Orange County NC Website
3 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> PLANNING BOARD ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: September 2, 2020 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 2 <br /> SUBJECT: Unified Development Ordinance Text Amendments — "160D" Legislation <br /> DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> None. Perdita Holtz, Planner III (919) 245-2578 <br /> Craig Benedict, Director (919) 245-2575 <br /> PURPOSE: To: <br /> • Receive an overview on upcoming amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance <br /> (UDO) pertaining to State legislation commonly referred to as "160D", in reference to the <br /> statute section. <br /> • Provide feedback to staff on whether the full text amendments should be brought back to <br /> an ORC meeting when they are ready or whether they can move forward in the review <br /> process to a regular Planning Board meeting. <br /> BACKGROUND: In July 2019, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted legislation that <br /> entailed the complete reorganization of the state's planning and development regulation <br /> statutes. The endeavor was originally initiated by the Zoning and Land Use Section of the N.C. <br /> Bar Association in 2013. A blog post by staff at the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill <br /> provides helpful background information on the legislation: https://canons.sog.unc.edu/chapter- <br /> 160d-and-other-zoning-legislation/ <br /> Planning staff prepared UDO amendments to comply with the new legislation earlier this year <br /> and the first round of review by the County's legal staff has been completed. Planning staff is <br /> currently working on incorporating Attorney comments. The number of pages with revisions is <br /> extensive (approximately 300 pages) but, because the revisions are required by the State <br /> legislation, there is limited ability to make substantial changes to the proposed revisions. <br /> There are a limited number of proposed revisions that are more substantive in nature and are <br /> being proposed to conform the County's UDO to state requirements and best practices. These <br /> more substantive revisions include: <br /> • Having just one class of Special Use Permit (SUP) and having SUPs heard and decided <br /> upon only by the Board of Adjustment (BOA) as the BOA is best suited to conduct <br /> quasi-judicial matters. <br /> oThere are currently Class A and Class B SUP uses, Class A uses are heard by the <br /> Board of County Commissioners (with a recommendation by the Planning <br /> Board) and Class B uses are heard by the BOA. <br /> • Eliminating the option for a "Conditional Use District" (CUD) from the UDO. Processing <br /> CUD applications are reviewed using a mixture of legislative and quasi-judicial <br />