HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 101716Approved 11/2/16
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MINUTES 1
ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2
OCTOBER 17, 2016 3
SPECIAL MEETING 4
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MEMBERS PRESENT: Tony Blake (Vice-Chair), Bingham Township Representative; Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill 7
Township Representative; Patricia Roberts, Cheeks Township Representative; Laura Nicholson, Eno Township 8
Representative; Kim Piracci, At-Large; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township Representative; 9
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MEMBERS ABSENT: Lydia Wegman (Chair), At-Large Chapel Hill Township Representative; Paul Guthrie, At-Large 12
Chapel Hill Township; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Maxecine Mitchell, At-Large Bingham 13
Township; 14
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STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Perdita Holtz; Planning Systems Coordinator; Ashley Moncado, 17
Special Projects Planner; Patrick Mallett, Planner II; Molly Boyle, Planning Technician; 18
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OTHERS PRESENT: Emily Bane, Member of the Public; Curtis Bane, Member of the Public; 20
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AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 22
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Tony Blake called the meeting to order. 24
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AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 27
a) Planning Calendar for October and November 28
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Tony Blake informed there’s a Planning Board meeting November 2nd and a quarterly public hearing November 21st. 30
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AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 33
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 ORC NOTES 34
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 REGULAR MEETING 35
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MOTION by Lisa Stuckey to approve the September 7, 2016 Planning Board minutes. Seconded by Laura Nicholson. 37
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 38
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AGENDA ITEM 4. CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 41
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No additions to Agenda 43
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AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 45
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Introduction to the Public Charge 47
The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 48
appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development 49
laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and 50
harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner which considers the present and 51
future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive process that 52
contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB 53
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will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services 54
during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 55
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PUBLIC CHARGE 58
The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its 59
citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with 60
fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this 61
public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual 62
regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting 63
until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 64
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AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 67
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No comments 69
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Agenda Item 7: Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Text Amendment - To review revisions suggested 71
at the September 12 quarterly public hearing and make a recommendation to the BOCC on 72
government-initiated amendments to the text of the UDO that would modify existing 73
regulations the pertain to the Hillsborough Economic Development District. 74
Presenter: Perdita Holtz, Planning Systems Coordinator 75
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Perdita Holtz reviewed the abstract. 77
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Tony Blake: And when you say prohibited do you mean not allowed by right but people could still apply for it? 79
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Perdita Holtz: Not allowed by right but they could apply through other means. 81
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Perdita Holtz continued presentation. 83
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Tony Blake: Has this list been gone over with Steve Brantley from economic development? My concern is this might 85
prevent economic development for a wet lab or something like that where there’s actually a demand. 86
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Perdita Holtz: I did not show this specifically to Steve but things wet labs and pharmaceutical fall under entire ly 88
different categories. I do not have any concerns with things being removed these are not uses we had envisioned for 89
the economic development district. But the way that the district was done by NAICS code, it made the tables much 90
longer to start listing all of the subcategories. I should tell you that how we’re doing the whole overhaul of the tables 91
of permitted uses that Michael talked about last month, the Attorney’s Office is strongly feeling that we should go to 92
using the NAICS Code throughout all of the tables. And it has to do with having all of your prohibited uses listed in 93
your table so that everybody knows that it’s listed, there are no stars, it’s prohibited. We’ve done some initial cutting 94
and pasting and it’s about a 70 page long table of permitted uses. So it’s pretty significant. But it looks to be the 95
direction we’re moving in. 96
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Tony Blake: Ok because the first four on the list seem to run counter to some of the initiatives that we ’ve had to 98
