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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 ) 9684444 <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 fax 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 />