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16
<br /> DRAFT
<br /> 1 MEETING MINUTES
<br /> 2 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
<br /> 3 MAY 7,2025
<br /> 4 REGULAR MEETING
<br /> 5
<br /> 6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Lamar Proctor(Chair) Cheeks Township, Chris Johnston (Vice-Chair) Hillsborough Township,
<br /> 7 Meg Millard, Little River Township Representative; Statler Gilfillen, Eno Township Representative;
<br /> 8 Beth Bronson,At-Large Representative; Charity Kirk,At-Large Representative;Whitney Watson,
<br /> 9 At-Large Representative; Delores Bailey,At-Large Representative;Venkat Yendapalli, Cedar
<br /> 10 Grove Township Representative;Jonah Garson,At-Large Representative.
<br /> 11
<br /> 12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Kaufmann, Bingham Township Representative; Liz Kalies, Chapel Hill Township
<br /> 13 Representative.
<br /> 14
<br /> 15 STAFF PRESENT: Cy Stober, Planning & Inspections Director; Perdita Holtz, Deputy Director—Long Range Planning
<br /> 16 &Administration; Tom Altieri, Senior Planner-Long Range Planning&Administrative Division;
<br /> 17 Patrick Mallett, Deputy Director—Development Services; Jack Moran, Planner 1
<br /> 18
<br /> 19 OTHERS PRESENT: Albert Benshoff, Lydia Lavelle, Liz HIII
<br /> 20
<br /> 21 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
<br /> 22
<br /> 23 The meeting began at 7:02 PM
<br /> 24
<br /> 25 *****************************
<br /> 26
<br /> 27 AGENDA ITEM 8: UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE(UDO)TEXT AMENDMENT—RESIDENTIAL SOLAR ARRAYS-To
<br /> 28 review and make a recommendation to the BOCC on Planning Director-initiated amendments to
<br /> 29 the LIDO pertaining to residential solar arrays. This amendment was reviewed at the April 9,
<br /> 30 2025, ORC meeting. The anticipated BOCC public hearing date is June 3,2025.
<br /> 31
<br /> 32 Patrick Mallett: Next item on the agenda, as I said before, Pages 95 and 96 are replaced. That's the abstract and
<br /> 33 107. This is the solar array amendment, in large part it's the standards within LIDO, Section 5.9.6.
<br /> 34 So,we have the need for the amendment. Our amendments of the LIDO have not been amended
<br /> 35 or updated since November 8, 2012. Those parenthetically were amendments to deal with public
<br /> 36 utility, solar arrays, and nothing to do with the actual amendments before you tonight. It's the
<br /> 37 adoption of numerous best practices and technology changes have occurred in the solar industry.
<br /> 38 The Orange County strategic plan identifies the environmental protection and climate action as a
<br /> 39 first priority strategy. We're revising 5.9.6, solar array and Article 10 definitions. What we're not
<br /> 40 revising is the public utility. That would be what used to be referred to as Solar Farms,the large
<br /> 41 public utilities,this is just pertaining to solar arrays, roof-mounted or ground-mounted as an
<br /> 42 accessory use, like powering the dam turbines at the OWASA facility out at Cane Creek or a solar
<br /> 43 array that's mounted on your house roof or on your property or on farms. It addresses overly
<br /> 44 complex text and improves on the interpretation and the application for both staff and the
<br /> 45 applicants. This was sort of brought forth to us in partnership with sustainable developments and
<br /> 46 one of our partners, Solar Smart, and the industry pointed to some needs for some minor
<br /> 47 clarifications. This is by no means as complicated or as extensive as the telecom one. So, on
<br /> 48 future efforts, this too is a continuum to look at fast-tracking the permitting process for some solar
<br /> 49 array permits. The fees,we'll look at revisiting those to give some incentives possibly for
<br /> 50 residential stuff, solar permits, and then also,we're also conducting work with solar,and EV
<br /> 51 located on government facilities. That's strictly EV charging stations and we have a consortium
<br /> 52 with both,with this part of Solar Smart and NC State and numerous other institutions that we're
<br /> 53 working on, and this is just one part of what they would like to see and what we feel like the
<br /> 54 industry wants and residents,of course, as well. These are just a few slides that Amy Eckberg
<br />
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