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354 <br /> Our project would serve as a step in the direction of fulfilling this need described in the <br /> Comprehensive Plan and provide a model by which additional senior housing could be <br /> provided in a manner compatible with other objectives of the Master Aging Plan and the <br /> Comprehensive Plan, as more fully explained in the FLUM application narrative. <br /> The applicants would have preferred to locate our community for seniors in an urban setting <br /> but were unable to locate suitable land in Orange County districts currently approved for such <br /> projects. We faced the choice of trying to locate in a rural area or abandoning our project. We <br /> were able to find and purchase a rural property that meets our locational criteria. Its land use <br /> classification is not presently compatible with the zoning that would be required, MPD-CD. <br /> That incompatibility was the basis for the associated Zoning Atlas and FLUM amendment <br /> applications. <br /> d. The alleged error that would be corrected by the amendment <br /> In the matrix of Appendix F in the Comprehensive Plan, Rural Community Activity Node <br /> (RCAN) is linked with four types of Conditional Districts: ASE-CD, MPD-CD, R-CD and <br /> NR-CD. Rural Neighborhood Activity Node (RNAN) is linked with three of these (ASE-CD, <br /> R-CD, and NR-CD) but not with MPD-CD. In fact, 52 permitted uses in Table 5.2 of the UDO <br /> are allowed in R-CD or NR-CD but not in MPD-CD. Only one permitted use is allowed in <br /> MPD-CD that is not allowed in the other Conditional Districts. <br /> MPD-CD development standards appear to allow the County at least as much discretion to <br /> control the characteristics of a development as do the standards of the other three Conditional <br /> Districts. Thus it appears that omission of a linkage between MPD-CD was more of an <br /> oversight than a specific choice. Notwithstanding, establishment of the linkage would be a <br /> necessary step to allow use of land in RNAN for MPD-CD developments such as we propose. <br /> In a concurrent application for a text amendment to the Orange County Comprehensive Plan <br /> 2030, the applicants are requesting linkage between RNAN and MPD-CD. Assuming that <br /> request is granted, the text in the UDO would need to be amended as we propose in order to <br /> harmonize the Comprehensive Plan and UDO. <br /> e. Changing conditions within the County that make the amendment <br /> reasonably necessary to promote the public health, safety and general <br /> welfare <br /> The changing condition in Orange County that makes the proposed amendment reasonably <br /> necessary is "an explosion in the numbers of older persons, a dramatic increase in longer <br /> lives" described in the Orange County Master Aging Plan (MAP) of 2007. The most recent <br /> update of the MAP, (2022-27), reinforces this point with an estimate that the overall population <br /> will increase by 20% from 2020 to 2040, while the number of adult ages 65+ in Orange <br /> County is expected to increase over three times as fast - 68%! <br /> This tsunami of aging adults will produce a demand for increased housing that is designed <br /> specifically to meet the needs of an aging population. The housing stock of Orange County is <br /> geared to families, typically 3 bedrooms, whereas the space needed by seniors declines as <br />