(A) Establishment of Development Review Board.
(1) This Board shall be officially known and cited as the Harnett County, North Carolina Development Review Board, although it may be referred to hereafter as the “DRB”, “this Board”, or the “Development Review Board”.
(2) The Development Review Board is enacted under powers granted by the state.
(B) Purpose and intent. The purpose and intent of the DRB is:
(1) To protect the character and the stability of the residential, business, and manufacturing areas within the county and to promote the orderly and beneficial development of such areas;
(2) To prevent the overcrowding of land and undue concentration of structures, so far as possible and appropriate in each district, and to provide adequate light, air, privacy, and convenience of access to property;
(3) To encourage innovative and quality new residential development so that growing demand for housing may be met by greater variety in type, design, and layout of dwellings and by conservation and more efficient use of open space ancillary to such dwellings;
(4) Encourage pedestrian and vehicular connections between residential neighborhoods and between residential neighborhoods and nearby employment centers, shopping, and community services, such as parks and schools;
(5) To encourage quality, nonresidential development that preserves and protects the character of the community, including its natural landscape, and that minimizes objectionable noise, glare, odor, traffic, and other impacts of such development especially when adjacent to residential uses;
(6) To encourage quality, single-family, and multifamily residential development that preserves and protects the character of the community, including its natural landscape, and that minimizes objectionable noise, glare, odor, traffic, and other impacts of such development especially when adjacent to residential uses; and
(7) To provide for a continuing, coordinated, and comprehensive review of the technical aspects of this chapter, and for the approval of certain technical aspects of development proposals.
(C) Membership.
(1) General membership.
(a) The Development Review Board shall consist of staff representatives from the following county departments:
1. Planning Department;
2. Public Health;
3. Public Utilities;
4. Fire Code Official’s Office;
5. E-911 Addressing Department; and/or
6. County Engineer.
(b) The general membership shall be responsible for reviewing, commenting, and voting on all technical aspects of applications for development submitted to the Board, taking into consideration the comments of advisory members, relevant to their area of expertise. In the absence of a DRB member, the completed staff report from the member’s department shall serve as the decision for such department.
(c) To perform any other related duties that the county’s Board of Commissioners may direct.
(2) Advisory membership.
(a) Depending upon the specific aspects of a development proposal, additional members of the DRB include representatives of the following agencies:
1. NCDOT;
2. North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources;
3. Fort Bragg, Master Planning Division;
4. Parks and Recreation;
5. GIS/Land Records Department;
6. County Board of Education;
7. Private Utility Company(ies);
8. County Finance Department; and/or
9. County Legal Services.
(b) The advisory members shall review and comment on all technical aspects of applications for development submitted to the Board relevant to their area of expertise.
(c) The advisory members shall not vote on application appearing before the Development Review Board.
(3) Chairperson. The Chairperson of the DRB shall be a general member. The Board shall select an alternate Chairperson in the absence of the serving Chairperson. All authority granted to the Chairperson shall be carried over to the alternate Chairperson.
(D) Rules of procedure.
(1) Meetings.
(a) The Development Review Board shall establish standard meeting dates, times, and a standard meeting location. The schedule for each calendar year shall be published in the county’s Planning Office and be available for public access.
(b) The Chairperson may call for additional meetings or may cancel any meeting of the Development Review Board assuming that an announcement is made at the previous DRB meeting and good faith attempts are made to notify those who shall be present.
(2) Records. The DRB shall keep minutes of its proceedings, showing the vote of each member upon each question, or if absent or failing to vote, indicating such fact, and shall also keep records of its hearings and other official actions.
(3) Review and approval.
(a) Complete applications or revisions shall be submitted to the Development Review Board via the county’s Planning Department.
1. The county’s Planning Department shall establish criteria for a complete application. Any change in requirements shall be posted in the Planning Department office no less than 30 days prior to enforcement.
2. The county’s Planning Department shall establish standard deadlines for complete applications. This information shall be made available to the public and shall be posted in the Planning Department office.
(b) When an application first appears before the Board, the petitioner, or his or her duly appointed representative, shall make a brief presentation about the development proposal and provide time for the general and advisory members to ask questions and state concerns.
(c) The petitioner shall be granted the opportunity to revise the application based upon the Development Review Board’s comments. The petitioner is encouraged to contact each member’s agency directly in regards to comments or concerns specifically relating to that members area of expertise.
(d) Once all comments have been exhausted, each general member shall vote to either approve, approve with conditions, hold, or deny an application.
1. Approve. To approve an application means to accept the development entirely as presented on the application.
2. Approve with conditions. To approve with conditions means to accept the development overall, but require minor changes between the time of approval and construction.
3. Hold. To hold an application means to find that the application does not conform to a number of existing regulations or development policies due to major changes that are required on the submittal. Any application placed on hold shall go through the DRB review process again once resubmittal is requested by the applicant.
4. Deny. To deny an application means to find that the application does not conform to the existing regulations or development policies, and/or the applicant is unwilling to conform to existing regulations or development policies. Any application that is denied shall go through the DRB review process as a new application once resubmittal is requested by the applicant.
(e) Any regular and special advisory members shall issue comments in writing on each development application to the Planning Department. These comments shall be forwarded on to the petitioner.
(f) The most restrictive vote that any DRB member renders shall be considered the final decision of the Board for an application.
(E) Powers and duties.
(1) Final decision-making authority. The DRB shall have final review and decision-making authority over the following types of applications and submittals:
(a) Major subdivision preliminary plans and plats;
(b) Major subdivisions final plans and plats;
(c) Neighborhood site plans;
(d) Community site plans;
(e) Regional site plans;
(f) Construction plan/drawing;
(g) Attached single-family development;
(h) Multifamily development; and
(i) Manufactured home parks.
(2) Appeals. The applicant may appeal the Development Review Board’s decision to the county’s Planning Board by following the procedures in §§ 153.300 through 153.304.
(Ord. passed 10-17-2011)