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Business Meeting

Orange County · Board of County Commissioners
Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Regular meeting Budget and appropriationsSchools and educationTax rate and revaluationEnvironment and sustainabilityFarmland and open spaceHealth and human servicesLand conversion and large developmentPolice and public safetyRezoningSolid waste and recyclingZoning text amendmentBroadband and technologyCivil rights and nondiscriminationContracts and procurementDrugs and addictionFaith and cultural communitiesIntergovernmental agreementsParks and recreationSubdivision and site plansTransit

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 4Proclamations, Resolutions and Special Presentations Approved unanimously
  2. Approved 5.cUDO Text Amendments - Telecommunication Facilities Standards Approved unanimously
  3. Approved 5.dUDO Text Amendments - Solar Array Standards Approved unanimously
  4. Approved 6.aApproval of Solid Waste Master Plan - Path to Zero Waste Approved unanimously

Another 1 item passed on the consent agenda, which is a single motion covering routine business. See the list.

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

The commissioners' business meeting two days before the budget is settled. Three public hearings on land use: a county-initiated rezoning of the 69.58 acres Cedar Ridge High School sits on, an applicant's request to put a 41-building self-storage development on 11.22 acres at Rougemont, and the first rewrite of the county's telecommunications facility standards since the development ordinance was adopted in 2011. Also on the agenda: the Solid Waste Master Plan aiming at zero waste by 2045, a solar array text amendment, and a twenty-one item consent agenda.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Everything on the agenda passed unanimously, and the substance was in what residents came to say and in two long-overdue ordinance rewrites.

Three land use hearings were decided. The county rezoned the parcel holding Cedar Ridge High School, with one speaker signed up. It approved an 11.22-acre conditional rezoning at 9900 NC 57 in Rougemont for a self-storage business of 41 buildings including an office, built in three phases, with nobody signed up to speak; a condition requires the existing raceway on the site to be decommissioned, though staff confirmed the paved track does not have to come up to meet impervious surface limits. And it adopted the first update to telecommunications facility standards since the ordinance took effect in 2011, written with outside legal help and aimed at keeping new facilities out of residential areas.

The solar array standards were rewritten too, for the first time since 2012, to carry out a Climate Action Plan strategy calling for expedited permitting of solar projects across the county. The Solid Waste Master Plan was approved, setting a course to zero waste by 2045. Discussion of it turned practical: a glass separation programme at bars and restaurants pays for itself because separated glass can be hauled for revenue, and an organics collection pilot starts next fiscal year with containers outside restaurants and farmers' markets, moved around to find the spots that work.

Public comment was dominated by agritourism. Residents of the Maple View area described a standing-room meeting of about 300 people against improvement requests from Union Grove Farm, and argued that farm-exempt properties escape zoning and inspection while the loose statutory definition of agritourism lets commercial operations into the rural buffer. A neighbour cited a recent party of 2,500 people in the rural buffer and a protected watershed. They said they would be back at the next several meetings and are working with legislators on the definition.

Commissioners used their own comment period on the revaluation and the budget. One said commercial apartment properties were valued below recent sale prices while single family homes rose much more, called that a vertical equity problem, and argued that getting valuations right matters more than lowering the rate. Another said state law does not allow a graduated rate, so she cannot take up the offer of residents who have written saying they would willingly pay more. The vice-chair described this as a perfect storm of federal and state cuts arriving with the revaluation, and noted the manager's budget does not fully fund the schools' continuation budget. One commissioner reported from the Board of Health that local child fatality teams no longer review every child death but only those in nine categories, and that perinatal deaths, one of the largest subsets, were removed from the list.

One consent item, a preliminary plat for Eden View Acres, was pulled at the start of the meeting and referred to the Planning Board. The board adjourned at 9:17 PM.

How the votes went

Every vote unanimous, with Commissioner McKee absent. That covers three public hearings and their statements of consistency, the solar and telecommunications text amendments, the Solid Waste Master Plan, and a consent agenda of twenty-one items.

From the published minutes.

Who spoke

5 members of the public spoke.

  1. A resident asked the board to give the sheriff's office budget special scrutiny, noting new hires and vehicle upgrades in recent years and that the county already has seven law enforcement jurisdictions. She said that in sixteen years teaching eleven-, twelve- and thirteen-year-olds she never needed a law enforcement officer, and that school resource officers are not necessary in school buildings.
  2. A former county commissioner, once the board's liaison to the agricultural preservation board, opposed deferring conservation easement funding for ten years, saying it would be forgotten. She said farmland that becomes houses never comes back, that a 2023 survey found 70 percent of respondents did not farm as their main income, and that there is real demand for easements which farmers need to be t…
  3. A resident from the Maple View community described a standing-room meeting of about 300 neighbours opposed to agritourism improvement requests from Union Grove Farm. She said bona fide farm owners are using the agritourism statute to run large commercial operations in places they would otherwise never be permitted, that farm-exempt properties escape zoning and most inspections, and that this raise…
  4. A thirty-year resident of Bingham Township added that a recent party in northern Orange County drew 2,500 people, in the rural buffer and in a protected watershed.
  5. A resident who had helped a neighbour appeal her property valuation thanked the board for taking the revaluation seriously and said each neighbourhood's situation needs addressing.

Five residents spoke, three of them on land use. Two raised agritourism at Union Grove Farm in the Maple View area, describing a 300-person neighbourhood meeting and a 2,500-person party in the rural buffer and a protected watershed, and said the state's agritourism definition lets commercial operations into places zoning would otherwise keep them out of. A former commissioner argued against deferring conservation easement money. One resident asked for scrutiny of the sheriff's budget and questioned school resource officers. One spoke about property revaluation appeals.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.

