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January 30, 2005

PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE JEFFERSON COUNTY ZONING ORDINANCE

 

The Jefferson County Zoning Ordinance is probably the single most important County ordinance relative to the County’s long-term health. This ordinance affects all aspects of the community’s life including schools, traffic safety, emergency services, pollution of its air, water and land and all other basic living conditions.           The following is an alternative proposal for the County’s Zoning Ordinances.

 

There are two major flaws in the current Jefferson County Zoning Ordinances that undermine the County’s Comprehensive Plan which states: “The intent of this plan is not to recreate or recapture the past but to shape future growth in a manner that preserves the most important features of Jefferson County: the rural landscape, the natural beauty of the rivers, the rolling terrain and the strong sense of community.”

 

The first flaw is that the “Development Review System” (DRS) negates much of the Zoning Ordinance, especially as it pertains to “Rural Zone” requirements. The DRS results in subjective judgments that undermine the basic premise of the Ordinance which is to “Encourage growth and development in areas where sewer, water, schools, and other public facilities are or will soon be available in order to provide services in the most cost effective manner.” For example; the rules for the “Rural Zone” are clearly defined and housing densities have precise limits. The DRS allows these rules and limits to be exceeded by a measurement system that on the surface appears objective. The DRS measurement system of “Land Evaluation Site Assessment” (LESA), however, is not comprehensive in measuring all of the factors that will impact the surrounding community. It is, in fact, so ill-defined and/or undefined that it allows purely subjective opinions to ultimately void all of the clearly defined definitions of a “Rural Zone”. Following the “Rural Zone” rules in the Zoning Ordinances, a 100 acre lot, in theory, should have only 10 houses built on 30 acres every five years. However, using the DRS system, 100 houses can be built on those same 100 acres in one year’s time.

 

The second flaw is that the DRS system abrogates the responsibility of our elected officials, i.e., the County Commissioners. They have relinquished their decision-making authority to unpaid, non-professional volunteers and government bureaucrats. The Planning Commission (PC) and the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) consist of unpaid, non-professional volunteers with good intentions. In many cases, however, they do not have the time to adequately study all the documents that are filed before scheduled hearings. Unfortunately, the PC and BZA show a lack of prior knowledge of facts even after documents are filed 14 days in advance of hearings. The members of the PC and the BZA seem to react only to verbal presentations made at their meetings even if they were previously supplied with thorough documentation of the issues that are critical to the decision-making process. These volunteers then rely on information supplied by the County’s Zoning Department rather than on their own independent analysis. At the same time, our elected officials play absolutely no role in the decision-making process.

 

In order to cure these two flaws in the County’s Zoning Ordinance, the DRS system should be revoked and replaced by a method of amending the Zoning Ordinance only by the approval of the County Commissioners. By revoking the DRS, all areas of the County would remain zoned as they are presently. The process to change a zone could then start with the BZA where an application would be made to change the zone by showing how the County would benefit from the zoning change.  The applicant for the change and all opposing views would then be given adequate time, at least 60 days, to prepare for a public hearing and then be given adequate time to express their views and intentions at a public hearing. The factors now used to assess the change would continue to be used, such as; highways, schools, emergency services, etc., but would be expanded to include all factors that would affect the surrounding community. But, rather than try to measure these factors in an artificial numerical system, which has not worked, the BZA would simply decide that each area assessed would be either negatively or positively affected. The BZA would then deliver a report to the County Commissioners describing the various issues assessed and the opposing views, along with their findings and a recommendation to either approve or disapprove the proposed amendment.

 

The final decision would then be made by our elected officials; as it should be. Under this proposal, the PC would be abolished. The duties of the Zoning Administrator would be limited to ensuring that zoning requirements are adhered to in both new construction and already existing construction. The proposal, if adopted, would allow the County Commissioners to expand the “Residential Growth” district if they believed that it was in the best interests of the County. Any changes that would occur would be more sensitive to the wishes of the electorate since our elected officials would be the ultimate decision-making authority. It would also allow for better planning, more measured, consistent growth and enable the County’s infrastructure to grow consistently with population growth.

 

Submitted by: Edward E. Dunleavy