R1 and R5 zoning rules

A lot has been said about the upcoming R1 and R5 zoning in Chatham County;  some have said it would not have a major impact on landowners but would protect the County from unconstrained development.

So I read through the 116 pages of zoning regulations on the county website.

First, let us consider the so-called Farming Exemption. To qualify, one must have one of the following: a farm sales tax exemption certificate; a farm property tax listing; a Schedule F from the federal income tax return; an approved forest management plan; or a Farm Identification Number.

Next, these are the definitions for R1 and R5 zoning:

R5 residential zoning is primarily for very low density residential developments along the County's rivers and streams which are compatible with protecting the water quality of the rivers and streams. New residences need a minimum lot size of two acres.

R1 residential zoning is primarily for low to moderate density residential development within the residential-agricultural areas of the County. Residences need a minimum lot size of one acre.

If a property owner wants to request a change in zoning, there is a five-step procedure to follow, all at the owner’s expense.

1 - A community meeting with all owners of abutting property to present the proposed zoning change

2 - A presentation to the County Appearance Commission

3 - Delivering a zoning change Application to the County Planning Department

4 - Presenting to a hearing of the Commissioners and the County Planning Board, but only after notices have been posted on the properties adjacent streets or highways, meeting notices mailed to adjoining property owners, and notice of the hearing published in the paper.

5 - After this the Commissioners may approve, deny, or direct changes to the application.

If you wish to erect a commercial building, you must follow the Chatham Commercial Design Guidelines.

Homes in R1 and R5 zoning also have a set of rules they must follow. Those rules include distance setbacks, open space requirements, requirements on deck design, and requiring connection to county water systems when available. Plantings should be selected from the Chatham County Design Guidelines, using xeriscaping for water conservation whenever possible. Lighting needs to follow the County Lighting Ordinance. The Planning Department may demand 'reasonable fees to cover the administration' of the program.

The regulation specifically lists what is allowed in R1 and R5 zoning other than housing:

 Guest houses

 Avocational farming

 B&Bs with less than 2 rooms

 Churches

 Day care centers with less than 15 children

 Manufactured dwellings

 Family care homes

 Fire stations

 Hunting and fishing clubs

 Public parks and recreation areas

 Public utility transmission lines

 Schools

 Solar farms with less than 2 acres

 Spray irrigation of reclaimed water

 Streets and railroad rights-of-way

Home occupations in R1 and R5 are permitted only after receiving a permit from the Zoning Administrator. They must follow rules on the total number of employees and family who may work in the home, restrictions on how much home space you can use, prohibiting outdoor displays of goods or materials, and creating no noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors, or electrical interference. There must be no additional vehicle traffic.

Penalties for noncompliance are served by the Zoning Administrator. Fines for a first violation are $50 per day. The County may seek destruction of non-conforming buildings, and may put a lien on your property.

These are a lot of restrictions on rural property. They may be exactly appropriate for the urban eastern areas of the County. They constitute a huge change to the existing rural areas west of Highway 87. I am sure that the western areas are mostly unaware of the R1 and R5 zoning impacts, and we might become even more concerned about this action than we are now one once the full implications are more widely known.

Vote in November.

2016 Chatham County Tax Increases

Property Taxes are going up

Most of us have heard that our Commissioners are increasing property taxes in Chatham County. Do you know how your money is being spent? County tax information is posted on the County’s website - in 17 separate, difficult to read documents.

Here is a summary that I have compiled after reading through those documents.

Property taxes are going up 5.5%, by 1.19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to a total of 63.38 cents per $100. That is top of an estimated 3.7% increase in your property values. Together those give the County $62.29 million dollars of property taxes to spend. And property taxes account for 58% of total county revenue. Total general fund expenditures are going up 7% from this year to next year, up to $107,430,261.

As an example, if you have a $250,000 piece of property, its value will now increase to $259,250. Taxes would have been $1,554.75. Now expect taxes of $1,643.13, an increase of $88.38. Think you own your property? Try not paying your county property taxes and see how long you keep it (but that is a post for another time).

Where do our Commissioners plan to spend that $107 million?

