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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB agenda 0104171 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT 131 W. MARGARET LANE, SUITE 201 HILLSBOROUGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27278 AGENDA ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD ORANGE COUNTY WEST CAMPUS OFFICE BUILDING 131 WEST MARGARET LANE – LOWER LEVEL CONFERENCE ROOM (ROOM #004) HILLSBOROUGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27278 Wednesday, January 4, 2017 Regular Meeting – 7:00 pm No. Page(s) Agenda Item 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR FOR 2017 3. 3 – 4 INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. Planning Calendar for January and February • February 1 – Planning Board Meeting • February 13 – Quarterly Public Hearing 4. 5 – 14 APPROVAL OF MINUTES December 7, 2016 Meeting Minutes 5. CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 6. PUBLIC CHARGE Introduction to the Public Charge The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner which considers the present and future needs of its residents and businesses through efficient and responsive process that contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. Public Charge The Planning Board pledges to the residents of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its residents to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with fellow residents. At any time, should any member of the Board or any resident fail to observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 7. CHAIR COMMENTS 1 2 No. Page(s) Agenda Item 8. COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS a. Board of Adjustment b. Orange Unified Transportation 9. ADJOURNMENT IF AN EMERGENCY OCCURS, OR IF YOU ARE RUNNING LATE FOR THE MEETING, PLEASE LEAVE A VOICE MAIL FOR MICHAEL HARVEY (919-245-2592). 2 < December January 2017 February > Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Holiday Planning Board Meeting 7:00 pm* ORC Meeting 7:15 pm WCOB 004 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Board of Adjustment Meeting 7:30 pm WCOB 004 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Holiday OUTBoard meeting @ 6:30 pm WCOB 004 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Regular BOCC Meeting 7:00 pm Whitted Building 29 30 31 Notes: * Planning Board Member Attendance Required or Expected WCOB = West Campus Office Building (131 W. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough) 3 < January February 2017 March > Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 ORC- Time TBD Planning Board Meeting* 7:00 pm WCOB 004 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Board of Adjustment Meeting 7:30 pm WCOB 004 Regular BOCC Meeting 7:00 pm Whitted Building 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Quarterly Public Hearing* 7:00 pm Whitted Building OUTBoard meeting 6:30 pm WCOB 004 BOCC Work Session 7:00 pm Southern Human Services 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Regular BOCC Meeting 7:00 pm Southern Human Services Joint Town of Hillsborough/ BOCC Meeting 7:00 pm Whitted Building 26 27 28 Notes: * Planning Board Member Attendance Required or Expected WCOB = West Campus Office Building (131 W. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough) 4 5 1 MINUTES 1 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 DECEMBER 7, 2016 3 REGULAR MEETING 4 5 6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Lydia Wegman (Chair), At-Large Chapel Hill Township Representative; Tony Blake (Vice-Chair), 7 Bingham Township Representative; Maxecine Mitchell, At-Large Bingham Township; Patricia Roberts, Cheeks 8 Township Representative; Paul Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township 9 Representative; Kim Piracci, At-Large; Laura Nicholson, Eno Township Representative; 10 11 12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill 13 Township; 14 15 STAFF PRESENT: Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor; Perdita Holtz; Planning Systems Coordinator; Patrick 16 Mallett, Planner II, Michael Rettie, Chief Building Official; Alan Clapp, Environmental Health Director; Meredith Kern, 17 Administrative Assistant II 18 19 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 20 21 Lydia Wegman called the meeting to order. 22 23 24 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 25 a) Planning Calendar for December and January 26 27 28 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 29 NOVEMBER 2, 2016 ORC NOTES 30 NOVEMBER 2, 2016 MEETING MINUTES 31 32 MOTION by Paul Guthrie to approve the November 2, 2016 Planning Board minutes. Seconded by Maxecine Mitchell. 