Agenda - 10-21-2008 - 4n - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr, Craig Benedict Page 2 ]March I3, 2408 A "glair meaning" analysis of the term "govermnental facilities" indicates that a SWTF is a governmental facility pursuant to the Section 43 of the Zoning Ordinanre.3 Webster's defines the noun "government" as the atganization, machinery, or agency through which a golitical unit exercises authority and performs fiuvctions and which is usually classified according to the distribution of paws within it_" Webster's ds£~ a "facility" as, "something (as a hospital) that is built, installed, or established to serve a par4icutar purpose:' Clearly a SW'l''F, built and opezated by the County for the purpose of collecting and they transferring the waste generated by County eatizens to another disposal facility, fits within the plain mean~g of fhe farm "governmental fact7it3+" Similarly, given the construct of the phrase, "governmental Facilities & Office 13uildings" (eanphasis added), there , is no basis to conclude that ~t'he term "office building" modifies or limits the term "goveamental facilities" or vice versa. It is, 8~erefore, our opinion that a County SVV'FF is a governrr~ental facility and can be located in any zoning district within the County's planning jurisdictiion (other than EC-5, Ul and AS) as a permitted use in aecordamce with use "P24" of Section 4.3 of the Permitted Use Table of the Toning Ordinance sad the relevant EDD Design 1Vianuals. Further, there is a conceptual problem with an iuterpretation~of the Permitted Use Table that requires or would require as Orange County building or Orange County facility to have a Class A special use permit. A recinir~+ertt for BOCC approval of a Special Use Permit far use by Orange County of its Iand renders all land within Orange County's planning jurisdiction unavailable for a County use•requiring such a permit. In a case upholding Mecklenburg County's approval of a zoning permit (rat a Board of Commissioner approved spacial use permit} for a Mecklenburg County sanitary landfill by the CharlotterMecklenburg Zoning Administrator, the North Carolina Supreme Cotnrt wrote as follows: .Due Process requires an impartial decisionmaker.. . .4dditlonal corrsideratlorrs beyond these fireanciai interests require norrparticipatiara in quasi judicial zoning decisions ~# fixed opinion t~iat is not susceptible to change may well constitute imperm~tssible bias, as will undisclosed ex pane communication or a close familial or business relationship with the applicant: The Count~of Lancaster= Sauth~arolina v. Mecklenbwrg.Cfl_uirty, 334 AT.C. 498 (1993) {citations omitted). Mecklenburg Caumty had previously required all sau~itary landfills to zeeeive a special use pernzit. That requiremeaxt was held, in: an earlier court challenge to it, tQ violate the due proce~ requireanerrts cited above. ~d., 336 N.C. at 504-503. The Courts holding, with regard ,~~ `_~. ~: a "If the words of a statata ere plain and una~mbigaous, the court need look x~o farther."