By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to revise the timeline for implementation of the first phase of the Unified Development Ordinance after hearing concerns from residents that the public needs more time to provide feedback.
The Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) combines all county regulations related to land development into one document. County planning staff released the first draft of the UDO in August and has collected feedback and revised the draft over the past few months. The timeline originally stipulated that the UDO would be adopted by the board on Feb. 15, but the commissioners directed the Orange County Planning Board to extend the timeline as needed, though not beyond June of next year.
Some residents have expressed concern that the document changes the development process so that certain developments would go through without the special-use permits that are required under current law.
However, county planning director Craig Benedict said the requirements in the current development process are also in the UDO.
“Nine out of 10 times, all the special-use permits that are within our code now are wrapped into the new one,†Benedict said. “All of the conditional use requires special-use permits.â€
The confusion appears to stem from the replacement of Planned Development zoning districts with Conditional Zoning Districts and the Conditional Use District. In 2005, state statutes were changed to allow local governments to adopt conditional zoning. The changes allow the county to apply conditions to address off-site impacts, such as having a developer provide a turn lane into a development to improve traffic conditions.
In conditional zoning districts, developers can request a rezoning of a mixed-use development, like a mobile home park, by providing a list of proposed uses within the district as well as land-development parameters, without having to apply for a special-use permit, which would require an exact site plan.
Benedict said, though, that existing standards already allow mixed-use planned developments to proceed without a special-use permit application. He added that requirements are structured this way because many developers have not determined exactly what buildings will be built when they initiate a project.
At the public hearing, several county residents spoke in favor of a quicker development application process in the UDO.
“We need to have a competitive permitting process that’s streamlined, reduces cost, reduces time, that is 90 days or less, preferably 60 days or less,†said Kathleen Ferguson, chair of the Orange County Economic Development Commission, adding that such a process would help attract commercial development.
The planning board will revise the timeline at its meeting on Wednesday and will present the proposed timeline to the commissioners at their Dec. 14 meeting.