33 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 34 35 36 AGENDA ITEM 4. CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 37 38 No additions to Agenda 39 40 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 41 42 Introduction to the Public Charge 43 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 44 appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development 45 laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and 46 harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner, which considers the present and 47 future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive process that 48 contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB 49 will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services 50 during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 51 52 53 PUBLIC CHARGE 54 6 2 The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its 55 citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with 56 fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this 57 public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual 58 regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting 59 until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 60 61 62 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 63 64 No comments 65 66 Agenda Item 7: Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Text Amendment - To make a recommendation 67 to the BOCC on government initiated amendments to the UDO to modify the Mobile Home 68 Park Conditional Zoning District (MHP-CZ) to a Home Park Conditional Zoning District (HP-69 CZ). The reclassified district would allow for both [permanent mobile homes and recreational 70 vehicles (RVs) on a temporary basis. This item is scheduled for the February 13, 2017 71 quarterly public hearing. 72 73 Presenter: Patrick Mallett, Planner II 74 75 Patrick Mallett reviewed the abstract 76 77 Tony Blake: Some of those mobile home parks are within the water and sewer boundary area, does that mean they 78 could have water and sewer if they wanted to? Or do they have water and sewer? 79 80 Patrick Mallett: Theoretically. I would guess that the mast majority of these are operating on well and septic. 81 82 Alan Clapp: We’ve got about 70 that are only the well or septic. 83 84 Lydia Wegman: How big are some of the larger parks? 85 86 Michael Harvey: You have some parks in the County that have a couple hundred units. And remember that an 87 individual unit is on a space approximately 5,000 square feet, at least according to current code. 88 89 Patrick Mallett continued presentation. 90 91 Tony Blake: What do you mean by “could help solidify addressing”? 92 93 Patrick Mallett: So part of that exhaustive research is that… A mobile home park is much like a condo. You don’t 94 have individual lots. You have one track that is theoretically owned by one owner or one corporation or entity and 95 they have spaces like an apartment or a condo with stalls and hookups and then you pay a rent to the owner. My 96 understanding is in some cases you could buy a deeded reference to the space. So what’s happening is the 97 addressing, not all of these are addressed in our database or are they clearly labeled to be able to drive into a mobile 98 home park and be able to locate a specific unit. I don’t know that your average person, either tenant or owner, would 99 necessarily make the connection that that’s the address. 100 101 Michael Harvey: To expand upon that, that current ordinance says that it’s up to the park owner as part of the 102 development process to establish a system 1a, 1b, 1c. The revised ordinance requires a mobile home park to be 103 addressed consistent with the County addressing ordinance. So each individual stall will be addressed with a number 104 consistent with the County’s ordinance so there can be no dispute over what’s 101, 103, 110. And they all will have to 105 display address numbers consistent with that address ordinance. That’s the big link we’re doing here. 106 107 7 3 Patrick Mallett: Some of these with the travel around park don’t necessarily have a clearly posted sign. And then on 108 the EMS end, I think that they’re continuing to make an extraordinary effort to have their database so that they know 109 if somebody’s in need of service that they know how to get there. 110 111 Paul Guthrie: It’s my impression that a lot of the older parks really got their push at the end of World War II, and you 112 can see units that have been there since WWII. How do we watch that to see if it’s still maintained and we try to save 113 it as quality standards, or not? 114 115 Patrick Mallett: Well, maybe what we’ll do is go through the power point and then come back to that part of it. But 116 Mobile homes are a little bit different in the sense that it is build to a HUD standard, it actually has a metal placard 117 that has a serial number kind of like a VIN number and you can change the mount. So theoretically you could have a 118 40-year old unit, singlewide, you yank out the skirting, the underpinning and then replace it with a new one as long as 119 it fits within the space. 