MINUTES

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

COUNTY OF HENDERSON APRIL 11, 2002

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners met for a special called meeting at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioners' Conference Room of the Henderson County Office Building at 100 North King Street, Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman Marilyn Gordon, Commissioner Don Ward, Commissioner Charlie Messer, Commissioner Grady Hawkins, Planning Director Karen C. Smith, County Manager David E. Nicholson, Public Information Officer Chris S. Coulson and Deputy Clerk to the Board Amy R. Brantley. Assistant County Attorney Jennifer O. Jackson was present through the Lakewood RV Resort discussion.

WELCOME AND CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Moyer called the meeting to order. He welcomed those in attendance, stating that today=s meeting was a workshop on the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite. Before beginning the workshop however, Chairman Moyer stated that Board deal with Approval of Ordinance to Grant a Development Vested Right to Lakewood RV Resort.

APPROVAL OF ORDINANCE TO GRANT A DEVELOPMENT VESTED RIGHT LAKEWOOD RV RESORT

Jennifer Jackson stated that a memo had been distributed to the Board which contained comments from Attorney Lex Veazey. Mr. Veazey had proposed three minor language changes to the Ordinance, which Ms. Jackson went over with the Board.

Chairman Moyer made the motion to adopt the ordinance as presented with the additional changes that Ms. Jackson brought to the Board from Mr. Veazey.

Commissioner Hawkins raised a question on the second ordinance which dealt with the hedge. In a previous meeting, he believed both parties had agreed to the conditions of the hedge. Commissioner Hawkins stated that he thought the parties agreement should be included in paragraph 2 of the ordinance.

Chairman Moyer stated that the problem with this addition is that there is nothing on the tape to indicate that Mr. George made such an agreement. Commissioner Hawkins stated that he felt it was only fair to both parties to clarify whether such an agreement exists before putting it in an ordinance.

Commissioner Ward reminded the Board that he had previously been recused from this matter.

There was much discussion concerning any deadlines the Board must meet in making a decision, and at which meeting the agreement would have been made.

Chairman Moyer withdrew his motion, stating that it could be brought back to the table at the Board=s next meeting.

There was additional discussion concerning at which meeting the agreement was made.

Chairman Moyer stated that he believed that this was the final date the Board had to adopt the ordinance. Chairman Moyer again made the motion to adopt the ordinance as presented with the additional changes that Ms. Jackson brought to the Board from Mr. Veazey. He stated that if the ordinance had to be amended that could be done, but the Board had to take action today. This is the only action that had been approved by both council, and was the ordinance that needed to be adopted. The motion carried 3-1 with Commissioner Hawkins voting nay, and Commissioner Ward abstaining.

ZONING ORDINANCE REWRITE REVIEW - ARTICLE III

There was much discussion regarding the procedure currently underway to rewrite the Zoning Ordinance. It was the consensus of the Board to press on with the process, working their way through the ordinance presented to the county by Benchmark, to make changes to suit Henderson County.

Chairman Moyer clarified the two steps of zoning. First there is a zoning ordinance, which does not zone anything. The second step involves applying the text or text amendments to the map. Until that application happens, no property is zoned under the new text. Much of the county is currently zoned in various pieces. The Board must consider the ramifications and implications for people who currently have zoning. Those ramifications and implications have created some of the complexity surrounding the rewrite, and have given rise to the idea of retaining some of the old districts.

Commissioner Messer stressed again that the Comprehensive County Plan and the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite are two different projects. The Comprehensive County Plan is a plan for the county over the next 15 years. Zoning is a part of that, and the two will work together, but they are different projects.

NB - Neighborhood Business District

Karen Smith reminded the Board that the topic for the meeting was to continue the review of Article III, Use Districts. She stated that at the March 20^th meeting there had been some discussion of the subtleties in some of the use names and the NAICS codes, and how what is listed may not entirely capture what is covered in the category. Currently staff is working through each use, looking up the NAICS codes and noting any changes or comments that should be looked at in the Use Districts. Staff will bring this back to the Board at a future meeting.

