Orange County, NC adopted its first comprehensive land use plan in 1981. The three main goals of this twenty year plan were protecting watersheds, directing commercial and industrial development to strategic transportation intersections, and coordinating County zoning designations. Between 1986 and 1999, the plan was amended seven times to address joint planning areas, parks and recreation, economic development, affordable housing, transportation, services and facilities, and historic preservation.

In 2002, the county commissioners established the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Committee to facilitate the process of updating the Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan. In 2003, the County Planning Department began preparing recommendations for the update, which were presented at two public hearings in November of 2005 and February of 2006.

The main recommendation was to downzone all residential properties within the county’s jurisdiction not designated as “urban,” “urbanizing,” and “transitional.” However, no recommendations for zoning changes were provided for properties that were not in the rural agricultural areas, nor were recommendations given for non-residential land uses.

In March of 2006, the County Commissioners tabled these recommendations and charged the Orange County Planning Board with the task of recommending how to update the Comprehensive Plan. The Village Project supported the County Commissioners decision in this regard. We believed the initial recommendation to downzone rural residential properties was too limited to address the complicated and inter-related set of factors to be addressed in an update of the Comprehensive Plan. In addition, The Village Project did not support the strategy of updating the Land Use Element without updating the other elements simultaneously.

Thus, The Village Project supports the update process recommended by the Planning Board and approved by the County Commissioners in October 2006 because it: