HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 110216Approved 12/7/2016
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MINUTES 1
ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2
NOVEMBER 2, 2016 3
REGULAR MEETING 4
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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; Lisa Stuckey, Chapel Hill 8
Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Patricia Roberts, Cheeks Township 9
Representative; Paul Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; Buddy Hartley, Little River Township Representative; 10
Kim Piracci, At-Large; 11
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MEMBERS ABSENT: Laura Nicholson, Eno Township Representative; 14
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STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor; Perdita Holtz; 17
Planning Systems Coordinator; Patrick Mallett, Planner II, Rachel McCook, Planner I; Meredith Kern, Administrative 18
Assistant II 19
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AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 21
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Lydia Wegman called the meeting to order. 23
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AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 26
a) Planning Calendar for November and December 27
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Lydia Wegman informed the Board of the quarterly public hearing on November 21st and a regular Planning Board 29
meeting on December 7th. 30
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AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 33
OCTOBER 17TH REGULAR MEETING 34
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MOTION by Tony Blake to approve the October 17, 2016 Planning Board minutes. Seconded by Lisa Stuckey. 36
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 37
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AGENDA ITEM 4. CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 40
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No additions to Agenda 42
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AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 44
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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
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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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PUBLIC CHARGE 57
The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its 58
citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with 59
fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this 60
public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual 61
regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting 62
until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 63
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AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 66
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No comments 68
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Agenda Item 7: Zoning Atlas Amendment - To make a recommendation to the BOCC on government 70
initiated amendments to the Zoning Atlas modifying the existing zoning boundaries for non-71
residentially zoned parcels within the Bingham, Cheeks, and Cedar Grove Townships to 72
address nonconforming issues. This item is scheduled for the November 21, 2016 quarterly 73
public hearing. 74
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The amendments will involve approximately: 76
3 parcels within the Bingham Township, 77
8 parcels within the Cheeks Township, and 78
5 parcels within the Cedar Grove Township 79
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Presenter: Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor 81
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Michael Harvey reviewed the abstract 83
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Tony Blake: Did Mr. Allen’s property used to be a gas station and are the old tanks are gone? 85
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Michael Harvey: It did used to be a gas station but I am uncertain about the status of the tanks. There has no record 87
of contaminants at the property. 88
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Lydia Wegman: What are the possible consequences for these property owners? 90
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Michael Harvey: Some property owners raised concerns about their property taxes going up, which is a possibility 92
since there will be more commercially zoned area of their property subject to tax. Also, some property owners do not 93
want to put the effort into getting their property rezoned. 94
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Craig Benedict: The original zoning atlas maps were not on GIS maps and that they were on not to scale tax maps 96
that were hand drawn with no reference to air photos. 97
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Lydia Wegman: What are the consequences of rezoning the Efland Real Properties to General Commercial? 99
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Michael Harvey: General Commercial is an intensive commercial zoning district and allows for a myriad of different 101
uses. There is no site plan associated with this property so any of the permitted uses could be developed subject to 102
site plan approval. 103
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Tony Blake: What is going on with the state road that goes through the parcel at Mill Creek and Carr Store? 105
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Michael Harvey: Either the state road bisected the property or this was always part of one big parcel. 107
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Claude Breeze: I live adjacent to the PCDP LLC property to the north. Is the parcel currently zoned to have an 109
automotive repair shop on it? Several nearby residents, including myself, are concerned about possible oil leaks and 110
well contamination. 111
