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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCPB minutes 070517APPROVED 8/2/17 1 MINUTES 1 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 JULY 5, 2017 3 REGULAR MEETING 4 5 6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Tony Blake (Vice-Chair), Bingham Township Representative; Buddy Hartley, Little River 7 Township Representative; Kim Piracci, At-Large; Randy Marshall, At-Large; David Blankfard, Hillsborough Township 8 Representative; Patricia Roberts, Cheeks Township Representative; Paul Guthrie, At-Large Chapel Hill Township; 9 10 MEMBERS ABSENT: Lydia Wegman (Chair), At-Large Chapel Hill Township Representative; Laura Nicholson, Eno 11 Township Representative; Donna Coffey, Cedar Grove Township Representative; Andrea Rohrbacher, At-Large 12 Chapel Hill Township; Alexander Gregory, Chapel Hill Township Representative; 13 14 STAFF PRESENT: Craig Benedict, Planning Director; Michael Harvey, Current Planning Supervisor; Patrick Mallett, 15 Planner II; Meredith Kern, Administrative Assistant II 16 17 OTHERS PRESENT: Rachel McCook, Minutes Preparer 18 19 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 20 21 Tony Blake called the meeting to order. He noted that there is a Board of Adjustment (BOA) meeting on the 7th of 22 August, attendance is encouraged though not mandatory. Michael Harvey suggested that anyone planning to attend 23 the BOA meeting first check with Planning Staff to ensure BOA has quorum and a meeting will be held. 24 25 AGENDA ITEM 2: INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 26 a) Planning Calendar for July and August 27 28 AGENDA ITEM 3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 29 May 3, 2017 Meeting Minutes 30 May 3, 2017 ORC Notes 31 32 Buddy Hartley noted an error in the attendance. Michael Harvey recommended that a motion be made that Planning 33 Staff will verify attendance record is accurate and updated, and that the Planning Board defer approving the minutes 34 until Staff can verify same. 35 36 Tony Blake made the recommended motion and it was seconded by Paul Guthrie. Further edits were then noted: 37 38 Randy Marshall noted the following typos: 39 Page 13, line 467: change to “hold sway over” 40 Page 11, Line 574: change “out Ordinance” to “our Ordinance” 41 42 Michael Harvey suggested that a motion be made to defer the approval of the meeting minutes until they are 43 amended and attendance is verified and typos are fixed, as requested. 44 45 MOTION by Paul Guthrie to defer approval of the May 3, 2017 Planning Board minutes and ORC notes until they are 46 amended. Seconded by Randy Marshall. 47 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 48 49 Michael Harvey introduced new Meeting Minutes Preparer, Rachel McCook, and Planning Board welcomed her. 50 51 Tony Blake read the public charge (Agenda Item 5), reviewed Chair Comments (Agenda Item 6), and Committee 52 Advisory Board Reports (Agenda Item 7), before addressing Additions to Agenda (Agenda Item 4). 53 APPROVED 8/2/17 2 54 AGENDA ITEM 5: PUBLIC CHARGE 55 56 Introduction to the Public Charge 57 The Board of County Commissioners, under the authority of North Carolina General Statute, 58 appoints the Orange County Planning Board (OCPB) to uphold the written land development 59 laws of the County. The general purpose of OCPB is to guide and accomplish coordinated and 60 harmonious development. OCPB shall do so in a manner, which considers the present and 61 future needs of its citizens and businesses through efficient and responsive process that 62 contributes to and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of the overall County. The OCPB 63 will make every effort to uphold a vision of responsive governance and quality public services 64 during our deliberations, decisions, and recommendations. 65 66 PUBLIC CHARGE 67 The Planning Board pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its 68 citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with 69 fellow citizens. At any time, should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this 70 public charge, the Chair will ask the offending member to leave the meeting until that individual 71 regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting 72 until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 73 74 AGENDA ITEM 6: CHAIR COMMENTS 75 76 No comments from Chair or Vice Chair 77 78 AGENDA ITEM 7: COMMITTEE/ADVISORY BOARD REPORTS 79 a) BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT 80 b) ORANGE UNIFIED TRANSPORTATION 81 82 Michael Harvey reported that the Board of Adjustment was slated to review a Class B Special Use Permit last month 83 proposing a kennel off of North Carolina Highway 86, just north of Whitfield Road. However, the application has been 84 put on hold at the direct request of the applicant. The applicant has not yet secured all of the appropriate approvals 85 from the Environmental Health Department (hereafter referred to as the “Health Department”) for the proposed septic 86 system; the application is facing a negative recommendation by the Staff at this time. The applicant is working with 87 the Health Department to fix septic issues. There is not an estimated timeframe for the application to be heard at this 88 juncture. 