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26 <br /> BROWN & BUNCH,PLLC <br /> CHARLES GORDON BROWN ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW <br /> gbrown@brownandbunch.com 101 North Columbia Street, Suite 100 <br /> WILLIAM W.BUNCH,III Chapel Hill,North Carolina 27514 <br /> bbunch@brownandbunch.net (919)968-1111 <br /> LEANN NEASE BROWN Facsimile: (919)968-1444 <br /> Inease@brownandbunch.com <br /> January 11, 2023 <br /> VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS <br /> Orange County Planning and Inspections <br /> Department <br /> 131 W. Margaret Lane, Suite 201 <br /> Hillsborough,NC 27278 <br /> ATTN: Cy Stober,Director <br /> RE: Mount Carmel Baptist Church of Chapel Hill,North Carolina Application for <br /> Zoning Atlas Amendment (General Use Zoning Request) and Future Land <br /> Use Map Amendment. <br /> Dear Mr. Stober: <br /> Mount Carmel Baptist Church of Chapel Hill,North Carolina(the"Church") owns unzoned <br /> land adjacent to its principal worship facilities at 2106 Mount Carmel Church Road. The land in <br /> question became unzoned when the Orange-Chatham boundary was changed in 2021. <br /> Mount Carmel is a bona fide Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Congregation. It has served <br /> its faith community since 1803. Until 2021, the property of the Church which supported and <br /> furthered its programs of worship, education,ministry and mission straddled the Orange-Chatham <br /> line. 4.6623 acres were in Chatham and 3.4730 acres, Orange. On June 30, 2021, Session Law <br /> 2021-67 went into effect. That Act annexed the Chatham County portion of the Church's property <br /> into Orange County. A copy of the Act is attached. <br /> To transition tax administration,the Act provided"Beginning January 1,2022,all property <br /> in the area described in Section 1 of this Act [the former Chatham acreage] which is subject to ad <br /> valorem taxation shall be listed, assessed, and taxed by Orange County in the same manner as is <br /> prescribed by law for all other property located in Orange County." Accordingly, Orange County <br /> recognized the annexed property as being recombined into the original 3.4730 Orange County tract <br /> and added it to PIN #9796-29-3144. On December 28, 2021, the Church registered a plat which <br /> showed the recombination into one parcel of 8.1353 acres. See Orange County Plat Book 124, <br /> Page 74 (copy attached). <br /> This is as far as the Act went. Both the Orange and Chatham portions had long been <br /> recognized as exempt from real and personal property taxation,but to ensure continuity of exempt <br />