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Michael Harvey: Currently it is not zoned for that use; however, it is staff’s contention the property should have 113
previously been zoned as EC-5 as there has always been an automotive repair shop at that property. When the 114
township was zoned in 1994 it should have been zoned EC-5 at that time. What we are proposing is to zone the 115
property to EC-5 at this time. 116
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Philip Ezel: My name is Phillip Ezel and I own the property off of Walnut Grove Church Road. I have to meet state 118
and local requirements regarding possible contamination and that any contamination on the property would prevent 119
me from possibly selling it in the future without spending a lot of money to get it fixed. To my knowledge there has 120
not been contamination of anybody’s well water from any leaking on my property. If I cause a problem for someone’s 121
well then I will fix it. I want to be a good neighbor. 122
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Paul Guthrie: I need some clarification on the setbacks and buffers for this parcel. 124
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Michael Harvey: It has to observe a 35 foot setback off of the property line from the road, a 20 foot setback from all 126
other property lines, and according to the buffer regulations, EC-5 zoned properties are essentially required to have a 127
100 foot buffer. 128
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Unidentified audience member: What about the cars parking on the property? This should not be a junkyard. 130
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Claude Breeze: I believe Mr. Ezel has disturbed vegetation on my property and there may be cars parked on my 132
property as well. 133
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Phillip Ezel: There are some discrepancies regarding the property line with my property and Mr. Breeze’s property 135
that have to be worked out. Also, I am unable to move the cars from my property until the State of North Carolina tells 136
me I can move them as they have been towed. 137
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Paul Guthrie: I am not sure I understand what you are saying and need clarification. 139
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Buddy Guthrie: If a garage or tow truck company tows away a car that has been abandoned or breaks down on the 141
side of the road, the company has to hold onto it for a specific period of time. This is to allow the owner to pay any 142
fines associated with it having to be towed away if it was abandoned and designat ed to be removed by DOT or law 143
enforcement. A tow truck company cannot do anything with it until a specific period of time has passed and it can be 144
disposed of. 145
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Michael Harvey: I should hasten to add that if Phillip Ezel or any of the other property owner’s that were discussed 147
tonight sells their property the same regulatory standards would still apply with respect to required buffers and 148
setbacks. Also I should point out there are still four more townships to review as part of this project. 149
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MOTION by Paul Guthrie to approve statement of consistency and to approve the proposed zoning atlas amendment 151
package as amended by the staff. Seconded by Tony Blake. 152
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 153
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Agenda Item 8: Planning Board Annual Report and Work Plan – To discuss the annual input form which 156
informs the BOCC of the past year’s activities of advisory boards/commissions and assists in 157
overall County work planning. 158
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Presenter: Craig Benedict, Planning Director 159
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Craig Benedict reviewed the abstract. 161
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Kim Piracci: There was an affordable housing lady here once. It seems to me that one thing that was brought up 163
was that affordable housing isn’t available in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, a lot because the students are renting the 164
affordable housing and driving the cost of that up. And it seems like since there are some dorms empty the 165
University could require freshman and sophomores to stay on campus. Thus, alleviating some affordable housing 166
issues. What happened with that idea? Anything at all? 167
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Craig Benedict: Yes. They’re been rebuilding on their campus new dorms for the last 7-8 years, and they have 169
moved a lot of people back onto campus. Now at the same time they want to increase the enrollment. Speaking 170
with UNC there’s probably more people living on campus percentage wise than t here are in a lot of universities. 171
That’s probably something that we’re not going to immediately be able to resolve among the Planning Board. That’s 172
another issue. What we can help with is, in the designated areas under our jurisdiction, what we can do to suggest 173
areas for density increases for multi-family or something like that. You’ll probably see one of the initiatives that 174
we’re talking about is new regulations for recreational vehicle zoning or the Commissioners have put away some 175
money for either Mobile Home Park, maintenance reinforcement to keep them so they don’t go away, or possibly 176
the creation of a new mobile home park. Where if the mobile home park gets purchased and you lose 20 lots there 177
we could have another place for them to go in the interim. So that’s the type of housing creativity. That we are 178
allowed the clustering of houses, different size houses. We don’t have any rules in our zoning code that say every 179
house has to be 1500 square feet in this zone and 2000 square feet in that zone. There are some local 180
governments around the United States that do have those types of standards. We amended our school impact fees. 181