increase agriculture and that sort of thing. 99
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Perdita Holtz: But if you actually look at the table of permitted uses, it starts on page 32, when you have food 101
manufacturing and there are still a lot of agricultural product manufacturing that would still be allowed. 102
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Tony Blake: Ok. 104
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Craig Benedict: Let me just add on to that. As Perdita said you’ll see more lists uses and it’ll be organized by certain 106
sectors of the NAICS Code and in there it’ll be very specific. I do work with Steve Brantley on a regular basis and 107
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we’ve had titles in there before like Light Manufacturing and they said, “What’s that?” so now there will probably be 108
50 listings of what that means. But we can have it as a document that can be put all together and will be part of the 109
code. The specificity, although it adds 40 pages or so, is going to be helpful. And let’s say there is a use that we 110
want to pop back in there; we have to be flexible enough to be able to do that. This was part of the Commissioners 111
request from the September meeting, to develop consistency across the EDDs. 112
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Lisa Stuckey: I have one little question. Wasn’t one of the concerns the asphalt plant? Is that covered with coal 114
product? 115
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Perdita Holtz: Yes. It is. It’s like cement and concrete. It’s listed as a subcategory to that main category. 117
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Lisa Stuckey: Ok. I thought it was probably petroleum. 119
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Kim Piracci: What do these all have in common? 121
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Lisa Stuckey: Noxious. 123
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Kim Piracci: The animal food manufacturing is noxious? 125
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Perdita Holtz: When we looked at the sub sector 311 food manufacturing and there are nine different uses under 127
there and animal food manufacturing is one of them. Grain, sugar and confectionary product, vegetable and fruit 128
preserving, specialty food manufacturing, dairy product manufacturing, animal slaughtering and processing, seafood 129
product preparation and packaging, bakeries and tortilla manufacturing and other food manufacturing are the nine 130
subcategories and most of those would be allowed. Animal food manufacturing we would take out because they do 131
tend to have smells associated with them. 132
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Craig Benedict: And the other similarity… We have performance standards for a lot of uses that were permitted by 134
right. Fumes, vibration, dust, noise, and light. So you’ll see a lot of similarities here that could be some sort of odor or 135
fumes and we didn’t have them specifically prohibited and now we’re being more specific. 136
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Tony Blake: Curtis Bane had a question, I believe. 138
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Curtis Bane: What’s the impact fee going to be on these businesses? 140
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Perdita Holtz: What kind of impact fee? 142
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Curtis Bane: There’s not going to be an impact fee for these? 144
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Perdita Holtz: Orange County charges school impact fees but only new residential construction pays school impact 146
fees because residential is what causes school impacts. 147
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Craig Benedict: So there’ll be no impact fees on any non-residential uses in the County. 149
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Curtis Bane: What about buffer zoning? 151
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Craig Benedict: Buffers on streams? 153
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Curtis Bane: In between properties, on streams next to the residential. 155
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Perdita Holtz: They all still apply. 157
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Tony Blake: And these restrictions would not apply to farms, right? 159
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Perdita Holtz: If it’s a bonafide farm and it’s a farming activity that’s happening then they are exempt from zoning, 161
yes. 162
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Craig Benedict: We are in the process of examining all of our stream buffer requirements to make sure that what we 164
require now meets the intended purposes of the water quality protection. Presently they’re not suggesting any 165
changes. We are authorized to make changes for setbacks, stream buffers and things like that but we regularly 166
readdress our existing standards to make sure they’re meeting their intended purpose. 167
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Curtis Bane: It’s my understanding that in between the two different properties there are buffer zones on each 169
property. 170
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Craig Benedict: I can speak to you separately about it. I’ll give you my card and we’ll talk about some of our 172
standards. We do have standards if the uses are similar the buffers are usually less. If they’re dissimilar sometimes 173
the buffer varies. 174
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MOTION by Kim Piracci to recommend the proposed amendment package regarding the UDO ordinance 177
amendments Hillsborough Economic Development District to the BOCC. Seconded by Lisa Stuckey. 178
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 179
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Agenda Item 8: Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Text Amendment - To make a recommendation to 182
the BOCC on government-initiated amendments to the text of the UDO pertaining to 183
subdivisions, particularly minor subdivisions, flexible development options, and open space. 184
This item is scheduled for the November 21, 2016 quarterly public hearing. 185
Presenter: Patrick Mallett, Planner II 186
