Agenda 03-19-24; 5-a - Zoning Atlas Amendment – 6915-UT Millhouse Road, Chapel Hill

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33 The Suitability of ASE-CD Zoning The principal function of the Treeist is to provide urban forestry services to our community. Since urban forestry is a subfield of forestry, which itself is a subfield of agriculture, the principal function of the Treeist is a specialized form of agricultural services. More particularly, we engage in agricultural services when we create management plans for the trees of local landowners and when we prune, treat, or remove trees in privately-owned wooded yards and parcels. When we haul away logs and wood chips and stage them at our property for further transport, we are handling agricultural products (NC General Statutes, 20-88(b)(2)), many of which will be used for farming or other agricultural purposes.' Our other intended uses for our property properly count as "accessory uses" that are "incidental or insubstantial" and are "ancillary to the established principal use" of our urban forestry services (UDO definitions p.10-1). These accessory uses include training our employees, servicing our machinery, parking for employees and work trucks, accommodating our clerical staff, housing a property caretaker, and hosting a variety of tree-related educational events and activities for the community. The purpose of ASE-CD zoning is "to provide for agriculturally-related activities that are not considered bonafide farming activities within the County's planning jurisdiction." Agricultural services, our principal intended use for this property, is a permitted Use Type in ASE-CD (UDO, p.5-3). ' As discussed in our Detailed Narrative (section 2, pp. 3-6), the salvaging of sawlog supports local sawmills, enhancing local markets for lumber products on a smaller scale conducive to Orange County properties. Our wood chips themselves are often delivered to local farms for use as mulch and organic matter. 1