County Schools take up the largest portion of the budget, and will get a $1.5 million increase over last year, for 3 more reading specialists, 5 teachers, and 10.5 teaching assistants, along with $700,000 in staff raises.

Next, staffing for the county will increase by 2.5 in social services, plus 5 more detention officers, an admin assistant for central permits, and one-half of a nutritionist. Staff will receive a 4% increase in salaries. Total county full-time equivalent staff increases from 477 to 507, which is $39,155,539 in salaries and benefits. The largest department is the Sheriff's office, with 160 full-time equivalent staff.

Health insurance (how is that Obamacare working for cost control?) is going up 15%, or $650,000.

Increases in social services include a new affordable housing commission, converting the Henry Siler School to low income housing, and addressing substandard housing.

Individual county department increases are
  Central permitting - up 22%
  Inspections - up 16%
  Schools - up 5%
  County attorney - up 38%
  Economic development - up 46%
  Emergency operations - up 20%
  Human services agencies - up 53%
  General services (I’m not sure what all this includes) - up 47%, to $12,400,000.

Our fire districts also want more money.
  Goldston from 8 cents to 9 cents per $100.
  Northview from 8.3 cents to 8.6 cents per $100.
  Bennett from 8 cents to 9 cents.

And we are buying capital improvements.
  $236,500 for bike lanes (can someone post where these will be?)
  $6,200,000 for the new Health Services building at CCCC (the first year of two years cost)
  $6,400,000 for a new high school (first year of of three years cost)

The three biggest areas of expense are
  Schools, at $36,800,000
  General services, at $12.5 million
  Social services, at $10.8 million

Are you satisfied?

So, are you satisfied with giving more money to the Commissioners to spend as they see fit? If so, that's great, as they certainly are spending more of our money. If not, well, November is coming. Either way, go vote.

Long-Range Planning Committee

I attended the Goldston community input session for the long-range planning committee put on by the Chatham Co Long-Range Planning Committee. Did you attend? No, I didn’t think so, based on the turnout. You could have attended any time between 5 and 7 PM, and you gave up an opportunity to have a say in the county’s direction. There were maybe 30 citizens at the Goldston meeting.

Trusted sources tell me that turnout was low across the three sessions at Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, and Goldston. Sources also tell me that the Pittsboro session included posters and information about zoning in the County. Apparently that generated so much interest that it was not presented at the Goldston session. When asked why, county staff reportedly responded that it would confuse the citizens, and that they only wanted input on the long-range plan.

At the sessions there were posters about county wealth and income distribution, housing, transportation, environment, and recreation. Citizens were invited to place sticky notes with their comments on the posters. County staff were friendly, knowledgable and very open to input from those attending. At least one commissioner was at each session. Hopefully we as citizens of the county will be able to see comments were given to the county staff, and before they have been homogenized by consultants and approved by the commissioners.

I keep wondering why the push for zoning so quickly. I don’t see a lot of developers anxious to build McMansions in the southwest part of the county. Why? Perhaps because it is 30 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart!

The composition of the commission may change from the extreme liberal to more conservative in the November elections. After that, the zoning process may become more open to county input and may not fit current commissioner desires.

As always, follow the money. If zoning R1 and R5 is in place, anyone wishing for a variance will have to request permission from the board of commissioners. Permission requests cost money to file, perhaps additional money for legal fees, certainly for inspections and permits. Is the zoning push really a means of gaining more funds for the county which can then be spent by the commissioners on their particular priorities?

Overheard at the Goldston event was a comment that what we need is smaller government and more churches. How profound!

Zoning timeline

Zoning Timeline

Since zoning is such a hot issue in the county, here is a timeline (based on public records at http://www.chathamnc.org/index.aspx?page=457) of what has transpired to date. 

March 2014: Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Bock asked county staff to explore creating a special zoning overlay, in response to mining near Goldston in the unzoned areas of the County.

April 2014: The existing Planning Board formed a Subcommittee to explore zoning options. 