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Patrick Mallett reviewed the abstract. 188
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Craig Benedict: Also, with environmental health the state is also improving additional innovative systems that go 190
beyond these conventional, off site or not… But there is major trend that the state’s hoping looking to look at. 191
Engineer systems that might be more expensive but they’re a lot more innovative. We’re encouraged by some of 192
the new things that are being suggested. 193
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Tony Blake: Like the pods? 195
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Craig Benedict: Yeah. Pods, and systems that actually provide the liquid that could be used for irrigation on site. 197
And that’s something that really hasn’t been used but the technology is there. There are some systems that the 198
state still hasn’t improved yet that we’re trying to become a test area for them because they work in other parts of 199
the United States and other countries. So, let’s try that too. It’s not a major risk. In any.. you do with these 200
innovative pilot programs they’re trying to get the approval that the state let us do it at a local level. We’ll have ways 201
of backing up the system with land so it doesn’t become a problem. 202
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Kim Piracci: So that would be done on individual house level? 204
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Craig Benedict: Yeah, it would probably be a pilot program. We’re trying to think of some lands up near Lake 206
Orange that have had failing conventional septic systems and put something in. And it would be something that if 207
you had to pump into it off site, a repair area, you could. 208
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Lisa Stuckey: An off site septic is new to me. What is that? How off site can it go? 210
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Patrick Mallett: Well we follow the state guidelines. And basically think of if in terms of, “I buy lot one of a 212
subdivision. I would have a corresponding, there would be an easement that would go through the open space and 213
then there would be a corresponding deed to 1A, which would be my septic field. It would simply be out in the open 214
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space and combine with other septic systems. It’s not a package plan, it’s not a community system, but there’s a 215
deeded area out there that’s made this fenced in and I basically own the deed but the HOA has the open space. 216
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Lisa Stuckey: The tank? 218
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Patrick Mallett: No. You would buy your house. I would buy lot 1 and I would build my home and the builder would 220
be responsible for installing the tank and then gets hooked up to the tank system and then it either goes gravity flow 221
or it gets pumped through a trench that has lines. To meet a state standard they have to be labeled a certain way, 222
the trench has to be constructed a certain way and then it goes out to the drain field. But specifically, physically, 223
legally lot1/lot 1A it goes out to that drain field. 224
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Kim Piracci: So 1A is a piece of the drain field? Everybody has a piece of it? 226
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah. So if I bought lot 2 then I would have lot 2 and then 2A would be my area so there’s direct 228
accountability. The probably with a community package systems is that it’s kind of an all or nothing proposition. If 229
the system fails everybody goes down. With this, it’s the same as if it was on the lot and one of he benefits is… So 230
I’ve got a 5 acre lot and I know where my drain field is, pretty much but I’ve got 5 kids that like to play football… I 231
would rather that area be in an open space where it’s there’s no ambiguity to be fenced in and maintained. 232
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Patrick Mallett showed schematics. 234
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Kim Piracci: But no trees. Is that sort of the idea as well? 236
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah. You don’t want to have infiltration. There are systems that you can work around trees but 238
ideally you wouldn’t want a tree. 239
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Patrick Mallett continued presentation. 241
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Lisa Stuckey: Can you explain that first one? 243
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Patrick Mallett: So there’s no incentive for you to do a flexible design on a minor subdivision. Technically, you can 245
dedicate open space today but there’s no reason for.. You’re not going to get any benefit out of it from a regulatory 246
standpoint. With this provision you can go above 5 lots but you’re going to have to provide open space and other 247
measures to best take care of… It wouldn’t be against the increase because, quite honestly, I would say your 248
average minor subdivision probably leaves 50% of the theoretical allowed density on the table because they don’t 249
want to make that leap into a major subdivision. 250
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Craig Benedict: If I can summarize, the incentive is you have a staff approval for more lots down there so people 252
would be very encouraged to have that staff approval and do a minor subdivision. They’re not gaining any more lots 253
as we say. In the past you could only do 5 by staff approval, now you can go up to 12. 254
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah. The reason we picked 12 is because once you go above 12 you have t o have a public street. 256
And so another example is, in the current UDO, if you do a private street and you go above 4 lots you have to go 257
through what I call a Chinese menu of requirements that allow you to do a private street and there are things like 258
double the minimum lot size, double the setbacks, increase your stream buffers by 125% and things that you can’t 259
really do that and have a flexible development that encourages open space. 260
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Kim Piracci: So developers won’t have to come to you and get special permission, up to 12 lots? 262