Ms. Smith asked the Board if there were any uses in the three residential districts (NR-40, NR-15 and NR-6) that the Board wished to revisit. She brought one item to the Board=s attention, Planned Seasonal Agriculture Worker Developments. It is currently allowed in the rural districts. In the proposed NU District, it would be a use with special requirements.

Ms. Smith then proceeded to the proposed Neighborhood Business District. Staff has separated out the uses that don=t require permits. She stated that this is a district that is intended to fit very comfortably with residential districts nearby. It may be used as a transition district into light industrial. It allows a lot of small retail and service businesses. One change that staff did

introduce dealt with residential uses, allowing some residential into the business district. There is currently no minimum lot size specified for these residential uses.

Commissioner Ward mentioned the proposed requirements on hours of operation in this district. There was some concern regarding the limitations on deliveries, in that all deliveries must be conducted between 7:00am and 10:00pm. Ms. Smith stated that this had been included because of the close proximity to residential areas. Commissioner Ward stated that his concern was that limitations on the hours of operation would put a hardship on small business people.

There was much discussion on the effect of such limitations on small businesses.

Chairman Moyer questioned whether the Board wished to put limits on hours of operation. Commissioner Ward stated that he felt the hours of operation were restrictive, that in today=s world those hours put a hardship on working people. Chairman Moyer requested that staff highlight this section for deletion, but leave the statement in so the Board could see it in case they need to refer back to it.

Karen Smith reminded the Board that they had had previous discussion of cemetery/mausoleum use in regards to residential districts. She questioned whether the Board wished to continue the exclusion of crematories into the other districts. It was the consensus of the Board to allow crematories in the more intensive districts.

Ms. Smith stated that when a use is stated as Amiscellaneous retail sales@, or Avideotape and disc rentals@ staff will go back and make it clear that these do not include adult establishments.

She reminded the Board that there are no minimum lot sizes currently specified for residential or commercial uses, and the references to open space standards only apply to residential uses. She also pointed out a change in Section J. Currently it reads AAny business must be conducted wholly within an enclosed building@. Ms. Smith requested that be changed to Aany non-residential use excluding agriculture and bonafide farms.@ It was the consensus of the Board to make that change.

OI - Office Institutional

Ms. Smith stated that this proposed district is very similar to the current Office and Institutional District, which allows uses that deal with schools, hospital, some retail and some service use. The residential in this district has been cut back for the current ordinance. It would allow in a PUD, part of the acreage to be used for housing. The large range of uses are heaviest in educational and services. There are some questions about group homes, and staff will look at other types of child group facilities which would fit in well.

The minimum lot size for the residential component of the PUD=s would be 8,000 square feet per unit. That was done when there was a NR-8 district. Ms. Smith questioned whether the Board would like to go to 6,000 square feet per unit.

Commissioner Gordon asked at what point the Board would decide what uses would be conditional versus special. Ms. Smith stated that is what the Board is doing now. There was some discussion of the difference in permitting between convenience stores and convenience stores with gas pumps. Commissioner Gordon noted that the Board needs to think through those uses.

Commissioner Ward stated that Chairman Moyer had it right when he said the simpler this can be, so people can understand it, will be the best product. He stated that the Table of Uses will be a major player. Ms. Smith stated that the Table of Uses, at a glance, shows how things are allowed, by either a particular use or a particular district. Commissioner Gordon requested the Board look at the Conditional and Special Uses separately and in detail, because the Board of Commissioners should not have to look at zoning requests at each meeting.

Chairman Moyer requested Karen Smith go down the Table of Uses, and answer questions from the Board on the uses. The meanings of the symbols used are:

C ASR@ - Athe indicated use is permitted in the indicated district provided additional requirements set forth in this chapter are met.@

C ACU@ - Athe indicated use is permitted in the indicated district, subject to the granting of a conditional use permit by the board of adjustment.@

C ASU@ - Athe indicated use is permitted in the indicated district, subject to the granting of a special use permit by the county commissioners.@

The Board questioned the symbols used for the following uses in the OI District:

C Continued Care Retirement Communities - This had been listed as a Use by Right. The Board wished to have this listed as ASR@.

C Summer Camps - This is listed as Recreational Vehicle Parks and Recreational Camps. Currently, summer camps would not be allowed in O&I.