June 2014: The Planning Board Subcommittee produced four options to be presented to the Commissioners - 

• Option 1 - extend zoning with an open use district.
• Option 2 - adopt a stand alone heavy industrial use ordinance
• Option 3 - extend traditional zoning, with special consideration for long-term development
• Option 4 - no action at this time (no generalized sentiment for zoning the unzoned protions of the county)

Records of this meeting are not available on the County website.

June 2014: Public input at the Commissioner’s meeting - several citizens complaining about a gun range near the Stray Cat Home (oops, I mean the Goathouse Refuge). Commissioner Petty remarked that zoning is all inclusive - either zoned or unzoned, and that zoning might have prevented the GoatHouse Refuge.

July 2014: The four subcommittee options presented to the Commissioners: 

• Option 1: Open Use District - everything as is but regulate certain items. Incremental / quick fix.
• Option 2: Stand alone industrial ordinance. This would create a half-zoned county.
• Option 3: Extension of traditional zoning. Effective; concern about land use or updated vision for the county.
• Option 4: Do nothing at this time or get public input for the desire for zoning.

Commissioner Elza stated ‘The County Has To Do Something about shooting ranges and quarries’. The shooting range comment was directed against a new public range called 2A.

There was general agreement from Commissioners that the public needed to provide input.

October 2014: County staff recommended getting community input, implementing open use zoning, and begin work on a comprehensive land-use plan. 

February 2015: Commissioners Howard and Hales moved to delay county meetings on zoning and ‘present an alternative direction’. Crawford, Hales, and Howard voted to delay meetings and ignore the planning commission recommendation. Cross and Petty disagreed.

April - November 2015: Numerous petitions against zoning presented to the Commission -  by the Chatham Co Livestock Association, Chatham Co Farm Bureau and many others. Many citizens spoke in favor of zoning.

October 2015: Noise ordinance discussed - not directed at Range 2A (of course not).

November 2015: The County Planning board (with several new members appointed by Crawford, Hales and Howard) presented 5 options to Commission (by a 6 to 5 vote of planning board members). Those were:

• Option 1: Leave Chatham County Unzoned
• Option 2: Apply Open Use Zoning to Unzoned Chatham County
• Option 3: Apply Traditional Zoning to Unzoned Chatham County
• Hybrid Option 4: Zoning in Some Areas of Unzoned Chatham County, and Open Use Zoning in Others
• Hybrid Option 5: Combination of Zoning, Open Use Zoning, and Unzoned Areas
• Option 6: High-Impact Use Ordinance

At the commissioner’s meeting was presented a Minority Report stating the zoning options as presented did not go far enough to control development in the county. After much discussion Commissioners Cross and Petty moved to accept the Planning Board’s recommendation to not zone west of 87. That motion failed on 3-2 vote. Commissioners Hales and Howard then moved to extend zoning to all portions of the county. The motion passed on a 3-2 vote, with Hales, Howard and Crawford voting in favor; Cross and Petty voting against.

December 2015: Commissioners voted for R1 and R5 zoning during the 2:00 PM work session, NOT the normal 6:00 PM session.

March 2016: Commissioners set a date of June 6 for a public hearing on zoning.

No County Commission meeting minutes have been posted on the County’s website since the March 2016 meeting.

Bottom Line

I am not necessarily against zoning. Unconstrained growth is a problem - look at Chapel Hill and Cary as examples of that. We need a method to maintain the charming nature of Chatham County. I am against the one-size-fits-all, my-way-or-the-highway approach of certain Commissioners, and I am against their ignoring public input from those impacted by zoning.

  

How can anyone support Hillary?

Remember the name 'Bryan Pagliano'.

Let's refresh everyone's memory.

Hillary Clinton ran an email server out of a bathroom closet at her home in New York. On this non-government computer she conducted some of the most sensitive business in the State Department. Thousands of classified messages have been found in her email archives. Thousands more have been deleted because they were 'personal' - probably only dealing with graft and corruption in the Clinton Foundation.

Pagliano was Hillary Clinton's computer specialist.

Yesterday he was in a legal deposition to answer questions. Despite the fact he's been given immunity from prosecution, he refused to answer questions and invoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination over 125 times during the deposition.