Speaking at this meeting

Orange County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Jump to an item (13 on this agenda)
  1. 1Additions or Changes to the Agenda
  2. 2Public Comments
  3. 3Announcements, Petitions, and Comments by Board Members
  4. 4Proclamations, Resolutions and Special Presentations
  5. 5.aZoning Atlas Amendment - 1125 New Grady Brown School Road
  6. 5.bZoning Atlas Amendment - 9900 NC 57, Rougemont
  7. 5.cUDO Text Amendments - Telecommunication Facilities Standards
  8. 5.dUDO Text Amendments - Solar Array Standards
  9. 6.aApproval of Solid Waste Master Plan - Path to Zero Waste
  10. 8Consent Agenda
  11. 9County Manager's Report
  12. 12Information Items
  13. 14Adjournment

Agenda items (13)

Public hearing · 4Staff or committee report · 3Procedural · 2Discussion item · 1Proclamation or recognition · 1Resolution · 1Consent agenda · 1
  1. 1 Additions or Changes to the Agenda
    Procedural Subdivision and site plans
    Consent item 8-k, a preliminary plat application for Eden View Acres, was removed and referred to the Planning Board.
    Approved unanimously
  2. 2 Public Comments
    Discussion item Budget and appropriationsFarmland and open spaceLand conversion and large developmentPolice and public safetySchools and educationTax rate and revaluation
    Five speakers: three on land use, one on the sheriff's budget and school resource officers, one on property revaluation appeals. Agritourism at Union Grove Farm and the loss of farmland to development drew the most.
  3. 3 Announcements, Petitions, and Comments by Board Members
    Staff or committee report Budget and appropriationsDrugs and addictionHealth and human servicesSchools and educationTax rate and revaluation
    Reports from the Board of Health, including narrowed child fatality review rules that drop perinatal deaths, and an opioid settlement allocation. Extended comment on the revaluation and vertical equity between commercial and residential property, and on a budget shaped by federal and state cuts arriving in the same year. UNC's representative to the Visitors Bureau reported the university is committed to the Homestead Road day centre and is planning to grow undergraduate enrolment by 5,000 over ten years.
  4. 4 Proclamations, Resolutions and Special Presentations
    Proclamation or recognition Civil rights and nondiscriminationFaith and cultural communities
    A proclamation naming 19 June 2025 as Juneteenth Freedom Day in Orange County, and recognition of the 2025 Orange County Government Academy graduates.
    Approved unanimously
  5. 5.a Zoning Atlas Amendment - 1125 New Grady Brown School Road
    Public hearing RezoningSchools and education
    A county-initiated conditional rezoning of about 69.58 acres in Hillsborough Township. The county owns the parcel, which holds Cedar Ridge High School. One person signed up to speak.
    Statement of consistency and rezoning ordinance approved unanimously
    • 1125 New Grady Brown School Rd · no matching parcel on file
    • Pin 9863-28-1858 · Orange County · assessed $67,092,000
  6. 5.b Zoning Atlas Amendment - 9900 NC 57, Rougemont
    Public hearing Land conversion and large developmentRezoning
    An applicant-initiated conditional rezoning of about 11.22 acres out of an 80.52-acre parcel in Little River Township, for a self-storage business of 41 buildings including an office, built in three phases. A condition requires the existing raceway to be decommissioned; staff confirmed the paved track does not have to be removed to meet impervious surface limits. Nobody signed up to speak.
    Statement of consistency and rezoning approved unanimously
  7. 5.c UDO Text Amendments - Telecommunication Facilities Standards
    Public hearing Broadband and technologyZoning text amendment
    The first update to the county's telecommunications standards since the Unified Development Ordinance was adopted on 5 April 2011. It rewrites the table of permitted uses, the telecommunications standards and the definitions, and creates a new section on nonconforming wireless facilities, with the aim of protecting residential areas, minimising new facilities and pushing new ones toward non-residential land. Drafted with outside legal counsel.
    Approved unanimously
  8. 5.d UDO Text Amendments - Solar Array Standards
    Public hearing Environment and sustainabilityZoning text amendment
    The first update to the county's solar array standards since November 2012, written with the sustainability office. It carries out a Climate Action Plan strategy calling for expedited permitting of all new solar projects countywide, and follows the county's SolSmart designation.
    Approved unanimously
  9. 6.a Approval of Solid Waste Master Plan - Path to Zero Waste
    Resolution Budget and appropriationsEnvironment and sustainabilitySolid waste and recycling
    A plan to reach zero waste by 2045, revised on the board's February 2024 guidance and integrated with the climate action plans of the county, the municipalities, the university and its health system. Discussion covered a glass separation programme at bars and restaurants that pays for itself, and an organics collection pilot starting next fiscal year with containers at restaurants and farmers' markets.
    Approved unanimously
  1. 9 County Manager's Report
    Staff or committee report Budget and appropriationsTax rate and revaluation
    The upcoming schedule, including the 5 June budget work session where the board would decide amendments and tax rates, and comments on tax appraisals.
  2. 12 Information Items
    Staff or committee report Health and human servicesTax rate and revaluation
    Tax collector's reports on collections, enforced collections and foreclosures, the tax assessor's releases and refunds under $100, the April child care subsidy report, and the follow-up actions list from 20 May.
  3. 14 Adjournment
    Procedural
    Adjourned 9:17 PM

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