Supervisors' notebook

The following notes are from the Jan. 10 Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, the first regular meeting of 2012.

Extension of Skydive Orange lease
The board of supervisors voted 4-0 to extend the lease Orange County Airport holds with Skydive Orange, but only after a conversation on the condition of trailers on the business' property. The approved lease runs for three years with the option to renew and specifies that Skydive Orange can have no more than 12 fenced in trailers on the property.
District 1 Supervisor Shannon Abbs, who abstained from voting, raised a concern about the trailers, stating that they must be operational to be considered trailers and were otherwise an eyesore if they could not be moved. The board had asked Skydive Orange to repair fencing around the trailers, which the business said had been completed prior to the meeting.
"We don't allow citizens to keep junk cars on their property so we shouldn't allow this," said Abbs about her reservations about the lease. "It looks like an old shanty town over there."
Abbs said that if the trailers could not be moved then they had become de facto permanent structures. Gigi Rucker of Skydive Orange said the fencing had been repaired to the board's specifications, but that additional work could be done. Rucker also said that all of the trailers could be made operational with minor repairs.
The other board members shared Abbs' concern about the aesthetics of the airport, but not so far as to hold up the lease extension.
District 3 Supervisor Teel Goodwin said the situation wasn't comparable to the county's junk car ordinance prohibiting landowners from possessing an excessive number of inoperable vehicles.
"This is a different animal than someone owning four broken-down trucks on their property," said Goodwin. "This is a business that brings revenue into the county."

Homeless disappear
While delivering an update on the future of the empty former Sheltering Arms building, county administrator Julie Jordan told the board that the residents that previously occupied the shelter have apparently left the area.
"The homeless in Orange seem to have disappeared," said Jordan, citing conversations with department of social services director Bob Lingo. "Once the shelter ceased to exist, there were soon no constituents in the region to serve.
The board has still not engaged in an in-depth discussion on the ultimate future of the shelter building, but Jordan said some organizations have expressed interest in taking it over. Through several tours of the inside, Jordan said the shelter is in desperate need of renovation and recommended building inspector Bill Schwind and possibly a structural engineer assess the soundness of the building.

BZA legal counsel
At the December 2011 board of supervisors meeting, board of zoning appeals chairman Roger Gibson asked for independent legal counsel during the review of George Carter and Village Motorsports' appeal of a number of zoning administration determinations. The board granted the request and at last Tuesday's meeting announced that the BZA's attorney would be Rick Wilkinson. The BZA's legal counsel is capped at $2,000 in expenses and will only advise the body on the Carter situation.