This is not a man with nothing to hide.

What is he hiding about the presumptive Democrat nominee for President?

Long-Range Comprehensive Plan

Long-Range Comprehensive Plan for Chatham County

Are you aware that Chatham County is developing a long-range comprehensive plan? That the Commissioners are spending $300,000 tax dollars on consultants to help develop the plan? And that the plan will impact you, your children and grandchildren?

Have you seen the newspaper ads and social media posts telling the public about this Chatham County Comprehensive Plan, along with the mailings and billboards? Neither have I.

The County started this process a few months ago, and the Phase 1 plan was briefed to and approved by the Commissioners at their April meeting. The Plan will cover major aspects of living in Chatham County - Land use, Health, Economic Development, Agriculture, Environment, Parks and Rec, Transportation, Housing, and Utilities. Important things for our quality of life.

In theory, all the information about the Plan thus far is available on the County's website at http://www.chathamnc.org/index.aspx?page=1860. Sometimes it shows up on the front website page, sometimes it does not. Look under Comprehensive Plan Info under quick links and you will see what is available so far. Past meeting information agendas and other information should be posted, but is not, nor are any meeting minutes.

However, you have an opportunity to make your voice and opinions heard. The County is holding three public meetings in June - on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd at elementary schools - look on the County's website for times and places. If you want a voice in how your future in Chatham is being determined, ATTEND A MEETING! Unless YOU speak up the Consultants will claim that the Plan as finally developed is supported by a majority of the County when in fact it will be developed by a very tiny minority of Commission-appointed committee members.

And, as always, if you do or if you don't like what you see or hear, elections are in November.

Commissioner's meeting on Zoning

Chatham Co Commissioner's Meeting on Zoning

I attended the Chatham County Commissioner's Meeting on Monday evening. The Historic County Courthouse courtroom was filled to over capacity, with another 100 or so individuals listening on speakers downstairs.

What was the reason for such a crowd? Ostensibly to provide input to the Commissioners on the County's plan to zone all of Chatham County. Once the meeting started each speaker had three minutes to present comments to the Board.

Of those speakers where I could determine a strong position one way or the other, about 15 spoke against zoning, while about 10 spoke for zoning. Comments against zoning seemed to center around the lack of a need for zoning, lack of clarity around zoning rules and requirements, bad timing for zoning now, increased personal costs, creating conditions for uncontrolled growth, and the lack of concern by the Commissioners to listen to those citizens who will be subject to zoning. Several commenters stated that the Commission was going against the recommendations of its own Planning Board. Comments for zoning centered around a perceived need to protect farmland and Chatham County's rural character.

Most interesting to me was the discussion between the Commissioners after the public comment period. Commissioner Walter Petty summed up the concerns of many in the audience: that the people in the County were not made fully aware of zoning implications, that concerns could be better handled by regulations, and that County Commissioners, if they chose to, could continue discussions to find a common ground between pro- and con-zoning sides. Commissioner Howard said she found little value in hearing opinions from  Chatham Co citizens since she, and the Board, had already made the decision to zone. Commissioner Hales agreed that she was moving forward with zoning.

So, what value was this zoning meeting? It seems very little. The citizens who spoke against a rapid rush to zoning apparently have no valued opinions, and the Commissioners are going to do what they are going to do. I'm not against zoning as a concept. I just don't think the current Board has the best interests in mind of those citizens who are opposed to yet another level of government intrusion and oversight into private property and into individual decisions, nor does it wish any further public discussion about their zoning decision.

What should a concerned citizen do? Bone up on what has already been discussed, on the positions and promises of our politicians, and on the actions of our county committees. There are three long-range planning meetings scheduled: June 21 at Horton Middle School, June 22 at Margaret Pillard Middle School, and June 23 at J.S. Waters Elementary School  (each from 5:00 - 7:00 PM). Attend one and provide your opinions. The next Planning Board Meeting is set for July 12: show up and give your thoughts. Attend the next Commissioner's meeting on July 18 and continue to express concerns about the process and lack of empathy for citizen input. And, finally, you have the power to make changes. Vote in November.