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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 040616APPROVED 5/4/16 1 MINUTES 1 PLANNING BOARD 2 APRIL 6, 2016 3 REGULAR MEETING 4 5 MEMBERS PRESENT: Lydia Wegman-At-Large Chapel Hill Township (Chair); Tony Blake, Bingham Township 6 Representative (Vice-Chair); Paul Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township 7 Representative; Laura Nicholson, Eno Township Representative; Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill Township Representative; 8 Maxecine Mitchell, At-Large Bingham Township; Kim Piracci, At-Large; James Lea, Cedar Grove Township 9 Representative; Patricia Roberts; Cheeks Township Representative; 10 11 MEMBERS ABSENT: Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; 12 13 STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor; Ashley Moncado, 14 Special Projects Planner; Meredith Pucci Administrative Assistant; 15 16 OTHERS PRESENT: None 17 18 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER 19 20 Lydia Wegman called meeting to order and introduced new member, Kim Piracci. 21 22 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 23 a) Planning Calendar for April and May 24 25 Lydia Wegman reviewed Calendar for next meetings. 26 27 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 28 a) March 2, 2016 Regular Meeting 29 30 MOTION by Buddy Hartley to approve the minutes. Seconded by Tony Blake. 31 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 32 33 34 AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 35 36 No changes to the agenda. 37 38 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 39 40 Introduction to the Public Charge 41 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General 42 Statute, appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land 43 development laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and 44 accomplish coordinated and harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner, 45 which considers the present and future needs of its residents and business through 46 efficient and responsive process that contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and 47 welfare of the overall County. The OCPB will make every effort to uphold a vision of 48 responsive governance and quality public services during our deliberations, decision, and 49 recommendations. 50 51 Public Charge 52 APPROVED 5/4/16 2 The Planning Board pledges to the residents of Orange County its respect. The Board 53 asks its residents to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the 54 Board and with fellow residents. At any time, should any member of the Board or any 55 resident fail to observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to 56 leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum rail to be 57 restored, the Chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to 58 this public charge is observed. 59 60 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 61 62 None. 63 64 AGENDA ITEM 7: UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE (UDO) TEXT AMENDMENT - To make a 65 recommendation to the BOCC on government-initiated amendments to the text of the 66 UDO regarding sign regulations. This item is scheduled for the May 23, 2016 quarterly 67 public hearing and was most recently discussed by the Planning Board at its March 68 meeting. 69 70 Presenter: Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor 71 72 Michael Harvey reviewed the abstract. 73 74 Paul Guthrie: Just to show everybody what these guys are talking about. This is the Supreme Court ruling that all of 75 this started. About 5 different justices taking a different take at it and they came together for a decision so that’s 76 where it starts. And then tied after North Carolina law and whether it comes anywhere close to this or provides 77 municipalities of Counties with the ability to react to this is the swimming pool these guys are working in right now. 78 79 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 80 81 James Lea: When you say eliminate, what do you mean? Those churches now have to take those signs down? 82 83 Michael Harvey: I believe you are talking about the proposal to eliminate the allowance for off-site directional signage 84 for churches. The answer is no, those churches that already have signs up will be allowed to keep them consistent 85 with the non-conforming section of the UDO. What this means if a car happens to mow it down it cannot be replaced. 86 If the sign falls into disrepair to a certain dollar amount or is destroyed a certain percentage it can’t be replaced. But, 87 they can continue to have them up until such time. And yes, there are going to be institutions that have enjoyed some 88 flexibility that are losing it now. Those churches without this signage will also be unable to erect them. 89 90 Lydia Wegman: So there will be no off site advertising prohibit? 91 92 Michael Harvey: Well right now, there’s no off site advertising technically allowed period. Churches are losing their 93 exemption. Outdoor advertising, specifically billboards, is a totally different animal actually regulated by the state. 94 95 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 96 97 James Lea: Is that an issue just in North Carolina? 98 99 Michael Harvey: No, but communities are allowed to deal with sign regulations differently. For example, Alamance 100 County doesn’t have some of the same standards we have with respect to setback and size of signs whereas Chapel 101 Hill, in certain circumstances, is more restrictive than we are currently. 102 103 James Lea: So it’s a county issue? 104 105 APPROVED 5/4/16 3 Michael Harvey: Well it’s a county and municipality issue. It is also a preference issue where communities adopt 106 regulations forwarding their own concepts of acceptability. 