Agenda 10-01-19 Item 8-a - Minutes

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4 1 regulated, as long as the regulation is very narrowly tailored to accomplish a specific purpose. 2 He said if regulation goes beyond a narrow focus, then it could become unconstitutional. He said 3 if the Board chooses to proceed, staff would work to make sure the focus is very narrow. 4 John Roberts said he talked with Durham, and it previously regulated firearms in a 5 manner similar to the ideas being presented tonight. He said Durham's original ordinance 6 focused on housing density in approved subdivisions, but it was repealed due to the difficulty of 7 enforcement. He said Durham changed to no shooting within 900 feet from government 8 buildings, private residences, churches, and schools. He said this may work in Durham County, 9 but he would suggest that it would not work for Orange County. He said Orange County still has 10 significant areas that are rural in nature, and 900 feet would eat into a lot of private property. He 11 said Durham is much more urbanized than Orange County, and it did not experience much 12 opposition to the ordinance change in its public hearings. 13 John Roberts said Durham required a permit in order to shoot within 900 feet of one of 14 these areas, and the permit process was convoluted, requiring a public hearing before the Board 15 of County Commissioners (BOCC) prior to issuing a permit. He said he expects the 900-foot rule 16 to be equally difficult to enforce. 17 John Roberts referred to a map on the screen, and in the Commissioners' packet, which 18 the County GIS staff prepared. He said the map divides Orange County's rural area into red grid 19 squares that are 10-acre parcels with at least ten houses in them. He said these parcels are 20 linked by the green lines within one mile of each other. He said ten acres with ten houses on it is 21 just an example, and is probably not equivalent to a suburban-type density. He said he 22 recommends that GIS or the Planning Department determine what constitutes suburban type 23 density, and figure out where those areas are in the County. He said this may be a higher 24 number, 20 houses per 10-acre grid square, and thus the regulated areas would be substantially 25 smaller. 26 Commissioner Dorosin asked if the red squares on this map would also include areas 27 that are denser than 10 houses on a 10-acre parcel. 28 John Roberts said each red grid square represents an area where there are at least ten 29 houses, and yes, it could be as many as 20 houses. He said this ordinance would also apply in 30 the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) areas. 31 Commissioner Price asked if the green lines could be explained. 32 John Roberts said these are just boundary lines of where the areas are, and it is not a 33 recommended line. He said if the Board wants to pursue this option, GIS or Planning will need to 34 determine the actual boundaries. He said this could be based on roads, property lines, GIS 35 coordinates, etc. He said these boundaries would need to be able to be located in order to 36 enforce the ordinance. 37 Commissioner Greene asked if the areas within the green lines would have the ordinance 38 enforced. 39 John Roberts said that would need to be determined. He said all of the clusters are 40 within a mile of each other, and the question remains whether the Board would want to include 41 all of the empty spaces. He said he would not think this would be necessary, and he would not 42 recommend the 900-foot limit set by Durham, as Orange County has existing restrictions based 43 on a 450-foot limit on hunting around schools or government buildings, etc. 44 Commissioner McKee said he would be interested in the red boxes having a name, so 45 the affected areas are more easily identifiable. He said there are definitely areas where firearm 46 use makes no sense, but there are other areas that are wide open and restriction seems 47 unnecessary. 48 Commissioner Marcoplos said he would also like to have the road names on the map. 49 Commissioner Marcoplos asked if the work on the ETJ areas remains to be done.