updated, we had additional outreach meetings to discuss the economic 219 <br />development land-use and commercial industrial land use. The last opportunity was roughly in 2013 when we started 220 <br />8