107 108 Tony Blake: Sounds like a DOT issue. 109 110 Michael Harvey: It’s a little bit of both. If the sign is on private property, DOT has no regulatory authority. We would. 111 Signs erected in a public right-of-way are their purview. 112 113 James Lea: So it looks like we’re going to put a regulation outlining what constitutes a flashing sign meaning a sign 114 can’t flash but only so often in a day correct. 115 116 Michael Harvey: Currently flashing, blinking signs are illegal. We are actually going to allow them so long as the 117 message only changes a certain amount of times in a given hour. They’re currently prohibited in Orange County. 118 We’re actually creating an allowance where you can have digital signage so long as the message doesn’t change but 119 a certain number of times an hour. Our problem currently is that we have no measureable standard to outline what is 120 and is not legal. 121 122 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 123 124 Tony Blake: Would it make more sense to base the square footage of the signage on the amount of road frontage or 125 the amount of area that’s visible to the public? I’m just kicking that around because it seems like this is somewhat 126 more arbitrary that what I would’ve expected and the other part of it is that you may be creating a market for signage. 127 If I’m only using 150 square feet of my signage, can I sell my signage allotment to someone else? 128 129 Michael Harvey: No, you can’t. 130 131 James Lea: What district does churches fall in on this table? 132 133 Michael Harvey: Churches are allowed in every (general use zoning) district we have. 134 135 James Lea: Because I know that some of them have nice signs that change. 136 137 Michael Harvey: For example, a church developed in the LC1 zoning district could have 172 square foot signage. A 138 church developed in the industrial district could have more signage. 139 140 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 141 142 Paul Guthrie: I think what would clarify and get focus on exactly where you’re going… Understand what this case did. 143 It was brought by a church that had no basic place for church services, so it moved around the community. They put 144 up temporary signs for a period of days, time where it was going to be each Sunday. And those weren’t taken down 145 over time and they got cited over time. That was the original cite. So they went in to court on both freedom of speech 146 and the fact that they were a church, and where the court got people in a pickle was this language, the sign content 147 based restrictions do not survive strict scrutiny because the town has not demonstrated that the code differentiation 148 between temporary directional signs and other types of signs further a compelling dominant interest and is narrowly 149 taled to that ending. That’s what he’s playing with right now. Is trying to meet that standard, and it’s a very tough 150 standard to meet. 151 152 Michael Harvey: Building on Paul’s point… The town’s ordinance (Reed versus Gilbert) said that if you have a 153 temporary sign announcing a special event you could have it up 72 hours before the event and has to be removed 154 within 24. If you have an off site directional sign it can only be up for 12 hours and has to be removed within the hour 155 the event ceases. So the issue was what is the sign this church is erecting. Is it a special event? No. Is it directional? 156 Yes, but it has this shelf life. So I, as the zoning officer, had to read the sign to determine what type of sign it was. 157 And enforce the ordinance appropriately. So I was basing my determination on content, not on the size of the sign, 158 not on what it was, or placement. And I was treating the signs of the same shape, size, everything different. Based on 159 APPROVED 5/4/16 4 the content of the wording. Our ordinance, with two or three notable exceptions, treated signage the same. It was 160 universally the same. And again, there are two or three exceptions to that where what I just said is incorrect, and 161 that’s precipitated all of these changes. But, the further problem is as James and I have gotten into it is you’re 162 establishing a standard based on the content. For example, if we said you’re allowed 8 square foot of signage on a 163 residential building if it has to convey hazardous material being store on site. 164 165 Tony Blake: That’s a bad example because that’s public safety. 166 167 Michael Harvey: Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true. If you’re saying you can have this sign because it’s 168 conveying this message, that’s illegal. If you say you can have hazard identification signs that’s perfectly legitimate. 169 170 James Lea: So this ordinance now will be based on content. 171 172 Michael Harvey: It’s content neutral. Each district is going to be treated the same. Each land use in certain districts 173 are going to be treated the same. 174 175 Tony Blake: What’s your reason for treating the rural buffer different than our 1 or our 2? 176 177 Michael Harvey: Bluntly, it’s the rural buffer. It is by definition, by law, a less intensive district than our R1 and AR 178 zoning districts. And as a result, it has less allowable signage. 179 180 Lisa Stuckey: Try to expect more non-commercial 181 182 Michael Harvey: Correct… More single-family residential development versus any other allowed activity, yes… The 183 reason for the difference is because the inherent nature of the district is different than the other. 184 185 Lisa Stuckey: So that means that a sign for a temporary event is going to have the same status as a sign for a 186 permanent situation. You’re not able to make the distinction? 