89 90 No report from the Orange Unified Transportation Board (OUT Board) 91 92 AGENDA ITEM 4. CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 93 94 Tony Blake reviewed an addition to the agenda from Craig Benedict: an email (referred to hereafter as “the letter”) to 95 Craig, Michael Harvey and Donna Baker from Randy Marshall, Planning Board member, regarding scrap tires, stale 96 water, and mosquitos, and whether or not there is a spraying program. Tony Blake said that his first take on the 97 matter is that it is a Health Department issue or a Solid Waste issue. He also does not think that Orange County is 98 the only place with this problem. 99 100 Note: See original email in attachments for this meeting 101 Craig Benedict said that while the letter raises points not directly related to land use, per se, the Health Department, 102 in the past, has worked with Planning as part of a combined effort, to handle an issue such as this that is discovered 103 during code enforcement activities. A lot of it, under County jurisdiction, is not as specific as what cities can do. Cities 104 can have what they call ‘nuisance ordinances’ where they say someone’s grass is too high or there is too much in 105 someone’s yard or something like that. He said that Planning cannot go to that level, but Planning Staff will make an 106 APPROVED 8/2/17 3 attempt. Even though in the past, Planning got together with the Health Department and the Solid Waste Department 107 to investigate these things, even bringing in the state departments to look at oil spills and radiator spills from 108 junkyards and other cases like that. Work in this area has been limited. The Health Department, until a few years 109 ago, did have some funding to do some limited spraying, if asked by a property owner or other members of the 110 public. Even that has fallen apart. There is still a program to do spraying in parks. Michael Harvey is working more 111 directly with Alan Clapp of the Health Department on what we will propose in this area. Planning has also been 112 working to get together a nuisance program for County jurisdiction. The area most recently spoken about was in so-113 called “pseudo-urban areas,” areas in the County that are growing with higher density, growing with economic 114 development, and we may need a standard of higher care to keep things looking good and to attract growth in the 115 right places. Craig went on to say that it’s difficult because you’re not supposed to be arbitrary, but we’re going to try 116 by justifying our urbanized standards that we have in certain growth areas. Michael Harvey and Alan Clapp are 117 working on a memo to the manager that will eventually get to the Commissioners to implement some sort of nuisance 118 program. Planning Staff would help with the identification of the issue and then would find the right department that 119 has certain enforcement of that to get rid of junk off land, or maybe there’s a tire removal fund or grants available. 120 Planning will try and hit the problem from a few different angles and bring it to the attention of other resources outside 121 of the County. In cases where a property owner may recognize a health issue, especially with the Zika Virus and the 122 like, they can seek to do something for their own purposes and their neighbors’ also. 123 124 Kim Piracci asked if anyone has contacted the company noted in the letter, Triangle Tire and Service Center, 125 regarding possible health hazards. 126 127 Craig Benedict answered that the Planning Department’s next point step will be to contact the company as a 128 courtesy. He said that Planning send out many notes that say something like “You may or may not realize that you 129 have a violation on your property. Please speak with us. We’ll help you to resolve the issue.” 130 131 Kim Piracci asked if the used tires are stored in a pile. 132 133 Craig Benedict explained that used tires may be stored temporarily in a pile until there are enough take a load out. 134 There are also gently used tires that a business may not have storage for. Tire storage is a volatile area; tires are 135 stored outside more than you may think. 136 137 Paul Guthrie said that he could think of at least three other places in the County where they have similar storage of 138 tires, and it seems to him that whichever organization that may be promoting that kind of business ought to pay 139 attention to the fact that tires can be placed around, helter skelter, at what is a former gas station or a former store. 140 He understands that the issue as it is now, but that somewhere, sometime, there should be a conversation about the 141 physical limits on what you can store. There are a couple of places with tires encroaching on the right-of-way. He 142 recognized that Planning Staff does not have the authority to deal with that. 143 144 Craig Benedict spoke about disposal fees. He wondered if disposal fee monies could be put towards collection and 145 proper disposal. 146 147 Paul Guthrie said that some of these places, two that he knows of, sell used tires for reuse. 