Minutes 05-18-2021 Virtual Business meeting

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8 Commissioner Bedford said she is willing to let go of newspaper ads versus mailings, and the BOCC can go back and change it if it is not working. She said she does not think the 15 days should go down to 10 days, due to possible mail delays. She asked if there is a process reason for this, other than being aligned with state statute. Commissioner Dorosin exited the meeting at 7:38 p.m. Perdita Holtz said changing this would not mean the practice would change, just that the UDO would have the 10 days minimum to be in keeping with State statute. She said the Attorney's office made this request, and that is why Planning Staff has proposed it. Commissioner Bedford asked if there is an issue of being better than state statute, or if it is important legally to mirror the statute. James Bryan, County Attorney's Office, said he recommends the ordinance follow state statute as much as possible, in order to avoid confusion. He said, by practice, staff has always done as much as possible. He said the Ordinance does not currently provide any leeway, and there may be a holiday break, the newspaper does not get printed, staff is sick, etc. He said changing it to 10 days, would allow for these circumstance. He said if it is in the ordinance, staff will have to abide by it. He said Staff does things in practice that are not in ordinance, and changing from 10 to15 days is not going to make a major difference. Commissioner Hamilton referred to section 1.3.1, and asked for clarification on the meaning of"hear and decide applications, appealing those decisions, appealed to the BOCU. Commissioner Dorosin returned to the meeting at 7:42 p.m. Perdita Holtz said there are certain decisions that get appealed to BOCC (ex. storm water decisions before appealed to state). She said there are only a few appeals in the UDO that are made to BOCC versus the Board of Adjustment (BOA) or Superior Court. Commissioner Hamilton said it is difficult wording. Perdita Holtz said staff could look at this. Commissioner Hamilton said she is concerned about clarity. She said she agrees with the simplification of special permit versus conditional district. She asked where is the conditional district responsibility of the BOCC to decide, in this section. She asked if it is part of the application for amendment. Perdita Holtz said it is part of the zoning map to rezone to a conditional district. Commissioner Hamilton asked about duties of the Planning Board. She referred to 160D/301 on planning boards, which says, "facilitate and coordinate citizen engagement and participation in the planning process". Perdita Holtz said she has not looked at that part of the statute in a while. Commissioner Hamilton said this clearly addressed the Planning Board's duties regarding public engagement, Perdita Holtz said this could be put in if deemed necessary. She said one reason staff did not include it is because the Planning Board is a volunteer board of residents. She said some jurisdictions do not have staff, and thus these Planning Boards do more and members are compensated. She said this language reflects what happens in Orange County versus other jurisdictions in the state. Commissioner Hamilton said the scope of the statement seems broad for a volunteer board, but something that signifies part of their role is to welcome citizen comments would be helpful. She referred to another wording change regarding day care centers in residences, which she also found to be unclear. Perdita Holtz said this new language is a simple correction that should have been made in 2019, but was missed. She said the official name is now "center in a residence".