187 188 Michael Harvey: We can establish regulations for temporary signage, for temporary events. And there are still 189 standards that exist in here for that. But for example, what we have in here for the residential district is no sign on a 190 residential land use can be bigger than 12 square feet. We can’t even regulate political signs anymore. 191 192 Tony Blake: So the difference would be you could have your standard real estate sign out front and Sunday you’re 193 having an open house, you could put in a bigger open house sign and then that would have to come down? 194 195 Michael Harvey: Yes, because it’s a temporary component. 196 197 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 198 199 Maxecine Mitchell: So if I put a sign up and it said, “I hate all white people” you can’t come and tell me that I have to 200 take it down based on the content? 201 202 Michael Harvey: Correct. From a zoning stand point… Just because there’s a zoning component that says we don’t 203 regulate the content doesn’t mean that the sheriff’s department or law enforcement entities don’t have the authority to 204 say that you’re sign violates x,y, or z. This doesn’t eliminate or stop the enforcement of other applicable regulation. It 205 just says that the county, I, can’t drive down your road and say, “I don’t like that sign, it has to come up” based solely 206 on the message it conveys. 207 208 Maxecine Mitchell: One more question, Michael. I think we were talking about these topless bars and stuff, does that 209 mean they’ll be able to put up…? 210 211 Michael Harvey: This was actually a 6 week argument. I took the position, and after James and I looked at court 212 cases and we both agreed, that we could still say you cannot have a sign that contains lewd or lascivious letters, 213 APPROVED 5/4/16 5 words, displays, or characters. So you can’t have the adult cabaret or .. that has suggestive descriptive sign. You can 214 still have that regulation because there are actually court cases that say, you have the right as a community to not 215 allow this. We’re still allowing you to have your sign, but you can’t have lewd or lascivious displays or characters. 216 217 Michael Harvey continued presentation. 218 219 Craig Benedict: What could be an issue is you have the flag exemptions. If somebody flies a confederate flag, that’s 220 not listed. 221 222 Michael Harvey: Flags are the one issue that James and I are having a lot of… Craig is referring to page 36… 223 problems with. Currently this proposal says United States, State of North Carolina, Orange County flags are exempt 224 from regulations. It used to say flags, emblems or insignia of any national, state, or political subdivision. I don’t 225 consider the confederate flag to be a sign, I consider it to be a flag, I don’t think it’s an advertising material and I don’t 226 think it’s necessarily regulated by the sign ordinance. Whether or not I think the sign should or shouldn’t be flown is a 227 different discussion. But, this is where we get into a content problem. What happens when McDonalds has a 500 228 square foot flag that just has the big M on it? If you’re exempting flags… If the whole goal of the sign ordinance is to 229 say everyone is going to be operating from the same page in terms of allowable signage you do have to draw the line 230 somewhere. And what constitutes advertising and what doesn’t. 231 232 Tony Blake: Why can’t you regulate the size of the flag? 233 234 Michael Harvey: You could probably establish a regulation that says flags only of this size… 235 236 Tony Blake: Because over a certain size they do become an advertisement. They’re a focal point. 237 238 Michael Harvey: But I also would argue that if you say it’s 32 square feet of flag, why can’t I be patriotic and have a 239 64 square foot American flag. Why are you limiting my ability to fly a larger American flag? And then I lose the court 240 case on a totally different issue. 241 242 James Lea: Not to mention in a residential area. Can residents fly flags? If so, how big, what kind? 243 244 Lisa Stuckey: Also, you could have 22 flags. That’s a sign. 245 246 Michael Harvey: Again, I don’t think that… You have a banner that has a kitten hanging from a tree in your garden, 247 should I count that? I don’t think I should. 248 249 Paul Guthrie: I think limiting what you do with flags is probably a good idea. Because, for instance, you tell the 250 counsel general or Guatemala that he can’t fly the Guatemalan flag outside the consulate general’s office. Of course 251 not. 252 253 Michael Harvey: Well that’s a good example but it’s a good example for a different reason. I would argue that when 254 you have an embassy that’s not technically regulated under local law anyway. It’s covered in a diplomatic immunity. 255 256 Paul Guthrie: It’s immunity there but what do you say to a Quebec citizen who lives in Orange County and flies the 257 Quebec Flag? What do you say to them? The only thing you can do is you’re using content as the basis for your 258 regulation. 259 260 Kim Piracci: This is related to a question that keeps running through my head. Is there ever a problem with 261 differentiating art and signage? 262 263 Michael Harvey: I’m sure that there could be. What is it? If you have a piece of art that’s meant to convey an 264 advertising message, that’s content, what’s the purpose and intent of the structure? That’s where we always get into 265 a foul area of what do you do? And on page 36, you’ll notice we’ve added the golden arches. The golden arches at 266 APPROVED 5/4/16 6 McDonald’s are symbols and will be included in the computation of sign area. It’s a brand. So we would say that’s 267 part of the sign. 268 269 Paul Guthrie: Let me pose a similar thing. A couple of restaurants in Chapel Hill have commission on their walls 270 pieces of art that have a theme that makes you hungry and want to eat, outside, are they signs? 