Planning Board - 030321 ORC Agenda Packet

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4 • Having just one class of Special Use Permit (SUP) and having SUPs heard and decided upon only by the Board of Adjustment (BOA) as the BOA is best suited to conduct quasi- judicial matters. oThere are currently Class A and Class B SUP uses, Class A uses are heard by the Board of County Commissioners (with a recommendation by the Planning Board) and Class B uses are heard by the BOA. o Instead of having the BOCC conducting quasi-judicial matters, uses that currently require a Class A SUP would instead be approved via new conditional districts, which are legislative decisions. The BOCC would still be the decision-maker for these uses, with review and recommendation by the Planning Board, just the process is different. o Note: this is an aspect of the amendments that is not strictly required by Chapter 160D but is a best practice in North Carolina and recommended by the County's legal staff. • Eliminating the option for a "Conditional Use District" (CUD) from the LIDO. Processing CUD applications are reviewed using a mixture of legislative and quasi-judicial processes, which can result in much confusion. Eliminating this type of process was one of the impetuses for the modernization of the statutes. In the `00s, the NC Legislature amended the statutes to allow for "Conditional Zoning Districts" which, arguably, negated the need for CUDs. (As a note, "conditional zoning districts" are now called "conditional districts" as a result of the terms used in NCGS Chapter 160D.) oStaff proposes to add four new Conditional Districts to the UDO to replace the CUD — a residential conditional district and a non-residential conditional district. ■ Two of the new districts (R-RB-CD and NR-RB-CD) would be applicable within the Rural Buffer area of the county while the other two (R-CD and NR-CD) would be applicable to geographic areas outside of the Rural Buffer. This action is being proposed in order to keep existing land use restrictions within the Rural Buffer intact (in keeping with the adopted Orange County — Chapel Hill — Carrboro Joint Planning Land Use Plan) while also producing an ordinance that conforms to 160D requirements. oElimination of the CUD will result in a reorganization of how major subdivisions are defined in Article 7 and the review process used, but the review and approving staff/boards remain the same. As noted above, amendments to Appendix F of the Comprehensive Plan and to the Planning Board's Rules of Procedure are necessary as a result of the UDO amendments. The proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan are included in Attachment 1 while the Rules of Procedure amendments are in Attachment 2. As an aside, amendments are also necessary to the Board of Adjustment's (BOA) Rules of Procedure and the BOA will be reviewing the amendments to its document. The amendment version that has been vetted/approved by the County's legal staff can be viewed at: http://orangecountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/l 4966/UDO-160D-amendments---version-3- legal Iy-sufficient-on-0217211 (Note that this version is a PDF of the entire UDO with changes tracked; due to time constraints, staff was not able to extract only those pages that have edits). Planning staff submitted a subsequent version in an attempt to more closely align the UDO with existing processes as they pertain to the Joint Planning Area with Chapel Hill and Carrboro. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Existing County staff has and will continue to accomplish the necessary tasks associated with updating the UDO in response to the State legislation. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Planning Director recommends the ORC review the proposed amendments and provide any feedback to staff.