Planning Board minutes 080719 - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPROVED 9/4/19 Adam Beeman: Okay. 166 167 Carolyn Poteat: My name is Carolyn Swepson Poteat. We received a letter from the planning board stating that we 168 needed to come to the meeting tonight in reference to Clarence Doby rezoning. What do we need to do? 169 170 David Blankfard: The piece of property is zoned in two different ways, and so the County commissioners have 171 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 the possibility of being rezoned as a commercial site. There is not really anything that you need to say or do. 173 174 Carrie Fletcher: I am a homeowner in Orange County as well. I am always concerned about development around 175 my home. What can be done for the citizens on the list nearby that will be impacted in order to keep them informed 176 to quell their fears and make the transition less painful? Is there anything that can be addressed to the 177 neighborhoods and people around so they know what's going on? 178 179 Chad Huffine: Yes. As part of the process with planning and the commissioners, a dimension or radius around the 180 property including adjacent properties, would be notified by mail, newspaper, and by signage. The property owners 181 can be located in the packet. They have been made aware as the commissioners meeting approaches in 182 September. 183 184 Carrie Fletcher: Can the folks in the back hear? I want to make sure they can understand. 185 186 Chad Huffine: They will be notified by the County prior to the public hearings. They will have another opportunity to 187 speak to the County commissioners at that time but also to hear about any developments of what is proposed. 188 189 Bal K Sharma: It sounds like some of the neighbors need to be educated about the good and the bad of this 190 proposal. I said commercial is good for several reasons, but at the same time, homeowners are outraged and they 191 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 everyone. Everyone needs to be educated on why it is important to the people and how it will also impact everyone. 193 194 Patrick Mallett: In North Carolina, most of the process is prescribed by state law on what you have to do. This type 195 of zoning process has to go to a planning board and it needs to make a recommendation. It then goes to an elected 196 body. With most jurisdictions in North Carolina, the notification requirements are far less than what we actually do. 197 Notices were sent out to every property owner that was on the tax rolls and owns property within a thousand feet. 198 We run legal ads, we post signs for both the planning board meeting and the board of commissioners meeting. We 199 also post all the information online so people can come and check our rezoning cases or what's new on the planning 200 portion of our website. If you have a question about this case or anything going on in the area, my door is always 201 open and you can contact me. 202 203 Adam Beeman: You said that the area has been intended to be commercial for some time. Do you have a date on 204 when that was set in stone for Orange County? 205 206 Craig Benedict: Good evening. Craig Benedict, Orange County Planning Director. This area was originally 207 designated in 1981 when zoning went into effect in this Township as Commercial Industrial Activity Node. They left 208 the existing zoning in place as (R-1) residential. You have also heard some of our discussions in the past about 209 leaving it for somebody to ask for a conversion consistent with the Commercial Industrial Activity Node if they wanted 210 to come in in the future. In 1994, the (CITAN) Commercial Industrial Activity Node was changed in land-use to 211 economic development while at the same time, they changed the zoning with the land-use, so the zoning is in place 212 just across Buckhorn Road. There are two different ways to do it. You will also notice that in these CITANs, the 213 commissioners have asked us if there are places that we are calling pre-zoned to fix to an area that’s consistent with 214 that future land-use. In this case, the applicant was out in front of us. You may see some other conversions that are 215 even government initiated. The commissioners also noticed that in the 1990's there was housing in the area and 216 leaving the (R-1) designation on there allowed those houses to remain as a conforming use, so this was a way to 217 balance the program. This is in transition and may transition to more commercial industrial in the near future. By 218 2008, when the comprehensive plan was updated, we had additional outreach meetings to discuss the economic 219 development land-use and commercial industrial land use. The last opportunity was roughly in 2013 when we started 220