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Patrick Mallett: They would go through the minor subdivision process. You have to get a Concept Plan approved by 264
the Development Advisory Committee, the Preliminary Plan reviewed and approved by the Development Advisory 265
Committee, and then prepare a plat. 266
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Craig Benedict: But you won’t have to go in front of the commissioners. 268
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Kim Piracci: And do you still have to go in front of the commissions if you use a convention design option? 270
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah. So if you wanted to do a conventional subdivision with 8 lots and you have no open space, 272
you didn’t meet the flexible design criteria then that would be a major subdivision. You’d have to go to the BOCC. 273
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Kim Piracci: Ok. And so these flexible development types of subdivisions aren’t.. This is only when they’re using 275
their own septic, it’s not city water? 276
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Patrick Mallett: Well, environmental health regulates the wells and you can do that in an individual well, a shared 278
well, a community well, different specials that they allow for. They basically stay to the state guidelines. 279
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Kim Piracci: No, but I mean like if this development was going to use city water. 281
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Patrick Mallet: Yeah, they could do that and that would be the easier way to deal with the water part of it. 283
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Lisa Stuckey: How many subdivisions come to the County that have any form of city water? 285
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Patrick Mallett: They’re rare but I would say 90% of the time it’s going to be a well system that may or may not be 287
provided that two owners are sharing together. That’s almost always a “families” type scenario or you’ve got a well 288
provider that’s meeting the states standard. 289
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Tony Blake: The important thing is that this doesn’t allow you to bypass any of the health regulations, building 291
codes, or any of the other things that are associated with the subdivision. This is a yearly dividing of the lots in a 292
more logical versus physical way. 293
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Kim Piracci: That does seem like it increases density so if you had 50 acres you could do 5 lots, right? 295
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Patrick Mallett: You could do 5 10-acre lots. 297
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Tony Blake: Or you could do more. 299
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Kim Piracci: You could do 12 lots. 301
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Patrick Mallett: Or you can do 5 and 5. You can do 2 minor subdivisions and 5 lots each. 303
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Kim Piracci: So the same sets of neighbors you have now more houses on 50 acres. 305
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Tony Blake: The minimum acreage for a house for Orange County 3 acres, isn’t it? 307
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Patrick Mallett: .It’s dependent on the watershed. A lot of the watersheds allow 1 unit per acre, some 2. 309
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Kim Piracci: The result will probably be more density. 311
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Patrick Mallett: I’m going to give you a biased answer. 313
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Kim Piracci: I mean, it’s going to feel less dense because you’re going to have all this open space but in fact there’ll 315
be more houses. 316
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Patrick Mallett: That’s right. I see it as kicking the can to some extent. I’ve come to Orange County from a private 318
sector world and having dealt with developments of all shapes and sizes for 15 years. All over. In high-density 319
areas like Cary and rural areas of the County. If there’s a market for 10 houses then 10 houses are going to get 320
built in that area because they’re honing in on a school or an address or something that’s driving the price point in 321
that market. And it’s a matter of do you put all of those together or do you spread them out and kick the can 322
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physically further down the road. That probably has a tinge of bias to it… Larger over lots lead to moving 323
development further and further towards the County. 324
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Kim Piracci: If there’s a big development it requires more homeowners associations. 326
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Patrick Mallet: Well it’s pretty rare unless you’re doing the other variation of subdivisions that we get being that are 328
typically the 2 lot subdivisions and it’s The Leda’s Egg Ranch and Grandma Leda is subdividing to give the 329
grandson a 2 acre lot. The vast majority of them are going to be the 5 lot subdivisions or the 4 lot subdivisions and 330
because they have to maintain a private road they’ll reform a HOA to enforce the road maintenance agreement. 331
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Kim Piracci: But that slide that you had that you showed that everybody has their own lot and the lots go to the 333
creek and all of this is open land. Who owns that open land? 334
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Patrick Mallet: It can come in different shapes but basically the property owners association would own it or at least 336
control it and they would maintain it and if it’s a natural area it’s a wooded area there is no real maintenance. If 337
there’s a pastural area they… 338
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Craig Benedict: They would have a 1/12th interest in that land. 340
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Tony Blake: Or shares in a corporation or… 342
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Patrick Mallett: Interesting nuance is that they could theoretically be smart about it and possibly explore a 344