They’re not adopted yet. To say that someone that has an 800 square foot or smaller house has to pay an 182
extremely reduced fee; I mean, you still could have children in a small house. But it’s not the $11,423 you have to 183
pay for a single-family house in Chapel Hill. It’ll be $500. 184
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Tony Blake: So you’re going to put a sliding impact fee based on square footage? 186
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Craig Benedict: Based on square footage in that case, bedroom count in another case. We’re finding out that multi-188
family 3 bedroom plus have equivalence to the generation rate to an equivalent 3 bedroom house. So there’s been 189
a dramatic suggestion for a change with the multi-family in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro school district. It was only 190
$1286 for any type of multi-family unit down there. It wasn’t based on bedroom count. And now it’ll be $10,000 on a 191
3 bedroom plus unit. The 0-2 bedroom multi-family units are relatively small impacts. So we’re switching around a 192
bit and now that we saw the technology we have now to have some better mapping and cover uses better, similarly 193
with information about new housing. So you’ll see some more stuff come forward with smaller lots. I n the rural 194
areas of the county I think the smallest lot is 65% less than a 40,000 square foot, which is almost like an acre. In an 195
area we would like to go even smaller. If you can put an 800 square foot house you don’t need a 20,000 square foot 196
lot. 197
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Tony Blake: Affordable housing is always best deployed where the work is and that unfortunately is also where the 199
university is. So the competition there in Chapel Hill is terrible and that leads to the gentrification where people or 200
landlords buy up a lot of the older houses, split them up into many bedrooms and you have people parking on the 201
lawn. So I don’t know how you solve that but I still think the University has to be a part of that. 202
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Craig Benedict: And there may be an opportunity in the coming year that if the County wants to buy 20-acres of 204
land for affordable housing we may come up with a plan development and make up the standards ourselves, 205
amongst staff, reviewed by this Board and then we’ll say, “who wants to build on this?” so our contribution would be 206
purchasing the land, maybe getting utilities to it and taking it through the entitlement stage, because as you’ve 207
heard the re-zoning process scares a lot of developers. It’s an unknown legislative process. If we take it through the 208
process, that’s a big hurdle out of the way and then they know that they can move quite quickly towards the 209
development of an affordable house. 210
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Paul Guthrie: The price of land in this county, especially in the bottom half or two thirds, is one of the biggest 212
problems in getting any kind of modest housing. Because you can’t build without a huge land cost and then on top 213
of that, because there’s largely not environmental systems in place of more density for smaller houses you get an 214
extra cost for trying to build a smaller house because of the changing dynamic of this county. I don’t know if this 215
says anything about that in great detail but you’ve heard my sermon about what I think is a dangerous thing to 216
continue the limitation of the extension of public utility lines to unbuilt areas of the county. They’re not going to stop 217
it and that’s a rolling cost over time. If you build these smaller places that are on a septic system or even a common 218
septic system 10-15 years from now they’re going to have to have public water or sewage system and that’s going 219
to immediately throw the market out of kilter again. Those are the kinds of things that worry me. 220
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Craig Benedict: There have been discussions about what creates the higher cost of housing and higher cost of 222
land. And the urban service boundary and restriction, when the demand’s high and the supply’s low that’s what 223
creates it. Now in other parts of the United States where you’ve had these urban service boundaries they were 224
interim urban service boundaries until you built, supposedly as efficiently as you could, inside there and then said, 225
“Hey, we still have another 20,000 people coming, let’s pop the boundary out” after you had preserved whatever 226
green belts. It won’t be me proposing that, to move the rural buffer line. 227
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Lisa Stuckey: We tried. We tried for a school. You have to get all the jurisdictions to agree and it went nowhere. 229
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Tony Blake: Yeah, it’s a little like trying to combine the school system. 231
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Craig Benedict: So with that in mind the intensification of the remaining land is necessary. Probably less single-233
family in the municipal areas; they’re going to have to go. We’re predicting 65% multi-family will probably be 234
occurring on the remaining land. Now in the rural parts of the county there will be single-family and I think there are 235
some opportunities. But we’re trying to still be as efficient as possible and if new housing is put on, well and septic, 236
there needs to be some of those things in mind in case there are failures. This topic we could have a little ORC 237
meeting on it, in the coming months because I think that’s going to be coming up. 238
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Craig Benedict continued presentation. 240
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Lydia Wegman: Do you think there’s any chance of consistency? 242
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Craig Benedict: I think there is. We have an Efland implementation focus group, we might have to bring back that 244
