The Moore County Board of Commissioners voted to further review staff recommended amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) at is Nov. 15 regular meeting.
The Board approved statutory amendments to the UDO to comply with state laws.
Planning Director Debra Ensminger read the list of staff recommendations to the UDO, which may be read here, that would give developers less oversight in gaining preliminary approval to construct new neighborhoods.
During the public hearing, the terms nefarious, arbitrary and capricious were spoken in relation to the UDO staff recommendations.
Moore Family Farms’ Policy Analyst Nicholas LaSala said he worked frantically to analyze the UDO recommendations since its limited time release to the public in September.
LaSala pleaded to commissioners not to adopt staff recommendations. As he quoted the County’s Land Use Plan, he said staff recommendations were not consistent with the Land Use Plan, including the limited time release of the UDO recommendations.
Vass resident Angela Vacek asked commissioners to form a steering committee and to not pass staff recommendations.
Steven Athens of Lobelia holds a doctoral degree in education and said people moved here for personable communities, and growth threatened that quality. He said to make informed decisions, and the commissioners needed to have all of the information and that means well-written plans. Those plans could also be used as court documents when development plans fail.
Under the staff recommendations in 4.a. of the UDO Presentation, LaSala said there was grave concern about voiding the preliminary plat as the key decision-making document for the commissioners.
Staff recommended the removal of the landowner’s name on preliminary plats presented to commissioners for approval but including the landowner’s name on final plats. Because it is inconsistent with the Land Use Plan, which states property owners have all the property rights, not developers and applicants.
Matthew Parker, an attorney, farmer, and member of Moore Family Farms, said removing preliminary plat approval from commissioners would also remove the input from the public.
LaSala cross-referenced UDO staff recommendations and the existing UDO and said there were three changes not listed in the presented staff report.
In addition, LaSala said language changes, such as the addition of “estimate,” allowed questionable practices of averaging during preliminary plat reviews, and “estimate” is not an engineering term. Estimates can be a range of percentages, leaving no discernment to define major and minor allowances.
Chapter 12 Conditional Use Permits staff recommendation changes were a grave concern, according to LaSala. He said the outcome would be that one single commissioner could, for example, decide a subdivision was not pet friendly.
Parker presented information against the staff recommendations as they related to the summer’s hearings on the Union Church Road subdivision.
In an email to Sandhills Sentinel, Parker shared, “For example, the staff (meaning Debra Ensminger and others) recommended that the stormwater management plan and proposed topography be moved from the preliminary plat stage to the final plat stage. During the Union Church Road subdivision hearings, Ms. Ensminger testified under oath that she had never sent a plat back to the commissioners once it passed the preliminary plat stage. Therefore, the effect of that staff recommended change would be to remove entirely the stormwater management plan from the oversight of the Board of Commissioners.
“That’s a bad idea because the only remaining Moore County oversight (once the Board’s oversight is eliminated) is staff oversight. However, in the Union Church Road subdivision approval process this summer, Ms. Ensminger and her staff had improperly approved the preliminary plat prior to the Board of Commissioners’ hearings despite roughly a dozen places where the preliminary plat did not conform to the current UDO requirements. If the staff can’t properly review the preliminary plat, how can they be trusted to review the final plat? That’s why oversight from the Board of Commissioners is needed.
“We would like to see the Board of Commissioners establish a Citizen Steering Committee to review the proposed staff recommended changes and recommend a path forward. Some of the staff recommended changes may be good, but some are definitely bad. Our system of government is built on checks and balances, and the current Land Use Plan expresses a goal of citizen participation throughout the process. We think that a Citizen Steering Committee would be a great counterbalance against ill-advised staff recommendations. That committee could work through the proposed changes systematically and help separate the wheat from the chaff.”
Parker said a contingency agreement with engineers is a solution for preliminary plat plans that are not approved.
Terry Bryant, a native living in Carthage, spoke about the dam failure at Woodlake as being an example of the lack of engineering oversight.
“I really hope that the Commissioners stand up a Citizen Steering Committee to review both the Land Use Plan and the UDO, and I would be honored to participate in that!” Parker said in his email statement.
Attorney Michael Parker of Moore Family Farms said it would be nefarious to remove public input, and there is a solution to fix this for everyone.
Carol Parker of Moore Family Farms said the process is skewed, and the community is not allowed to speak or ask questions. She said finding experts for testimonies on planning board hearings was difficult because people were threatened with job termination.
Carol Parker asked the Board not to remove impervious surfaces, stormwater runoff, and topography from preliminary plats. She said removing those things would jeopardize decision-making, which ultimately jeopardizes public safety.
Commissioners said they will let the new incoming Board to review UDO staff recommendations.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel Journalist Stephanie M. Sellers. Contact her at [email protected].
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