Responsibilities

In early 2011, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) combined the Local Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustments as identified by the Land Development Code. The newly formed Zoning Board (ZB) continues to serve as the state-required local planning agency with several additional responsibilities.

• First, the ZB hears requests for variances and special exceptions where there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships due to strict application of the land development code.
• Second, the ZB hears and makes recommendations to the BOCC for conditional use, rezoning and comprehensive plan amendment requests. Also, the ZB makes recommendations to the BOCC regarding proposed land development code and comprehensive plan policies.
• Lastly, the ZB prepares the comprehensive plan and makes recommendations to the BOCC regarding evaluation of comprehensive plan policies every five years.

Overview

The ZB consists of 10 voting members, with each Commissioner appointing two members, and two non-voting members (one school district representative and one military representative).

Process for Rezonings Only

Rezonings that require a future land use map amendment require additional processing as listed within the applicable flowcharts under Long Range Planning (i.e., those that do not require a Future Land Use Map Amendment).