community group and say this is what our goal is. I think that will be a challenge but we might have some that could 245
fit across. We might have some opportunities there. Fiscal impact analysis, maybe not as much activity with this 246
Board, but the idea is to find out all of the different services that are provided by the County. There’s probably not 247
too many Board members here that used to see the fiscal impact template that was included as part of our 248
subdivision analysis. We had it for many years. It got so far out of date and it has really had a lot of weaknesses. It 249
had a lot of good ideas but one of fallacies was that no matter what the school costs were there was going to be 250
revenues coming in to pay for the school cost. So we got rid of that and we don’t make the decision on a 251
subdivision project if it pays for itself. That’s just not our role. 252
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Tony Blake: I have one comment because we’re voting on a bond now to fix the schools that have been neglected 254
for the last 15 years that weren’t paid for and I don’t know the problems in the school budget or the problems in 255
planning but I think our impact fee structure is not sufficient to maintain the schools or something is not sufficient to 256
maintain the schools. And the bond seems kind of like a backdoor tax increase. I’m not against spending money on 257
schools but I want to make sure that if they have a maintenance item that it should be covered and planned for and 258
that’s the linkage back to here. 259
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Craig Benedict: That’s a big topic. Our school impact fees are for new development and increasing the capacity for 261
schools and capital costs like buses. The maintenance of the existing schools, we can’t use the money for those 262
purposes. There has been mention of the transfer tax for people that buy and sell houses but that has other 263
consequences. And then the funding formula from the state has changed and leaves the school district short. 264
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Lydia Wegman: Yeah we used to get capital improvement money and… 266
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Tony Blake: Right. My understanding is all this maintenance stuff was in the CIP but it was used for expansion. In 268
Chapel Hill it was used to build that brand new wing on the Chapel Hill High School. 269
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Craig Benedict: But you will be part of it so you’ll understand how we’re trying to balance residential growth and 271
non-residential growth. How important it is from that tax based standpoint. There was a request by Chapel Hill to us 272
to share in the incentives towards a development and they said it’s a bonus, the revenue that w ill come from this 273
new project but it was so vague. They said, “You’ve been approved for 100,000 square feet of residential” and I 274
said, “Well, what type? Single-family, multi-family, 3-bedroom?” and to balance the sheet of fiscal impacts at a 275
County level versus city level. 276
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Tony Blake: But that’s where the schools and those things are funded, right? 278
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Craig Benedict: Yeah. It’s a big number. You know our County budget is 48-50% schools and you add health, social 280
services, and you’re probably up to 78% of our budget. 281
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Craig Benedict continued presentation. 283
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Tony Blake: We’re going to have to change the watersheds? 285
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Craig Benedict: We won’t be able to tell people that you cannot put X amount and have phosphorous and nitrogen 287
coming off your lake. And 10 years ago the state would say great, you want to exceed our regulations and so this is 288
how long this is going on. So we have these rules in effect and it’s gotten to the point that it can be challenged. 289
Legislation is clearer and clearer that we cannot do the nutrient request. Now they will be putting what they call 290
those erosion control devices still on the site and we have a very good program in that area. That might ameliorate 291
some of the impacts during construction or if we can convince them to keep it po st construction and turn it into a 292
storm water device. But it’s not going to be a mandate. We’ll take it as far as we can but we don’t want that to be 293
challenged and for it to have rippling effect through other things. Michael’s office is working to try to preserve the 294
size of our stream buffers because they exceed state law. We might be able to preserve that because we have 295
some science behind it. 296
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Craig Benedict continued presentation. 298
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Tony Blake: I noticed that the towers that were supposed to be built for the emergency services this year didn’t 300
make the budget. 301
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Paul Guthrie: There’s a lot of turmoil going. Especially in the Southern end of the County between competing 303
communications systems. You’ve got AT&T going in, you’ve got Google messing around right now, and now most 304
recently you’ve got Verizon popping up a new tower south of Ridgeline and Verizon is going with some new ideas 305
of commercialization. So a lot of that is going on. 306
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Tony Blake: I’ve been working Jim Northrup and sitting in on that group and I think what the solution really is to put 308
up a few towers and engage a company like Chatham Wireless, who has been successful in doing this, I got a 309
meeting together with Jim Northrup and the president of Chatham Wireless to chat about it. But again, it’s getting 310
the towers and getting the towers fed with fiber optics, and building that infrastructure, which the state will allow you 311
