County schedules Planning Board ordinance amendments for Planning Board review; changes add gender-neutral language and align term dates with advisory policy

Chatham County began a legislative public hearing July 21 on revisions to the county’s ordinance establishing the Planning Board. The revisions were proposed by the Planning Board and augmented by staff to align the ordinance with the county’s recently adopted Advisory Committee policy.

What staff presented Planner Hunter Glenn told commissioners the Planning Board’s suggested revisions included language modernization (for example, gender-neutral phrasing), clarification of duties and a recommendation that the Planning Board focus on providing recommendations rather than making final determinations on certain matters. County staff then added changes to align term timing and quorum rules with the new Advisory Committee policy adopted by the board in June.

Key changes proposed - Term timing: New language would set members’ terms to start March 1 and end Feb. 28 after a three-year cycle, matching the advisory policy’s approach to staggered terms. - Statutory alignment: The ordinance text has been updated to use current state statutory references (session law language under G.S. 160D) instead of older citations. - Annual reporting: The Planning Board added language encouraging an annual report to the board of commissioners when appropriate; staff noted the board had not consistently produced such reports in recent years. - Quorum and meeting cadence: The draft clarifies that the Planning Board may not be required to meet every month but should have flexibility to schedule regular meetings and sets quorum as a majority of members.

Next steps The item will return to the Planning Board for review of staff’s additions and to allow the Planning Board to propose any further edits. The public hearing remains open and the Planning Board will consider the revisions at its upcoming meeting before the matter returns to commissioners.