conservation easement or they could take a rolling pasture land and work out an agreement with a farmer and then 345
they can raise grass or hay and then they get some income from that and the farmer benefits from that. 346
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Kim Piracci: So that County or the State has oversight over what HOA’s can and can’t do? 348
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Patrick Mallett: Well part of it is the regulatory aspects of the subdivision section about ordinance. Part of it has to 350
do with zoning and that part of the development and when they come in to be able to get a building permit there are 351
different rules that apply. We do record in conjunction with subdivisions things that are called declarations of 352
restrictions. They cannot neglect restrictive covenants but they don’t speak to things like you can’t have a purple 353
door or polka dots on the mailbox. Declarations have to deal with what their setbacks are specifically. 354
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Tony Blake: But this does bring to mind one question that I had. A lot of times subdivisions are owned by the 356
developer until a sufficient amount of the houses are sold. I guess they would just be transferred? 357
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Patrick Mallett: Yes. Your typically subdivision has some magic number. It’s quite often 20-30% of the homes get 359
built. 360
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Tony Blake: So that leads to the second half of my question which is when we worked with the second fire station 362
we had had a water garden and we had to deed and access to the County so that if we went bankrupt or something 363
like that you guys had access and could come in and clean it and charge us for it or charge whatever. Is that same 364
sort of regulation? 365
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Patrick Mallett: Sort of. This is kind of a better scenario because that easement that would go to those deeded 367
septic systems. It has a requirement for all weather assistance and all weather access. So someone could get out 368
there, through the field to get to the actual site and you could point to, if a system fails, it is definitively locked under 369
the owner lot 1. The fines are directly attributed to that owner versus having the HOA responsible. 370
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Craig Benedict: Even more importantly, when we rewrote the UDO 4 years ago now we require a meeting from the 372
developer to the home owners. Some homeowners moving to a rural area don’t know what’s their responsibility or 373
what’s a common responsibility and so this will be more important because they’ll be having off site septic’s, access 374
areas, fencing. So these developing restrictions are going to say you can’t necessarily commercialize your open 375
space but you can have certain agreements. 376
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Tony Blake: So the septic counts in the open space but it’s not owned by the HOA? 378
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Craig Benedict: There may be an HOA requirement for a common maintenance so that they all hire the same 380
person. 381
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Tony Blake: Could be governed by the HOA... 383
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Craig Benedict: ...Or if you had a community well. That could be governed by the HOA. But yet it doesn’t count as 385
open space, but it kind of looks like open space. 386
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah, it’s a bonus in terms of what we get in terms of the open space. And it’s just like a road, the 388
other nice thing is you’re doing off site septic systems that would be a requirement and if you’re doing a subdivision 389
you have to build the road before you can record the lots and it has to be certified. They would have to build the 390
septic systems, the fence around it and then you come in and the homebuilder builds the house and the tank and 391
then you hook the system up. 392
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Tony Blake: One more question. Is there any size… we’re starting to see some of these 5,000 square foot houses 394
out where we are and if they ever caught on fire we wouldn’t be able to put them out. 395
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Patrick Mallett: It’s driven as it is today with any developments, it’s driven by the watershed. If you’re in University 397
Lake you have some pretty stringent impervious limitations. 398
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Craig Benedict: There is not a requirement on the house size. It’s a matter of imperviousness and… They tried that 400
in Florida to dictate house sizes by zoning district and that could not be done. 401
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Curtis Bane: Will the open space be taxed the same as the rest of the development? 403
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Patrick Mallett: Theoretically open space would be held by an association or if they worked collectively to g et a 405
conservation easement it would valued at a lesser rate than it would be if you owned 2 acres . If I have a 1-acre lot 406
and the other acre is in the open space. 407
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Curtis Bane: If your open space is trees could you harvest those trees? 409
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Patrick Mallett: Theoretically yes, as you could anywhere in Orange County by state law. 411
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Tony Blake: The HOA could restrict that? 413
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Patrick Mallett: That’s right. They could restrict that. 415
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Craig Benedict: If it was a farm field and they want to forest that, they could do that, but if it’s a native forest and it 417
has some value, near a stream, we’d probably say, “You have to do selective clearing in there.” 418
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Kim Piracci: So you’re here talking to us tonight to get permission to do this? Or to not? 420
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Patrick Mallett: To get a recommendation. 422
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Kim Piracci: Is there an example of this around here? 424