120 121 Paul Guthrie: The other question; you mentioned the enforcement of federal protection. Given the turmoil in 122 Washington right now, what do you do if standards get eliminated? 123 124 Michael Harvey: You never say never, but the definitional constitutes a certified manufactured house will never 125 change from this notion of it is a self contained engineered structure that can withstand X capacity. And that’s infinite. 126 That’s never going to change. And that ultimately is what we’re looking for in terms of this is a manufactured home by 127 HUD’s definition. 128 129 Paul Guthrie: And on a curveball, environmental standards in today’s announcement from the EPA and as a couple 130 of us here are ex EPA employees there are standards in EPA relative to water and to wastewater. Who would 131 enforce them if they were withdrawn? 132 133 Michael Harvey: There still have to be permitting for water/wastewater. 134 135 Paul Guthrie: So you would re-permit on existing units? 136 137 Alan Clapp: So this covers the land use zoning comp plan parts of this that our intent is to make it coincide with other 138 regulations at the State and Federal level and not get in the way. Those are going to change over time, as they 139 always have, but this deals with your permits, your zoning and compliance permits, your planning approvals. You still 140 have to go through and meet inspections, building permits, electrical permits, you have to go through Environmental 141 Health to get your water and septic hooks up and so on and so forth. So this is one part in all of the myriad of 142 requirements that you have to meet. So I would say that they’re most closely aligned with the Federal… 143 144 Paul Guthrie: I’ll let you get back to your discussion, I’m just throwing it out because I think there’s going to be a 145 period of time where it’s going to be difficult to mesh some of the Federal standards that have been changed with 146 what we have done as normal business for a long time. And since we’re in the process I just wanted to raise the 147 issue. We should carefully see that we can still continue to do the maximum, especially on sanitary issues, on our 148 own with or without the Federal government. 149 150 Alan Clapp: Currently Environmental Health, for all the mobile home parks that are on well, septic, or one or the other 151 we angle inspection of the park. So that inspection involves walking the entire park, making sure all the systems are 152 functioning, and taking a water sample. Even under the current administration just this year there was a change in 153 that a total coliform hit on a water sample is now not necessarily a stop the presses, put boil water notices up. It used 154 to be that that was the case, even under current administration that’s changed. So there’s no telling what’s going to 155 happen under the next administration. But if it’s a fecal coliform on the water then the boil water notices come up. Of 156 the 90 some parks we inspect about 70 of them the others are all water and sewer. And then to your second 157 question; we do the annual park inspection and then if a model is moved off and another goes on we do a space 158 inspection to make sure that that space will fit in the given slot and not be over the well or septic system, and that the 159 system is functioning. So we do a park and a space inspection. 160 161 8 4 Lydia Wegman: Alan, is there one septic system for the whole park? 162 163 Alan Clapp: Usually in most cases there are individual systems or 2 units per septic system. 164 165 Paul Guthrie: Are there any of these parks that have discharge permits? 166 167 Alan Clapp: Yes. Now, we do not do those but of the other 20 half of them are either spray or discharge or ATU. And 168 several of those are on public water supply with 25 or more connections. 169 170 Patrick Mallett continued presentation. 171 172 Michael Rettie: The tiny homes themselves are not built to any standard. 173 174 Patrick Mallett: Well, they could but the vast majority doesn’t meet anything. And that’s the rub. 175 176 Lydia Wegman: What kind of hookups do they have? 177 178 Patrick Mallett: The ones that don’t meet any standards? It’s the Wild West. It’s everything from a port-a-potty to 179 showers in bathhouses. 180 181 Patrick Mallett continued presentation. 182 183 Tony Blake: It sounds as if, with a tiny home, you could have either an RV type hookup or a mobile home type hook 184 up. Is that true? 185 186 Patrick Mallett: Theoretically. 187 188 Tony Blake: And we would permit that? 189 190 Patrick Mallett: If it meets those standards, both in the building code and the health. 