Development & Land Use Change Process For: Zoning Changes, Planned Area Developments (PAD), PAD Amendments, Special Use Permits, Industrial Use Permits, Comprehensive Plan Amendments

The first step of the Development & Land Use Change Process is to schedule a Concept Review Meeting. Concept Reviews are held on Tuesdays ONLY and last 45 minutes.

To schedule a Concept Review, you must pay a fee: $200.00 for less than 5 acres or $1000.00 for 5 or more acres. The fee is NON-REFUNDABLE. When submitting your fee amount, please include the Tax Parcel Assessor Number (xxx-xx-xxx), current zoning of the property and the request being made (ie. rezoning, SUP, IUP, etc.). You may either mail in your request and fee or you may bring it to the Florence office.

Concept Review is an informal meeting with the staff from Planning, Public Works, Building Safety, Air Quality and Environmental Health. Once you go over your plan with the staff, they may give you the application you will need and any further instructions necessary.

When you have completed the application and returned it with all required documents, the Planning staff will review the information. If the application is complete, your request will be assigned a case number and placed on the next available agenda for the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The Commission holds public meetings in which anyone from the public may attend and speak to support or oppose a request. You or your representative will make a formal presentation to the Commission and respond to any questions. The Commission can take any one of the three actions: continue the case to a future hearing, recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors or recommend denial to the Board. If the Commission makes a recommendation, your case will then be placed on the next available agenda for the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors will review your case and vote to approve or deny your request. The Board of Supervisors is the only governing body that has legal authority to approve or deny your request.

Please note that as you are considering rezoning, you should research the Zoning Ordinance to indentify your current land use and the land use you are requesting; then you should research the Comprehensive Plan to be sure your land use fits within the Comprehensive Plan land use designation. IF it does not, you would first need to request a Comprehensive Plan Amendment. This process also begins with a Concept Review. Once this process is complete, you may then begin the rezoning process. They may NOT run concurrently.

The average processing time for any of the above is six (6) to eight (8) months. Please review the application fee amounts as well. The fee for Concept Review DOES NOT apply toward the application fee amounts. For the application fee amounts, please refer to the Services Fee Schedule located on our web page.

If your project will be of a commercial nature: business, RV Parks, 4-Plex, school or church site, contact this department to request a Site Plan Review.

Once you have successfully completed your Land Use Change or Site Plan Review and you wish to obtain building permits, please contact the Building Safety Department.