to do, as long as you are not in the business yourself. I have one more item to add on there because I sat in on th e 312
emergency services meeting with the fire chiefs and the County Commissioners. The burn building they use to train 313
is going to be shut down because the neighbors are complaining, it’s reached its end of life. The fire chiefs are 314
trying to get together and ask the County to build a training facility or a series of training facilities and this would 315
also be not just emergency service but the sheriff’s department and the police department for driving training and 316
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things like that. So that might be something we could get involved in. I don’t know what you think but it seemed to 317
me that there might be some parkland or County owned land that would fit the bill. 318
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Craig Benedict: Since what’s being suggested is such a multi use project it will probably have to go through some 320
creative zoning; maybe a master plan. 321
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Michael Harvey: There’s park property on Schley that is actually under conservation easement. It’s talked about not 323
only being a park but a multi-use government site, which could include some of the activities being discussed. 324
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Andrea Rohrbacher: Can I jump back to a quick thing with transportation? Recently I’ve had to use a lot of public 326
transportation and I’ve been astounded at the Go Triangle, the number of buses I’ve been on where the fare boxes 327
don’t work so everybody’s riding free there. Is anybody looking at the technology involved in the card readers? I’ve 328
gotten a ton of free rides on Go Triangle. 329
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Craig Benedict: Yes, the new buses that we’re ordering, we’re getting the electronic fare boxes so if somebody 331
goes on Go Triangle that also goes on OPT it’s more of a seamless card reading. We’re also trying to get OPT 332
linked with the time, the trip planner so that you know where the OPT buses are and that’s going to take more 333
technology and more money. OPT, based on this year’s budget, will be its own department when they hire a new 334
director. There’s a lot of coordination of course with planning and the MPO but also with the Human Services 335
Agencies and it’s been identified that not just commuter service that Go Triangle likes to do at the morning and 336
evening peak but the public service travel that occurs during the day to get to a health clinic, to get to shopping, and 337
things like that. That needs to be supported by OPT midday, with the smaller buses, the 22 passenger. I think that’s 338
going to be a big thing. But there is trouble with light rail funding, based on the state. These decisions are going to 339
have to be made very soon about where extra funding is going to come from to replace state funding and if not will 340
monies go to an even better augmented bus system to connect us to the Triangle and connect the rural areas to the 341
urban areas. 342
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Lisa Stuckey: I have one observation. Buddy, I, Andrea, and maybe Maxecine are probably the only ones that 344
remember what the Implementation Bridge was. When we came on it was the end of the UDO revisions and this is 345
now 6 years ago. I just wonder if we need to continue with this big long bridge that’s not very meaningful anymore. I 346
think it’s kind of out of date and it’s a lot of pages and a lot of work and I just wondered if maybe it could not be on 347
the Work plan. 348
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Craig Benedict: I think it may be time for a transition. We did mention about the quarterly public hearing November 350
21st that I’ll be doing a presentation on transfer of development rights. So this is where things go away but then they 351
come back again. 352
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Lydia Wegman: What’s this nuisance ordinance? 354
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Craig Benedict: The nuisance ordinance is somewhat of a dream that Michael and I have. Municipalities have a n 356
easier legislative authority to declare things nuisances because it’s more urban and there’s more effects. In the 357
county, if somebody has tall grass, we can’t say anything. So what we would like to suggest is that in our urbanizing 358
area, in our pseudo municipal areas under County jurisdiction, meaning our transition areas and our economic 359
development areas, we think it’s more important to probably have a higher level of aesthetics. Not just aesthetics 360
but property value maintenance in those areas so that we can attract high quality industry. Is that going to be legally 361
sufficient? Will the legislature say the County is doing more than you can? But still, that’s on the list. I go out with 362
our Economic Development Director and in the economic development zones and they don’t look too good. And it’s 363
very difficult to say, “Don’t look over there”. But that’s what’s allowed under the County’s UDO. If it’s a health hazard 364
we can get stuff going but it takes a lot of work to get somebody to clean their property up . So some level of 365
nuisance ordinance would be great in and around our urbanizing areas. 366
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MOTION by Lisa Stuckey to adopt the report. Seconded by Tony Blake. 368
VOTE: UNANIMOUS 369
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AGENDA ITEM 9: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 371
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a) Board of Adjustment 373
b) Orange Unified Transportation 374
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AGENDA ITEM 10: ADJOURNMENT 376
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Planning Board meeting was adjourned by consensus. 378
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Lydia Wegman, Chair