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15 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> PLANNING BOARD <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: April 7, 2021 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 8 <br /> SUBJECT: Unified Development Ordinance Text Amendments — "160D" Legislation <br /> DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: (919) <br /> 1. Statement of Approval and Consistency Perdita Holtz, Planner III 245-2578 <br /> 2. Proposed UDO and Comprehensive Plan James Bryan, Staff Attorney 245-2319 <br /> Amendments Craig Benedict, Director 245-2575 <br /> 3. Proposed Amendments to the Planning <br /> Board Rules of Procedure <br /> PURPOSE: To review and make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners <br /> (BOCC) on County-initiated amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance to conform <br /> County regulations to a new chapter, 160D, of the North Carolina General Statues. As a result, <br /> amendments to Appendix F of the Comprehensive Plan and to the Planning Board's and Board <br /> of Adjustment's Rules of Procedure are also necessary. <br /> BACKGROUND: In July 2019, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted legislation that <br /> entailed the first major recodification and modernization of city and county development <br /> regulations since 1905. The effort was several years in the making; it began in 2013 when the <br /> endeavor was initiated by the Zoning and Land Use Section of the NC Bar Association. All local <br /> governments in North Carolina are required to adopt conforming regulations by July 1, 2021 <br /> (pushed back from an earlier date due to the COVID-19 pandemic). A blog post by staff at the <br /> School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill provides helpful background information on the <br /> legislation: https://canons.sog.unc.edu/chapter-160d-and-other-zoning-legislation/ <br /> Planning and County Attorney staff prepared UDO amendments to comply with the new <br /> legislation with the aim of leaving existing processes as unchanged as possible while also <br /> conforming the UDO to statutes. Planning staff provided an overview of the legislation at the <br /> September 2, 2020 Ordinance Review Committee (ORC) meeting and a review of the full <br /> amendment package at the March 3, 2021 ORC meeting. <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 /> • 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 /> processes, which can result in much confusion. Eliminating this type of process was <br /> one of the impetuses for the modernization of the statutes. In the '00s, the NC <br /> Legislature amended the statutes to allow for "Conditional Zoning Districts" which, <br /> arguably, negated the need for CUDs. (As a note, "conditional zoning districts" are now <br /> called "conditional districts" as a result of the terms used in NCGS Chapter 160D.) <br />