271 272 Michael Harvey: In my opinion it only becomes a sign if it says, “Eat at Spanky’s” whereas if you paint a mural that 273 has this wonderful scene of people eating but Spanky’s name isn’t in it, I don’t think it’s a sign. It’s a mural. It’s art. I 274 don’t think it ought to be regulated by this ordinance and I don’t think the County has any business trying to do that. 275 What I have told businesses in Orange County is, you want to paint the side of your building, paint it as a mural and 276 do some intricate design. Great, go for it. What you can’t do is exceed the sign allowance so if you have a 32 square 277 foot area where you say this that’s fine because that’s the sign limit, you just can’t turn your whole side of your 278 building into a billboard because that’s when I have to count the whole side of the building. 279 280 Lisa Stuckey: I do think within here there was one place that was very complicated. I think you lost track of which sub 281 a to sub b whatever and just want to encourage you to go through it very carefully. 282 283 Maxecine Mitchell: Have you spoke on community signs? 284 285 Michael Harvey: That’s actually going to be covered, if you’re doing a community/residential project like a subdivision 286 it’s going to be covered under the non-residential project development because while it is a residential subdivision we 287 count it as a non-residential project. So they get that allowance for a freestanding sign for the entry and then all the 288 signage for internal, like park this way or remember that road/street signs are exempt, construction entrance is going 289 to be exempt because it’s a directional sign. That’s required by the County. 290 291 Lisa Stuckey: But why is it called non-residential? 292 293 Michael Harvey: Truly, it’s either non-residential land uses or projects. A subdivision is a project. The individual 294 houses are residential development but the entity in and of itself is a project. 295 296 Tony Blake: What’s the criteria for turning the thing over to a community board or homeowners association? 297 298 Michael Harvey: Well for me, once the subdivision is built out, the roads are in, and the subdivision’s plated and here 299 it is, each individual lot is now going to be sold. It’s each individual lot that falls to residential development and those 300 limitations. The subdivision in and of itself exists as an entity. 301 302 Paul Guthrie: Michael, how do you handle communities that have homeowner associations and don’t have public 303 roads or signage? 304 305 Michael Harvey: Well, in this ordinance we’ve actually spelled out that if you’re erecting street signs in a private 306 subdivision those are exempt because they serve a public safety purpose. 307 308 309 310 311 AGENDA ITEM 8: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 312 A. Board of Adjustment 313 None 314 315 B. Orange County Transportation 316 317 Craig Benedict went over recent items from the OUTBoard and transportation division. 318 319 APPROVED 5/4/16 7 Tony Blake: The one I was interested in was Orange Grove Road cutting through to 70, and that would take some of 320 the pressure off Churton street in downtown Hillsborough. 321 322 Craig Benedict: We’re interested in the development that Hillsborough recently approved, Collin’s Ridge, a thousand 323 units that would be using that as the primary access point because that’s the only… And they have to get additional 324 right of way for that. We’re trying to see if some contributions by the developer could accelerate that road. 325 326 Paul Guthrie: Is the state still listing the train station… 327 328 Craig Benedict: Yes, it’s still on schedule. It’s not 2017, I think it’s 2019… That’s an important link and if we can 329 leverage all the money together it could accelerate that project. The developer of Colin’s Ridge was going to make 8 330 improvements on Churton by 2018 and 2022 Churton Street was going to be widened by DOT in 2023. And so our 331 recommendations from the county were, why don’t you take the money from the developer, give it to DOT and have 332 them bring the whole project forward instead of .. And reconstruction and the waste of those 8 improvements… And 333 we have a new finding that could make this even more feasible. They actually want to bend/change the curvature in 334 that area and so what they could do is while they’re building the new curvature which is shorter they can build the 335 tunnel before they build the track on top of it which is a lot cheaper and it doesn’t make the rail paranoid that you’re 336 tunneling underneath it in active traffic. That’s something that we just got recently. 337 338 Tony Blake: So one more question… I was reading today and I went to that meeting with the Chamber of Commerce 339 in Chapel Hill and there was some talk about this, they used to call it the EDGE… And so is there any movement 340 there in that joint planning area or is that still… 341 342 Craig Benedict: It’s Chapel Hill’s decision… They changed. It was JPA but last year they turned to… They asked for 343 comments from Orange County on that but the master plan developed had this wide range of approvals from 30% 344 residential to 70% residential so the impacts for that wide range is quite a difference so we said 30% residential and 345 70% non-residential tax base. It probably would be a good balance sheet for County purposes. 346 AGENDA ITEM 9: ADJOURNMENT 347 348 Motion to adjourn made by Lisa Stuckey. 349 ___________________________________________ Lydia Wegman, Chair