MINUTES
STATE
OF
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a special called meeting at
Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman
Also present were: Public
Information Officer Chris S. Coulson, Planning Director
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer called
the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. The purpose of this
meeting was a workshop on the Land Development Code (LDC).
PRESENTATION OF LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE
Mr. Starr explained that
it combines several existing ordinances such as the Watershed Ordinance and the
recently adopted Soil Erosion Ordinance into a section called “Natural
Resources”. These Ordinances don’t
change, they simply are re-codified to go into that section of the LDC. There
is a section called “non-conformities” and the public may know this more as
grandfathering provisions. Basically
what it says is that if you have a use now in place, you get to continue your
use as you always have been, indefinitely.
For areas that are currently in Open Use zoning, if you have a
commercial or industrial use you can continue operating that use indefinitely
and you can even expand it.
In Article 10, decision
making, it clarifies a lot of situations that are not clear in our current code
as far as the roles and responsibilities of the various boards whether it be
the Board of Adjustment, the Planning Board, or the Board of
Commissioners. The Board of Adjustment
would be holding the quasi-judicial hearings, the Planning Board would continue
its role as an advisory board to the Board of Commissioners and review the
larger subdivisions. A technical review committee would be a new committee established
to review major subdivisions that have less than 35 lots, it formalizes the
process we already use which is taking comment from various departments on site
plans and subdivisions. This allows Planning
Staff to have the developer come in and have a face to face discussion with
everybody involved and that has proven to be a very beneficial process for the
developers in terms of having good communication among different departments
that are required to give their approval for projects.
Issues raised by
Commissioners:
1.
Want to accommodate
national sign programs (Ford, McDonalds, etc.) in sign standards section.
The current draft
provides for a range of sign heights (Sign Section, page 170-172). A sign may
be anywhere from 18-75 feet high in commercial and industrial zoning districts.
The sign range from 72 to 200 square feet in commercial and industrial
districts.
The current draft
accommodates most national sign programs used by major franchises. An increase
in height to 100 feet for signs within 500 feet of I-26 should accommodate any
anticipated request.
2.
Concerned about the way
sign height is measured for signs within 500 feet of interstate.
The current draft (Sign
Section, page 170-172) measures most signs from the ground below the sign (see
Sign Height definition on page 329). For signs intended to be visible from I-26
and are within 500 feet of I-26, the height is measured from the top of the
sign to the interstate road grade. The
Planning Board intended for this provision to allow uniform sign height along
I-26.
An alternate way to
measure the signs within 500 feet of I-26 is to measure from the top of the sign
to the ground below the sign.
3.
A Commissioner thought
we should consider limiting density based on percent of slope. Standards used
by
The current draft
provides no requirements regarding steep slope.
Provisions could be
added to the zoning section to limit the overall density for areas containing
steep slopes (greater than 15-25%).
4.
A Commissioner thinks
that the commercial zoning at I-26 and
The current draft LDC
zoning map provides commercial zoning to
Commercial zoning could
be extended along
5.
A Commissioner was
concerned that the sign heights allowed were too high.
The current maximum sign
height in the draft is 18 feet unless within 500 feet of I-26 (see page 171).
The sign height can be
easily reduced based on the direction of the Board.
6.
Commissioners concerned
that non-conforming uses in the Open Use District would get more favorable
treatment.
Section 200A-213 (page
226) allows uses in the current Open Use district to continue operation and
expand operations with their new zoning classification.
The Board may apply the
same rules as the other districts (Section 200A-212, page 225).
7.
Commissioners commented
that the Technical Review Committee (TRC) should be allowed to approve
subdivisions up to 50 lots.
The current draft allows
the Technical Review Committee (TRC) to approve subdivisions up to 34 lots (See
Section 200A-247A on page 246).
This provision can be
easily amended to allow the TRC to approve subdivisions up to 50 lots.
8.
Commissioner commented
that the TRC should also review all subdivisions over 50 lots with the Planning
Board approving such projects.
The current draft
provides only a planning staff review and then Planning Board review for
approval (See Section 200A-248 Part D on page 249).
This provision could be
modified to establish that the TRC will review all subdivisions over 50 lots
and provide a recommendation to the Planning Board.
9.
Commissioner commented
that we should ensure compliance with the Federal Fair Housing Act regarding
Family Care Homes and Group Homes.
The current draft is
probably in compliance with the Federal Fair Housing Act. There are some provisions that should be
clarified in the definition that occurred as a result of a change in the State
Statutes.
Staff has prepared minor
changes for the definition and supplemental requirements section. These changes are not substantive but clarify
the intentions of language and are compliant with the Federal Fair Housing Act.
Following much
discussion on these items, the focus was put on questions about the zoning
map.
Small area studies will
be done in the future so that communities can have input on how their community
evolves.
Planning staff
recommended that the public input sessions on the LDC begin on Tuesday, March
13 and will be every Tuesday for five weeks in a row. The suggested dates, times, and locations
were:
Tuesday, March 20
Tuesday, March 27
Tuesday, April
Tuesday, April
Tuesday, April 17
Tuesday,
April 24
Public
Hearing
Planning Staff will be
available one hour prior to the beginning of each meeting to answer questions
of citizens on an individual basis. Each
meeting will begin with an opportunity for people to sign up to speak. Chairman
Moyer will begin the meeting with a welcome and introduction followed by a
brief staff presentation highlighting the draft LDC and zoning map. Each meeting will be a special called meeting
so that all Commissioners could attend.
Planning staff will conduct the input sessions, but the April 17 public
hearing will be conducted by the Board of Commissioners.
Chairman Moyer asked all
the Commissioners to check their calendars for these dates and the Board will
plan to set these dates at tomorrow’s Commissioners’ meeting.
Commissioner Williams
thanked the Planning Dept. Staff and the Planning Board for the long hours that
have gone into this document, stating this is a major, major undertaking. “We are looking at trying to strike some
balance in terms of providing your adequate protection without being too
overbearing and just provide some safeguard to the county we have, what we have,
our quality of life, safety issues, the whole nine yards. It is a very difficult task and I just
commend you for the time spent, for the hours spent, particularly all the
volunteer hours that have been spent as well and I think that we have before us
a draft that is certainly much, much closer to what everyone can live with than
what we’ve ever had before and hopefully we can move forward and gets something
that’s going to be acceptable among the majority of the county.”
Chairman Moyer stated
that receiving this draft of the LDC is the start of the process. Nothing has been adopted. We will now go to public input sessions and
public hearing. Commissioners have issues and questions with respect to the
draft and want to hear from the citizens as to what their comments are. Nothing
will be approved until after all the public input sessions and the public
hearing.
ADJOURN
Commissioner Messer made
the motion to adjourn the meeting at
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer, Chairman