AGENDA #6
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to: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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from: |
J.B. Culpepper, Planning Director Ralph D. Karpinos, Town Attorney |
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subject: |
Possible Extension of Development Moratorium |
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date: |
November 19, 2007 |
Adoption of the attached resolution would call a public hearing for January 14, 2008 for the extension of the moratorium for the Northern Area. We do not recommend this action.
On May 21, 2007, the Town Council voted to enact an ordinance establishing a temporary development moratorium within the Northern Study area of Chapel Hill. The moratorium will expire on January 31, 2008. Attachment 1 is a copy of the Moratorium Ordinance enacted on May 21. Following enactment of that Ordinance, the Council-appointed Northern Area Task Force met a number of times and, on September 24, 2007, submitted its final report.
On October 8, 2007, the Council called a public hearing for November 12 to consider changes to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and amendments to the Land Use Management Ordinance Text and Zoning Atlas in response to the recommendations of the Task Force. At the conclusion of the November 12 Public Hearing, Council members requested this report in order to consider the possibility of extending the temporary moratorium beyond its January 31 termination date.
North Carolina General Statute Section 160A-381(e) stipulates the authority for enactment and extension of temporary development moratoria for municipalities in this State. Attachment 2 is a copy of that Statute.
The Statute states that in order to extend or renew a moratorium, a city must “have taken all reasonable and feasible steps proposed to be taken by the city in its ordinance establishing the moratorium to address the problems or conditions leading to the imposition of the moratorium.”
In addition, there must be “new facts and conditions” which warrant an extension of the moratorium.
Further, the ordinance renewing or extending the moratorium will need to include, at the time of adoption, the following findings and articulate what new facts or conditions warrant the extension:
(1) A clear statement of the problems or conditions necessitating the moratorium and what courses of action, alternative to a moratorium, were considered by the city and why those alternative courses of action were not deemed adequate.
(2) A clear statement of the development approvals subject to the moratorium and how a moratorium on those approvals will address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of the moratorium.
(3) An express date for termination of the moratorium and a statement setting forth why that duration is reasonably necessary to address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of the moratorium.
(4) A clear statement of the actions, and the schedule for those actions, proposed to be taken by the city during the duration of the moratorium to address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of the moratorium.
We recommend that the Council take no action on the attached resolution. We do not believe that the legally required basis for extension of this moratorium as described above and spelled out in the attached statute can be demonstrated.