HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 090413Approved 10/2/13
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MINUTES 1 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 SEPTEMBER 4, 2013 3
REGULAR MEETING 4 5
6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Hallenbeck (Chair), Cheeks Township Representative; Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill Township 7
Representative; Maxecine Mitchell, At-Large Bingham Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township 8
Representative; Tony Blake, Bingham Township Representative; Herman Staats, At-Large, Cedar Grove Township; 9
James Lea, Cedar Grove Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Paul 10
Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Stephanie O’Rourke, Eno Township Representative 11 12 13 MEMBERS ABSENT: Johnny Randall, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Vacant- Hillsborough Township Representative; 14
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16 STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Perdita Holtz, Special Projects Coordinator; Ashley Moncado, 17
Special Projects Planner; Tom Altieri, Comprehensive Planning Supervisor; Tina Love, Administrative Assistant II 18
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OTHERS PRESENT: Tim O’Rourke 21
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23 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 24
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26 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 27
a) Planning Calendar for September and October 28
b) Reminder: Quarterly Public Hearing on Monday, September 9 29
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31 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 32 JULY 10, 2013 ORC NOTES 33 JULY 10, 2013 REGULAR MEETING 34 35 MOTION by Tony Blake to approve the July 10, 2013 Planning Board ORC notes and the July 10, 2013 Planning 36
Board minutes. Seconded by Maxecine Mitchell. 37 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 38 39 40 AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 41 42 43 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 44 45 Introduction to the Public Charge 46
The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 47
appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development 48
laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and 49
harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner which considers the present and 50
future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive process that 51
contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB 52
will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services 53
during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 54
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55 PUBLIC CHARGE 56
The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its 57
citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with 58
fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this 59
public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual 60
regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting 61
until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 62
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64 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 65
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Pete Hallenbeck: I will be leaving early tonight for a fire chief meeting. We will be talking about home occupations 67
tonight. I am taking away the fact that it would be nice to have the same numbers for Chapel Hill and the rural 68
buffers. The other thing is there could be a different set of rules for rural versus urban. 69 70 71
Agenda Item 7: Home Occupations – To continue discussion on home occupation regulations and review 72
potential changes to the regulations. 73 Presenter: Ashley Moncado, Special Projects Planner 74
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Ashley Moncado: (Reviewed abstract). 76
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Paul Guthrie: Does that immediately kick in industrial requirements for those who sell food? 78
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Ashley Moncado: I don’t think it does. I think it depends on the scale. The live work unit information is less 80
restrictive. 81
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Maxecine Mitchell: Does home occupation include bed and breakfast? 83
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Ashley Moncado: No, that would be considered a business. 85
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Ashley Moncado: Continued presentation. 87
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James Lea: If you have a tax service that is 11%, do you have to meet Section 419 so that person would have to 89
deal with fire protection? 90
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Ashley Moncado: Yes. 92
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Craig Benedict: This doesn’t make sense for the home occupation so we are asking are you really restricting the 94
10%. We may go talk to the Department of Insurance. 95
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Pete Hallenbeck: We don’t have a lot of say in this because this is a state regulation. 97
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James Lea: This is extremely restrictive. 99
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Tony Blake: Is there a definition for home office? 101
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James Lea: Office, hair stylist, etc. 103
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Pete Hallenbeck: You may also have the situations to where all these changes occur and there is a problem with 105
the numbers, we at least have the format and can change the numbers. 106
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Andrea Rohrbacher: Does telecommuting apply? 108
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Ashley Moncado: Yes. This was more for onsite. As long as you don’t exceed four all at once, you could operate 110
as home occupation. 111
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Paul Guthrie: How do you define visitor? If you have 10 students, that may wipe out some occupations. We 113
should be knowledgeable about these types of limitations. 114
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Pete Hallenbeck: Let’s go around the room for comments. 116
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Paul Guthrie: I only wanted to indicate that we do have a home business, an artist, and we have almost no visitors. 118
Some of the definitions, visitors, deliveries, are so imprecise. Do delivery trucks count toward that number? 119
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Pete Hallenbeck: Michael Harvey would be able to look at those to check them. 121
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Andrea Rohrbacher: My first concern in students per day. The way this is written if that I had a summer craft 123
session with a morning session of 10 students and an afternoon session with 10 students that would not be 124
allowed. My second question is about the number of events per year. If I had a seasonal business, I bake wedding 125
cakes, I would like to have 2 events in the spring and one in the fall or open houses per year and then my kitchen is 126
in my home and it meets all the standards for me to do the wedding cakes and I also do my home cooking, where 127
does that land in this? 128
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Herman Staats: Keep these issues in mind when we have additional public meetings related to this so we can 130