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Craig Benedict: Maybe on a smaller scale, we can show you where we’ve had 33-40% open space and you can 426
see where we’ve preserved stream buffers and trees and things like that and the reason we’re bringing this forward 427
is this is suggesting to cluster down even more. We’ve been limited by 1-acre minimum in rural areas. The density 428
and the lot size are 2 different things. 429
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Tony Blake: But your utilities can be shrunken down and concentrated. 431
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Patrick Mallett: Yeah. Examples would be Henderson Woods… 433
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Kim Piracci: Is there a sweet spot between too close and… Because I’ve lived in a subdivision and I loved it until I 435
didn’t. My son couldn’t practice drums, I couldn’t leave my house without getting barked at by a vicious dog, it was a 436
great idea until it became difficult to live there and so I can see the idea but I suspect there’s a sweet spot. Like half 437
an acre is a good size. 438
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Craig Benedict: It depends on the residence. Sometimes we’ve had occasions where people bought rural areas and 440
complained about rooster noises. Or somebody would say, “Don’t you have required street lights?” and in rural 441
areas we don’t require street lights so it becomes a choice and sometimes it’s a transition. So there are some pretty 442
close environments so it’s just consumer choices. What we should do is just not directly related to this but just to 443
give you an example, we’ll bring some maps and show you the conventional and then we’ll take you in the field, just 444
yesterday it was such a beautiful day, I was driving around to some subdivisions that we approved back in early 445
2000. I’ll show you but I wont mention it but they’re not pretty. They backed on roads onto roads and they’re 446
supposed to have some landscaping and trees back there and it just never happened. They died. So this, we 447
should be able during the process to tuck these away off the road so when you go down a rural area you’re going to 448
still see the roadside trees and most likely we’ll be able to tuck th em off the road. Not too far to make the road cost 449
but enough to take a rural character. 450
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Patrick Mallett: And I think if there’s some people that want the 2 acres and more and then there’s another group of 452
people that kind of want to be in a rural setting but they don’t necessarily want to maintain it all. I think maintaining 5 453
acres is a lot of work. 454
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Craig Benedict: And they might want a neighbor within a certain distance, versus so isolated. 456
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Patrick Mallett: This gives it more choices. I think that the realization that it doesn’t need to be such a short drop off 458
from Southern Village to the rural area. 459
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Tony Blake: Just as a comment; I like the fact that small family farms can set up an area like this, still keep the farm, 461
and use this as an annuity, sell 1 lot one year, sell another lot the next year and so on. 462
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Kim Piracci: Are they going to be able to do that though? 464
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Patrick Mallett: So part of what this would allow, and that’s another sort of short coming to the minor subdivision, is 466
that you have to build it all at once and that includes the road. It sort of forces you to do all of it 100% up front. With 467
this, just like with the major, you could include with your request a phasing plan. Many farms are faced with the 468
proposition of… The average age of the farmer is pretty high. They’re facing 300-acre family farm that’s been in the 469
family for generations and generations… 470
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Curtis Bane: And have to get put in there as a tenant farmer and never get anything in your name. And a lot of people 472
can’t even put their children in a place on their farm. 473
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Patrick Mallett: So this would allow them to maybe do some.. Let’s just say that they get a subdivision approved for 475
8 units on 30 acres of the 300-acre farm and it’s off to the farm. It doesn’t gut the farm, it doesn’t require 80 acres 476
under the exempt subdivisions to get done, and it doesn’t require them to sell all of those 8 lots at a time… And 477
that’s one of the other realizations to this. Just the land cost, I’m speaking very general terms, if you go wa y out 478
past Hurdle Mills you’re going to get a land cost that’s cheaper but closer in you’re going to get anywhere from 479
$15,000-$30,000 an acre in land basis. If you got in the rural buffer a minimum density requirement and lot size of 2 480
acres or 5 acres, that’s a lot of money in the land that a working or even a middle class person may not be able to 481
afford. This isn’t going to be 100% cheaper but it, theoretically, would allow them to get into a rural setting without 482
having to pay such an exorbitant land cost. 483
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Craig Benedict: So we’re looking for a recommendation from you. 485
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MOTION by Laura Nicholson to approve the proposed modifications to the regulations regarding the subdivisions 487
and find that the amendment is consistent with the comprehensive plan. Seconded by Patricia Roberts. 488
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 489
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AGENDA ITEM 9: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 492
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a) Board of Adjustment 494
b) Orange Unified Transportation 495
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No Comments 497
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AGENDA ITEM 10: ADJOURNMENT 499
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Planning Board meeting was adjourned by consensus. 501
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Lydia Wegman, Chair