Agenda - 02-04-2025; 5-a - Applications for Zoning Atlas Amendment, Comprehensive Plan Amendments, & UDO Text Amendments to Realize “Fiddlehead Corner”, a Master Plan Development – Conditional District

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337 developments that promote economical and efficient land use, improved level of amenities, appropriate and harmonious variety, creative design, and a better environment through the approval of a general concept Master Plan the [sic] permits defined flexibility to accommodate land use adjustments in response to evolving market trends." The community to be developed by Hands Four Development Cooperative is a model of creative design to accomplish the purpose stated in the UDO: economical and efficient land use with a high level of amenities that simultaneously protects the environment. In the matrix of Appendix F in the Comprehensive Plan, Rural Community Activity Node (RCAN) is linked with four types of Conditional Districts: ASE-CD, MPD-CD, R-CD and NR-CD. Rural Neighborhood Activity Node (RNAN) is linked with three of these (ASE-CD, R-CD, and NR-CD) but not with MPD-CD. We are not aware of a reason for omission of a linkage between RNAN and MPD-CD. Perhaps it was an oversight rather than a specific choice. Notwithstanding, it is relevant to notice that MPD-CD Development Standards in the UDO appear to allow the County at least as much discretion to control the characteristics of a development as do the other three Conditional Districts. In fact, 52 permitted uses in Table 5.2 of the UDO are allowed in R-CD or NR-CD but not in MPD-CD. Only one use is permitted in MPD-CD that is not allowed in the other Conditional Districts. The Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan reflects a delicate balance involving the interplay of a disparate set of objectives to be simultaneously optimized. These include building community, meeting people's needs (e.g., affordable quality housing, human services), supporting a diverse economy, conserving natural areas, minimizing pollution and waste, protecting the environment, and protecting the water supply. Tension arises when two or more of those objectives come into conflict. The current situation in Orange County is that of expansion of population and institutional activity on a scale that was hardly conceivable when the Comprehensive Plan was created. The principles driving its intent and purpose remain relevant. Increasing pressure in one area - the need for affordable housing for a rapidly increasing number of seniors - conflicts with a desire to resist any change to the rural character, such as increasing the density of development. Simply put, land suitable for congregate living for seniors in districts presently zoned for such purposes has grown scarce and prohibitively expensive for such projects. On the other hand, there are land use areas, namely Activity Nodes, that have been identified in the Comprehensive Plan in rural Orange County for greater intensity of development, such as Conditional Districts. Their applications have been relatively limited in regard to higher-density residential uses due to limitations in water availability and wastewater effluent absorption capacity. However, modern technology and planning principles go a long way toward maintaining a healthy balance while allowing more efficient use of land. For example, combining cluster neighborhoods with preservation of large swaths of open space instead of conventional subdivisions is a means of maintaining the rural character while allowing higher residential density. Community wastewater treatment technology now treats to a much higher standard of pollutant removal that allows more efficient effluent dispersal. We contend that these considerations allow a project such as the one proposed to establish a new favorable balance. A changing condition in Orange County that makes the proposed amendment reasonably necessary is "an explosion in the numbers of older persons, a dramatic increase in longer lives" described in the Orange County Master Aging Plan (MAP) of 2007. The most recent update of the MAP, (2022-27), reinforces this point with an estimate that the overall population will increase by 20% from 2020 to 2040, while the number of adult ages 65+ in Orange County is expected to increase over three times as fast- 68%! FLUM Amendment Narrative, Pg. 5