modify these to better accommodate everyone. 131
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James Lea: Looking at the revised standards dealing with minor and major home occupations sounds great with a 133
little tweaking until you get to the new standards and pretty much it says all home occupations that exceed 10% or 134
more. If you have any type of business, you will exceed the 10% of the floor area if you have a reception area. 135
Then we get into Section 419 is extremely restrictive for any business. 136
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Buddy Hartley: I don’t think we can change state law. I think what we have done is a good start. 138
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Maxecine Mitchell: I hope we don’t discourage people with small business and expenses. 140
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Tony Blake: I would like to see documentation as to when 419 applies. 142
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Ashley Moncado: It applies to everything. 144
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Tony Blake: I am not going to invite building inspectors to the house. 146
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Lisa Stuckey: I want to reiterate my employee issue which I think is a lot more flexible. In the Chapel Hill one it 148
states that no equipment or process shall be employed that will cause noise, vibration, etc. If you are putting a 149
business in a home it is part of the impact. What about signs? 150
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Ashley Moncado: The signage was not brought up. 152
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Maxecine Mitchell: The HOA has restrictions also. 154
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Lisa Stuckey: How will this be enforced? 156
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Craig Benedict: If it is blatantly evident, we will look into it. 158
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Pete Hallenbeck: I like on the first page that the major occupations located on a shared private road will be 160
required to submit a private road maintenance agreement. Private road agreements will tear everybody up. The 161
major home occupations have a 3,000 foot limit. I would imagine if an artist bought 10 or 30 acres and wanted to 162
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renovate a barn, they would not have a problem with that. I think how this topic resonates on the board and other 163
people. I want to address the sprinkler system, my home is sprinklered and it is real simple. I wish there was a 164
way to say if the house was more than 2,000 square feet, it had to be sprinkled. Under the Telecommunicating 165
section shall not be considered a home occupation, maybe we should be put in there that if you have employees 166
who telecommute, they are working for you but stay in their home, and they will not be considered employees on 167
site. The events per year limits, you need to be careful because if you had a time during the summer where every 168
Saturday 15 cars show up, that is starting to hit that impact limit. You could spread the impact of that over a period 169
of time. We did touch on the fact that the Orange County sign limit was much bigger than the Chapel Hill one so we 170
need to think about that. 171
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Paul Guthrie: If the sprinkler does not pass the minimum requirements for the sprinkler system, you will not get a 173
permit. You need to have a separate unattached generator. 174 175
176 Agenda Item 8: Hillsborough/Orange County Central Orange Coordinated Area– To receive information 177
on the Central Orange Coordinated Area Land Use Plan and next steps. 178 Presenter: Tom Altieri, Comprehensive Planning Supervisor 179
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Tom Altieri: Reviewed abstract. 181
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Tony Blake: Does zoning match the land use along here or is there effort to get that to happen? 183
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Tom Altieri: In some cases it does and in others there may be an effort to make that happen. The town and county 185
need to come together on the joint land use plan and then the town needs to adopt its zoning classifications that 186
would correspond in the blue areas. Those would need to be acknowledged by Orange County and our Unified 187
Development Ordinance. 188
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Paul Guthrie: You mentioned a couple of criteria that went into the thought pattern. One was the water supply and 190
the cost to serve development. How much did those two categories enter into the discussion as you cut up the 191
region between Hillsborough and the county and the second question was who was assuming the largest cost 192
burden. 193
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Tom Altieri: In terms of water supply, the position of the town was they want to try to hold the line. You also asked 195
about the cost. 196
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Craig Benedict: Any consideration of the development cost to the un-served areas in terms of how you negotiated 198
with Hillsborough. We looked at the existing lines and wanted to fill in those existing areas as far as water supply. 199
As far as sewer, there are sub basins that flow into the Eno so we looked at sewer sheds. What would be the ease 200
of extending sewer south? One other major consideration was transportation issues. 201
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Paul Guthrie: How much did developed cost go into that discussion? 204
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Craig Benedict: Hillsborough’s water sewer fund is very fragile. Their biggest water user went out of business 206
shortly after the new reservoir was put into service so that put a major strain on them. They will still need to expand 207
their reservoirs so they will not lose the permitting process they went through. It is managed around total water 208
capacity and an efficiently run sewer system. 209
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James Lea: If the urban service area will not be expanded, what is the reason to go forward with Phase II of the 211
reservoir? And what will be the impact around the reservoir? 212
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Craig Benedict: They think there are undeveloped properties that will need those water supplies. Hillsborough 214
purchased all the land around the Phase II during the previous permitting process. 215
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Tom Altieri: Continued abstract. 217
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Craig Benedict: Announced Morinaga project in the Buckhorn area and talked about how previous actions of the 219
Planning Board (land use and zoning changes) helped bring the project to Orange County. 220
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222 AGENDA ITEM 9: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 223
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a) Board of Adjustment 225
b) Orange Unified Transportation 226
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Introductions of the Board members. 228
229 AGENDA ITEM 10: ADJOURNMENT 230 231 MOTION: made by Paul Guthrie to adjourn. Seconded by Tony Blake. 232 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 233
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Pete Hallenbeck, Chair