191 192 Michael Harvey: The bottom line is this: If you’re putting a structure on a parcel of property it either has to be a HUD 193 certified structure or a stick built house meeting state building code. 194 195 Michael Rettie: Well HUD is a standard. If nothing that’s a Federal standard for building a manufactured home. 196 197 Tony Blake: But it doesn’t say how wide or how long it’s going to be. It just says 2x4’s would be this far apart. 198 199 Michael Harvey: And remember most HUD homes have to meet certain design and wind zone requirements and it 200 has to be a self contained engineered unit. 201 202 Michael Rettie: HUD has gone up with their own building and construction standards. That’s where you get the little 203 1x2 studs and that kind of stuff. But all of that is it’s systems. Even the building officials can’t change those systems 204 unless a design professional basically specifies how to do that. 205 206 Patrick Mallett: So we’ll see people that will tinker with a mobile home and if you rip out a wall and add onto it, what 207 does that become? And that kind of transcends the mobile home park. 208 209 Lydia Wegman: Can we go back to the tiny homes? And so if they meet the RV standard would they be temporary? 210 211 Patrick Mallett: Yes. 212 213 Lydia Wegman: Only a mobile home or single family could be a permanent. 214 215 9 5 Patrick Mallett: Exactly. You’re coming to a space that’s designated on a site plan as temporary or permanent. And if 216 you’re in a temporary space you’re suppose to be built to an RV standard and have a hook up. 217 218 Lydia Wegman: What if a tiny home is set on a single-family lot? 219 220 Michael Harvey: It has to meet state building code. 221 222 Maxecine Mitchell: With the tiny home meeting the RV standard can only stay at a RV park for a certain length of 223 time? 224 225 Patrick Mallett: Just the same as a RV. 226 227 Buddy Hartley: How long can it stay there? 228 229 Patrick Mallett: 180 days. 230 231 Buddy Hartley: What happens if it’s there after 180 days? 232 233 Patrick Mallett: It’s a violation… On the enforcement end of this, transcending the text change is how do we deal with 234 that? 235 236 Maxecine Mitchell: Right now they couldn’t be on either one? The tiny home. 237 238 Patrick Mallett: No, because it’s not meeting that standard. 239 240 Buddy Hartley: Could you drive it around the block and bring it back? 241 242 Patrick Mallett: I think that’s a discussion for the enforcers to come up with some policy that’s appropriate. But I think 243 it’s in the realm of possibility to require, as part of its approval… That there’s a statement and there’s an affidavit 244 that’s recorded on a lot that you’re not going to have tenants staying there in your temporary spaces for longer than 245 180 days. Period. 246 247 Patrick Mallet continued presentation. 248 249 Tony Blake: Is anything grandfathered in this? 250 251 Patrick Mallett: If you’re a mobile home park and you’re there and it either pre-dated our zoning requirements it’s the 252 same. You can do nothing, and this is not going to impact what you have today nor are these requirements really 253 going to create additional items, if you have mobile homes there’s no additional suffering in terms of… It’s when you 254 want to convert portions to temporary. That’s when you have to do additional things. But the performance standards 255 and the requirements; we made a conscience effort to make it the same. 256 257 Michael Harvey: Tony, one thing to keep in mind is that with the current regulations, which are applicable, we have to 258 do our own inspections. We work with several park owners to address violations that they still have to comply with. 259 Our goal is to try to work with park owners that have illegally allowed, for example, 3 units in 1 5,000 square foot 260 space. You’re going to have to address that violation. That’s one huge violation. The other violation that we see a lot 261 of is illegal additions on mobile homes that essentially invalidate its HUD certificate, but also a violation of state 262 building code and zoning. So unfortunately we have 90 parks that we are inspecting. I would say we have done 40, 263 and have worked on several issues in those 40. There are multitudes more. We have just scratched the service. But 264 a lot of our efforts are trying to coordinate with land records and emergency service staff, trying to fix any and all 265 addressing problems so there is an appropriate level of compliance where this is an address, this is where they have 266 to go, and emergency services know where to go when there is an emergency. 267 268 Lydia Wegman: Did you hear anything of concern at the July 20th meetings you had? 269 10 6 270 Patrick Mallett: No. I did get a phone call and email from an operator yesterday who owns 65 mobile home parks 271 throughout the southeast of which they own several in Orange County. They said this is exactly the trend. We have a 272 good number of our home parks that have been converted to have some sort of hybrid so that we can meet the 273 market demands. 