C Special Congregate Facility - Ms. Smith explained that this term is not defined by NAICS. It is a census term, used for camps, prisons, facilities with residential components, etc. The only districts where they would be allowed would be Highway Business and Mixed Use, and then it would be a conditional use. There was discussion of how the Board could differentiate between a recreational camp and an instructional camp.

C Rooming and Boarding houses - listed as ASU@.

C Group Homes - Listed as ACU@

Commissioner Gordon questioned whether the Board of Commissioners really needed to approve a situation such as a boarding house going into an Office and Industrial District. Chairman Moyer questioned why there were differences between Group Homes, Rooming and Boarding houses, Special Congregate Facilities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities. He suggested they all be listed as Special Right with conditions.

C Colleges and Universities - These are currently listed as Special Use. It was the consensus of the Board to list this as ACU@.

C Schools, Junior Colleges - It was the consensus of the Board to list this as ACU@.

C Correctional Institutions - This use was not marked in the Table of Uses, but Ms. Smith felt that they would be something the OI District would allow.

Chairman Moyer requested that staff look at why there are more Special Use categories specified in the OI District than anywhere else. He requested staff propose changes to that trend.

C Book Stores - This had been listed as ASR@. Commissioner Ward asked that staff clarify in the table that this use not include adult establishments. He also requested this type of clarification on Records, Videotape and Disc stores.

Commissioner Ward brought up the situation of labor camps, housing for workers during the agricultural season. Following discussion, it was decided that Karen Smith would discuss possible recommendations with the Blue Ridge Apple Growers.

The Board then began discussions on the Table of Uses for the HB District, Highway Business.

They questioned the symbols used for the following uses in the HB District:

C Theaters, Motion Picture, Drive-Ins - The code listed is for non-drive-ins. Staff will swap those codes.

C Mobile/Manufactured Home Graveyards - The definition of graveyards is an accessory use, and for Mobile/Manufactured Home is three or more units. For vehicles it is five or more. This is an accessory use to another use on the property. There must be a staff permit, and there are requirements for buffers and setbacks. Commissioner Ward felt there should be minimum lot size requirements on this use.

There was much discussion on the disposal of old Mobile/Manufactured Homes. There was also discussion of a change in the number of vehicles which would constitute a graveyard. This change would only apply to the new districts, so as not to infringe upon the rights of businesses already in place. The Board requested staff look at changes, designed to protect adjacent property owners, for each district where Mobile/Manufactured Home Graveyards or Vehicle Graveyards would be allowed.

C Batting Cages - These are currently listed as ASR@.

C Recreational Uses Not Otherwise Listed - Karen Smith stated this was a use the Planning Board had come up with to cover uses not listed in the NAICS Standards.

C Parks - Commissioner Hawkins questioned whether greenways were considered a park. Ms. Smith stated that they were considered parks.

C Go-Cart, Motorcycle and Similar Small Vehicle Tracks (Non-Racing) - Commissioner Gordon confirmed that they were considered ASU@ in the HB, LI and GI districts. She did not wish to see this use come before the Board of Commissioners. It was the consensus of the Board to change this to a ACU@ designation in the HB district, and possibly ASR@ in the LI and GI Districts.

C Recreational Vehicle Parks - This is listed as a ACU@ designation. Karen Smith stated that if this is changed to ASR@ the standards would be developed from scratch.

Commissioner Hawkins made a motion to adjourn. It was the consensus of the Board to complete review of the HB Districts. Commissioner Hawkins withdrew the motion.

Chairman Moyer questioned why hospitals, community colleges and other similar uses were not allowed in the HB District. Ms. Smith said she believed it might have something to do with possible traffic congestion and access.

C Golf Driving Ranges (Freestanding) - Commissioner Messer pointed out that as proposed these would only be allowed in the HB District. Ms. Smith stated that she believed this may have had something to do with lighting. Commissioner Messer asked staff to give this some more thought, as there are several of them close to residential areas currently.

C Kennels - Ms. Smith stated this use is for commercial kennels. This does not include housing your own animals. They would always have to be licensed by the state.

There being no further business to come before the Board, Commissioner Hawkins made the motion to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried.

Attest:

______________________________________ ______ ____________________________

Amy R. Brantley, Deputy Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer, Chairman