AGENDA #10

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

FROM:            W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

SUBJECT:      Response to Petition Requesting Expansion of Occupant Notification Procedures

DATE:            January 9, 2006

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to respond to a petition from a Council Member requesting options for the expansion of occupant notification procedures in the case of a Special Use Permit application.

We provide a summary of the current policy for occupant notification, and a recommendation for an expanded notification procedure.

BACKGROUND

On February 28, 2005, the Council held a Public Hearing to discuss the Wilson Assemblage application for a Special Use Permit.  The application proposed a mixed-use development on land located west and adjacent to the Dobbins Hill apartment complex, an affordable rental development.  To meet the required affordable housing component of the application, the Wilson Assemblage developer proposed to construct 32 additional affordable rental units in the Dobbins Hill development.

During the February 28, 2005 Council meeting, a resident from the Dobbins Hill development expressed concern about not receiving a notice of the meeting and requested that the residents be added to the mailing list for any future notifications.  Town staff responded to the request and provided notification to the Dobbins Hill residents.

During the March 7, 2005, Council meeting, Council Member Kleinschmidt submitted an oral petition requesting the expansion of occupant notification procedures to include renters as well as property owners for all Special Use Permit applications.  The petition requested that staff provide options to the Council about how expansion of notification could be achieved.

DISCUSSION

Current notification procedures are based on North Carolina State Law and Town policy. The notification procedures mandated by State Law pertain solely to rezoning applications and requires the following:

• Posting of a notice of the rezoning hearing on the site; and
• Notification of adjacent property owners.

In addition to rezoning applications, Town policy expands the scope of the State Law requirements to include a posted notice of applications for a Major Subdivision, Special Use Permit, Master Land Use Plan, Minor Subdivisions and Site Plan Reviews.  The posted notice is the size of a standard real estate sign and includes the Town website address and the Planning Department phone number.  To enhance this method of notification, Town staff is currently designing and evaluating the cost of an improved notification sign that will be more durable and less likely to be vandalized.  We intend to use the improved notification sign for Major Subdivision, Special Use Permit and Master Land Use Plan applications. 

Town policy is also broader than State Law in that it requires property owner notification by mail.  Applicants are asked to provide stamped, pre-addressed envelopes for all property owners located within 100 feet of the subject property of any Northside Floor Area Expansion or Historic District Certificate of Appropriateness application; within 500 feet of the subject property for a Resource Conservation District Encroachment or Minor Subdivision application; and within 1,000 feet of the subject property for all other applications.  Other applications include: Site Plan Review, Final Plan, Major Subdivision, Concept Plan, Master Land Use Plan, Special Use Permit, Resource Conservation District/Watershed Protection Variance, Variance/Appeal, or Zoning Atlas Amendment. 

Property Owner Notification Chart

Type of Application	Notification Boundary
· Northside Floor Area Expansions	100 ft
· Historic District Certificate of Appropriateness	100 ft
· Resource Conservation District Encroachment	500 ft
· Minor Subdivision	500 ft
· Site Plan Review	1,000 ft
· Final Plan, Impending Development	1,000 ft
· Major Subdivision	1,000 ft
· Master Land Use Plan	1,000 ft
· Concept Plan	1,000 ft
· Special Use Permit	1,000 ft
· Resource Conservation District/Watershed Protection Variance	1,000 ft
· Variance/Appeal	1,000 ft
· Zoning Atlas Amendment	1,000 ft

To obtain the address list within the specified notification boundary, applicants are requested to contact the Orange/Durham County Land Records Offices which provide addresses and mailing labels for minimal cost. 

At present, the only list that can be generated from the Orange County Land Records Office is comprised solely of property owners and does not include rental addresses.  We understand the reason for this is a lack of complete information in the Master Orange Address Database that the Orange County Land Records Office uses for its Geographic Information System. 

The address database was originally created from County tax records because they were the largest source of property information available. Therefore, some of the important data in the records is based on the property owner rather than the actual property.  In particular, the tax record for a parcel of land contains the address of where its owner actually lives and receives mail, rather than where the parcel is located.  An address list based on this information does not provide the address of a parcel if the owner does not live on it, such as in the case of landlords and renters.

Supplementing the County database has been part of an overall effort called the Orange County Address Verification Project.  The goal of the project is to have complete information for every parcel of land, including the name and address of the owner, the street address of the parcel, a Parcel Identification Number and a Township Map Block Lot Number.  If a parcel of land has an apartment building or multi-family dwelling, the database will be updated to include the address of each unit.  Town staff is currently assisting with the Chapel Hill portion of the project and expects the information to be available by the end of 2006.

As part of the Address Verification Project, the Orange County Land Records office plans to transition to a completely web-based system where the address lists will be available through the GIS website instead of through their office.  Once the project is complete, the Orange County Land Records website will provide applicants with a list of addresses for all parcels located in a notification boundary.  In the case of an apartment building or multi-family dwelling, the list will have the address of each unit.  The list will also include addresses of property owners who do not live on the parcels, i.e., landlords.  We believe that the completion of this project will successfully expand the occupant notification procedures to include renters.

For the Durham County portion of Chapel Hill, a complete address listing is not currently available and will not be improved through the Orange County Address Verification Project.  For major development proposed in this portion of the Town, an expansion of notification procedures to include renters will require that a developer purchase an address list from a private company.  We do not have specific information about the cost or accuracy of these types of services.

Purchasing an address list from a private company will include all occupants in a notification radius based on their address instead of their name.  The problem with this method of notification is that it will not include property owners, such as landlords, if they live on the parcel included in the notification radius.  Therefore, to effectively reach all renters and property owners in a notification radius, the applicant will have to purchase an address list from a private company and from the County Land Records Office.  Using both lists will increase the cost to the applicant and lead to numerous duplicate mailings.  At this time, we do not know a way to expand the notification procedures without this duplication of notice.

RECOMMENDATION

We recommend that the Council accept the Orange County Address Verification Project as a means to expand occupant notification procedures.  Once this new Orange County system is in place, we intend to expand Town development application submittal requirements to include, for Major Subdivision, Special Use Permit and Master Land Use Plan applications.  Applicants will be required to provide stamped, pre-addressed envelopes for all occupant addresses within 1,000 feet of the application in addition to stamped, pre-addressed envelopes for property owners.  Although this new occupancy notification procedure will be fairly inexpensive for the Orange County portion of Chapel Hill, developers in the Durham County portion of the Town will be required to contract privately with a mailing list company.