274 275 Lydia Wegman: Was he comfortable with what you were doing? 276 277 Patrick Mallett: Yes. I don’t think I’ve had any negative responses. Either from residents that are interested to tenants 278 to mobile home park owners. 279 280 Patrick Mallett continued presentation. 281 282 Alan Clapp: On the septic end the only thing that’s different is the minimum size for a mobile home inaudible. The 283 park model and the RV type have a lower flow rate in the North Carolina sewage inaudible so it would be less flow to 284 the system. Then we’re going to get the question of, “Can we do 2 where we have 1?” and the answer’s going to be 285 no because they still have to meet the 5,000. 286 287 Michael Harvey: We only allow 1 unit per 5,000 square feet. 288 289 Patrick Mallett: And, peppered throughout the 30 some odd pages of the text change, it’s 1 space, 1 unit. No 290 efficiencies. It doesn’t matter how big it is or how small it is. And we did take the comments from the ORC about the 291 shed’s and then lowering the minimum cap from 10-acres to 5-acres for your minimum track size. 292 293 Lydia Wegman: Michael, is there anything you wanted to add? 294 295 Michael Rettie: The only thing we regulate with RV’s is the electric pedestal. It’s the only jurisdiction we have 296 anything to do with. 297 298 299 Patrick Mallett: So part of that would be the site plan approval and the designation of the space and then some sort of 300 affidavit that says it’s built to the park model standard. 301 302 Lydia Wegman: But no HUD certification? 303 304 Michael Rettie: Not for a RV. 305 306 Alan Clapp: Yes. 307 308 Paul Guthrie: How many? 309 310 Alan Clapp: I don’t know because those are the ones that we don’t go to. 311 312 Paul Guthrie: So what we’re talking about here would be totally controlled by State and Federal Law… That could 313 become a problem. So I just plant that seed. 314 315 Michael Harvey: Understood. But with all due respect if we did nothing it would still be a problem. If we never came 316 up with this amendment we’re still looking at the problem. 317 318 Paul Guthrie: Well I think there’s a solution outside of that. If a surrounding or neighboring piece of property felt that it 319 was being harmed by those discharges then there could be private action. 320 321 Michael Harvey: They can be now, in fact, there has been. In the 12 years I’ve been here there’s been 1 park that 322 seems to get… 323 11 7 324 Paul Guthrie: Because I have a feeling that we’re going to see some significant changes attempted on a clean water 325 act, for example. 326 327 Maxecine Mitchell: I have one more question. I take it there’s no RV parks in Orange County? 328 329 Patrick Mallett: Legally, no. 330 331 Alan Clapp: There is one just across the line in Alamance County, but not in Orange. 332 333 Maxecine Mitchell: Ok. I was just wondering if this is the first time we’re dealing with RVs. The one I found was on 334 Jones Road and I’ve seen people park their RV there but I don’t know how long. 335 336 Alan Clapp: That’s the one. That’s called a park model. So they leave those there. They hook their bathrooms to the 337 septic system but they have a bathhouse where you have to go and take a shower. 338 339 Maxecine Mitchell: Ok. And they’re regulation is based on the County it’s in? 340 341 Alan Clapp: Yes. So, in Alamance that’s fine. Here, the Health Department could permit that the same way but they’d 342 also have to meet planning regulations. 343 344 MOTION by Kim Piracci to approve statement of consistency in attachment 3 and to approve the proposed 345 amendments in attachment 4. Seconded by Patricia Roberts. 346 VOTE: 7-1 (MAXECINE MITCHELL OPPOSED) 347 348 Maxecine explained she had some reservations about whether it’s a good idea. 349 350 Agenda Item 8: Public Hearing Process - 1 Year Report – To provide comments and input into a report 351 staff is preparing for the Board of County Commissioners that will review one year of public 352 hearing items. This 1-year report was requested by the BOCC when the revisions to the 353 public hearing process were adopted in November 2015/ 354 Presenter: Perdita Holtz, Planning Systems Coordinator 355 356 Perdita Holtz reviewed the abstract. 357 358 Tony Blake: I have the feeling that there was more through put than we would have otherwise been able to 359 accomplish but I’m not certain I should warn out the numbers. Have we actually moved more items through the 360 process via this? 361 362 Perdita Holtz: Well it had more to do with the speed of items moving through the process. 363 364 Tony Blake: So you’re saying that they went through faster, I had the feeling that there were more. 365 366 Perdita Holtz: I don’t think that there were more. I think this was a fairly typical number. 