148 149 Kim Piracci asked about the disposal process. When they have accumulated enough tires to be disposed of, what 150 does the disposal process look like? What happens to them? 151 152 Craig Benedict explained that the tires go to the landfill and then they are shipped to a vendor. Some people want the 153 tires and grind them up for certain uses. There is a collection process even at some of our Solid Waste Convenience 154 Centers where you could dump-off “x” amount of tires, but not for commercial dumping. They [tire shops or 155 businesses] should be following their own course of action, and some of them don’t. If Planning had a formal site plan 156 on some old land uses, we could probably direct where tires are stored and how they are covered. However, the 157 majority of these uses go back 20 or 30 years and are “grandfathered-I,” but this is not to say that we turn a blind 158 eye. 159 APPROVED 8/2/17 4 160 Tony Blake spoke about Triangle Tire and Service Center changing ownership and wondered if that negates aspects 161 of being grandfathered-in. He remarked that there is another such tire business over on Old Greensboro with the 162 same situation. 163 164 Craig Benedict explained that only if the business was trying to expand the facility can Planning kick-in new 165 standards, but a lot of these businesses are continuing as is. 166 167 Patricia Roberts asked about free tire disposal program wherein you could bring all your tires to the landfill or 168 somewhere else. 169 170 Craig Benedict said that there used to be grant funding for a variety of things. There used to be a get-rid-of-your-171 mobile-home day, back 10-12 years ago, and those monies dried-up too. There are a lot of people that may leave 172 their mobile home in the woods. It is a lot to try and move a mobile home to our landfill. Planning keeps looking for 173 funding to help with these issues. Our Solid Waste Department, as of July 1st, has a mattress disposal program. He 174 remarked that things you see alongside of the road – old tires and mattresses – at least we’ve moved towards 175 mattress disposal program. Maybe the County can look into an even better tire collection and disposal program as 176 well. He hopes that Solid Waste, the Health Department and Planning can come together to be the eyes in the field. 177 178 Paul Guthrie suggested that whoever is involved in that discussion should figure out where the tires are going from 179 disposal. He thinks that most of the tires are from international transit; they grind them up and separate metals from 180 rubber and other materials. He said that a lot of that is probably going to the Port of Wilmington and getting hauled 181 overseas. He said that he thinks it’s worth asking - where do you dispose of your stuff, and when you do move stuff 182 out? 183 184 Craig replied that Planning will keep all comments in mind. 185 186 Randy Marshall gave a brief background regarding his complaint about the tires. He said that since he brought this 187 topic up, he would like to give a couple of comments. He started by saying that it’s different than mattresses and 188 mobile homes. This is a health hazard because of the mosquitos. If Zika cases pop-up in Orange County, there is 189 going to be a huge uproar on why we haven’t done something about tires. There’s a mobile home park right behind 190 that tire establishment and those tires have been there for weeks. He said that he cannot see where any tires have 191 been hauled off. It seems like to him that handing out ducks and spraying people when they go into parks is woefully 192 inadequate to address the health concerns – not nuisance – but the health concern that the tires provide. It seems 193 not unreasonable to him that there would have someone on the staff of Orange County to make people remove tires 194 because they are a health hazard. That same person could look for standing water in different places. He just wants 195 someone to say “You need to get rid of these tires. It’s a problem.” He said that nobody in several of the Orange 196 County departments seems to have ownership to do this. 197 198 Tony Blake responded to Randy Marshall’s point. He would pose a question to a business that if they want to look at 199 who’s the most at risk, it’s them. There is a public health hazard here and they are likely to be the one most exposed. 200 This approach might hit home. 201 202 Craig Benedict shared an experience of working with a city where the Health Department took the lead role to 203 declare a health nuisance, whether it was rats or garbage or mosquitos. They seemed to have the higher power than 204 the Zoning Department regarding health hazards. He said that Planning will continue working on this and will report 205 back regarding collaboration, and maybe jump start a program with funding. 206 207 Kim Piracci reiterated that in the meantime, someone should reach out to the business. 208 209 Paul Guthrie also reiterated that someone should talk to the owner regarding health hazards and warned about the 210 possibility of a business being named as a source. 211 212 APPROVED 8/2/17 5 Planning Board members continued a discussion amongst themselves on how the Zika Virus can be tracked. 213 214 AGENDA ITEM 8: ADJOURNMENT 215 216 MOTION by Randy Marshall to adjourn the July 5, 2017 Planning Board meeting. Seconded by Buddy Hartley. 217 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 218 ____________________________________ Lydia Wegman, Chair