367 368 Laura Nicholson: I was just going to say, my favorite part is the fact that there’s more public comment at these 369 meetings, which I think is nice because we’re getting the public involved earlier in the process. Which, I definitely 370 appreciate. I’m still a little bummed about the non-quorum issue but I understand why it’s in place at the quarterly 371 public hearings. But I think it’s good for the public to be able to come and comment more often and I think it’s good 372 for us to hear their comments. 373 374 Lydia Wegman: I would agree with that. 375 376 Kim Piracci: Not very many of us go to the quarterly public hearings, do we? 377 12 8 378 Perdita Holtz: Well that was a little bit of the problem with that. Having the quorum as a requirement in order to hold 379 the public hearing and there were a couple of hearings where we were on the phone trying to get Planning Board 380 members to the hearing and the hearing started half an hour late while somebody came. And I do recall one 381 specific hearing where there were like 100 people in the room that had to wait half an hour. That was really when 382 the BOCC said, “We might have to look at how we do these”. But this year now that it’s no longer a quorum 383 requirement it doesn’t seem like there’s a quorum of Planning Board members at public hearings. 384 385 Kim Piracci: That was the reason I was opposed to it initially because if you don’t require it sometimes people don’t 386 feel the need to come, and second what does that say about us as a Planning Board when we can’t even get a 387 quorum together for a meeting? That says that we’re all disengaged, and that doesn’t really speak volumes. 388 389 Lydia Wegman: I would just speak for myself, I don’t feel disengaged but I do travel a lot which has made it hard for 390 me to go to all of the meetings. And so for me personally I am grateful that things can move forward even if I’m not 391 there. And Tony has been great about being there. Others have as well. And I do feel bad about not being able to 392 be there but I just wouldn’t assume it means disengagement. 393 394 Buddy Hartley: The one that she was talking about, I came back from vacation to get there so they’d have a 395 quorum. So I think that it’s probably a good idea that we are not having to have quorums. 396 397 Kim Piracci: Right. But, ok I still feel so new… We should either be there or we shouldn’t whether we’re required or 398 not? 399 400 Perdita Holtz: You’re supposed to come. It just means that the public hearing is not going to be held up just 401 because there’s not a quorum of Planning Board members. 402 403 Kim Piracci: Ok, and you’re supposed to go because… 404 405 Patricia Roberts: It’s a joint meeting between the BOCC and the Planning Board so the idea is that we would be 406 there. I’m not sure that we’ve done the best job in the on boarding process because it took me a long time as a new 407 member to realize that it wasn’t just the monthly meetings and there’s the quarterly public hearing as well. As so I 408 think that that could be the missing link. Like on the website, when it has the job description it doesn’t really saying, 409 “And attendance of the quarterly public hearing”. 410 411 Perdita Holtz: It does now. Because of what you had said I made sure they changed that. 412 413 Kim Piracci: Ok so when I’m there, it’s usually going over what we go over here and what we approve? 414 415 Perdita Holtz: Right because you’re now making a recommendation earlier in the process than the Planning Board 416 used to. Formally the Planning Board didn’t make a recommendation until after the quarterly public hearing and that 417 made it so that items that were low controversy actually took longer because it had to go back to the Planning 418 Board in order to get a recommendation. And so it is kind of a big deal that those 7 that were adopted the night of 419 the hearing. Formerly that would’ve taken anywhere from 4-8 weeks longer. 420 421 Tony Blake: And the Commissioners do like you there and they will often ask you for comments or ask if there are 422 Planning Board comments. 423 424 Paul Guthrie: How are you defining a quorum? 425 426 Perdita Holtz: The way the County defines a quorum is in majority of seated members. So this Board normally has 427 12 members… 428 429 Paul Guthrie: So no excused absences? 430 431 13 9 Perdita Holtz: Well, excused absence doesn’t have anything to do with a quorum. You have to have people in 432 attendance. So it’s the number of people you have to have in attendance… This goes to State laws and rules. You 433 can’t base your quorum requirements on whether somebody is out of town, or in the hospital. Your quorum is the 434 number of seated members, and the majority of the number of seated members. So right now it’s 6. 435 436 Laura Nicholson: I have another question. Part of it was rather than sending certified mail to a smaller amount of 437 people, we’re now sending regular mail to a bigger amount of people. How do you think that that’s working? Is that 438 increasing attendance at information meetings? 439 440 Perdita Holtz: I think that it really doesn’t have to do with if it was regular or certified, I think it depends on what 441 speed proposed and who’s nearby. 442 443 Laura Nicholson: But do you think that being able to notify more people is helping? 444 445 Perdita Holtz: I think it helps public participation, sure. 446 447 Tony Blake: This recent thing where they’re trying to line the land use with the zoning on these little non conformant 448 parcels around the County, I think you got a much better turnout there than you would’ve otherwise. 449 450 Perdita Holtz: I will say that we used to get complaints from some people that were receiving certified mail because 451 it comes in your mailbox and it says it’s from Orange County Government and there were people who said, My wife 452 was upset all weekend because the Post Office got it on Friday and we couldn’t go get it until Monday” and they 453 thought it was tax foreclosures and they were upset that we sent those notices certified mail. And there are a lot of 454 people who won’t go to the Post Office to pick it up, and it’ll come back to us. 455 456 Lydia Wegman: I haven’t had that much experience with the prior process, I was relatively new, but this year seems 457 to be working fine for me. I do feel bad missing the meetings but I am grateful that my absence is not going to hold 458 up a BOCC quarterly public hearing if I’m not able to make it. And I agree with Laura, having people come here to 459 talk to us helps us make better decisions and offers us opportunities for fuller discussions because we have a 460 chance to hear what people are concerned about… How does it work for you? 461 462 Perdita Holtz: The actual process is working well. I do think we need to tighten up some of our internal stuff. Like 463 you all and the public doesn’t see and we’ll be working on addressing that. Like legal review time frames and when 464 they occur and such because there was the issue where they didn’t get finished until after it came to the Planning 465 Board so we had to bring it back. There have been a couple blips like that but we’ll get it right. 466 467 Lydia Wegman: So it sounds like it’s working reasonably well from your standpoint? 468 469 Perdita Holtz: Yeah. And I think that being able to approve low controversy items the night of the hearing is a big 470 improvement. 471 472 Laura Nicholson: I just wanted to ask about notification for neighborhood information meetings. I feel like we’ve 473 gotten more notification than before but it still feels kind of scattered. Not all of the time but sometimes. Are we 474 supposed to get notified, or is it just that sometimes we get? 475 476 Perdita Holtz: The Planning Board gets notified for major sub division projects and Class A SUP’s, because that’s 477 the stuff that you guys have something to do with. There are also NIM’s for Class B SUP’s, which the BOA handles 478 and the Planning Board doesn’t get notified for those because you don’t have anything to do with Class B SUPs. So 479 I think that there has been a little bit of confusion about what the Planning Board… 480 481 Michael Harvey: Any time there’s a SUP we just send a general heads up to the Planning Board and County 482 Commissioners. We don’t send it to the BOA as detailed as you all get because technically we could be accused of 483 trying to influence the jury as it were. We let them know that a case has been submitted and they’ll be getting a 484 14 10 meeting. So we walk that fine line and since you all have been disconnected from the public hearing process we 485 also don’t have the same concern about sharing information with you on a SUP. 486 487 Perdita Holtz: And it has to do with the Planning Board meeting not being an official public hearing for the Class A 488 SUPs so that’s where that comes into play. 489 490 Paul Guthrie: What’s the Planning Board’s jurisdiction relative to cell towers? 491 492 Michael Harvey: You are a review body that makes a recommendation on what class of telecommunication facility 493 that’s the Class A SUP 200 feet or taller. But the County Commissioners are the ultimate review and approval 494 authority under 199 feet. That was a decision made by the Elected Officials. 495 496 AGENDA ITEM 9: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 497 498 a) Board of Adjustment 499 b) Orange Unified Transportation 500 501 AGENDA ITEM 10: ADJOURNMENT 502 503 Planning Board meeting was adjourned by consensus. 504 505 506 ____________________________________ Lydia Wegman, Chair 15