The town board of commissioners, on its own motion, the zoning enforcement officer pursuant to subsection 5.1(c) of this ordinance, or upon petition by any person within the zoning jurisdiction of the Town of Trent Woods, after review and public notice and hearing as herein provided, may amend, supplement, change, modify, or repeal the regulations herein established or the maps which are a part of this ordinance. No regulation or map shall be amended, supplemented, changed, modified, or repealed until after (i) review by and receipt of recommendations from the planning board, and (ii) a public hearing in relation thereto at which parties in interest and citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard.

Persons requesting a zoning change shall file an application with the town clerk. Such application shall contain a legal description of the property to be affected by the change, the names and addresses of all persons requesting the change, the names of all owners of parcels of land within such property and of parcels of land abutting same as shown on the county tax listing, and the last addresses listed for all such owners on the county tax abstracts. For the purpose of this section, properties are "abutting" even if separated by a street, railroad, or other transportation corridor. Each application shall be accompanied by a fee in an amount stated in the town's most recently adopted fee schedule to offset town administrative expense related thereto. In addition, on or before the date of the public hearing related to the requested zoning change, the persons requesting such change shall (i) pay to the town, if such costs are then known, the actual costs incurred by the town in advertising the requested change and in mailing notices related thereto as required by law, or (ii) deposit with the town, if such costs are not then known, an amount determined by the town clerk to be sufficient to pay the actual costs incurred by the town in advertising the requested change and in mailing notices related thereto as required by law. To the extent that any deposit with the town as provided above exceeds the actual costs incurred by the town with regard thereto, the overage shall be returned to the persons who deposited same. Further, to the extent that any such deposit is insufficient to pay the actual costs incurred by the town with regard thereto, the persons who deposited same shall pay to the town the balance of such costs upon notification by the town of the amount of such insufficiency.

The notice of the hearing must be provided as follows:

(a)

Zoning map amendments.

(1)

Mailed notice. The owners of affected parcels of land and the owners of all parcels of land abutting that parcel of land shall be mailed a notice of the hearing on a proposed map amendment by first-class mail at the last addresses listed for such owners on the county tax abstracts. For the purpose of this section, properties are "abutting" even if separated by a street, railroad, or other transportation corridor. This notice must be deposited in the mail at least ten but not more than 25 days prior to the date of the hearing.

(2)

Optional notice for large-scale zoning map amendments. The first-class mail notice required under this subsection is not required if the zoning map amendment proposes to change the zoning designation of more than 50 properties, owned by at least 50 different property owners, and the town elects to use the expanded published notice provided for in this subsection. In this instance, the town may, instead of making the mailed notice provided herein, may elect to publish notice of the hearing provided that each advertisement shall not be less than one-half of a newspaper page in size. The advertisement is effective only for property owners who reside in the area of general circulation of the newspaper that publishes the notice. Property owners who reside outside of the newspaper circulation area, according to the address listed on the most recent property tax listing for the affected property, shall be notified according to the first-class mail notice provisions of this subsection.

(3)

Posted notice. The town shall prominently post a notice of the hearing on the site proposed for the amendment or on an adjacent public street or highway right-of-way. The notice shall be posted within the same time period specified for mailed notices of the hearing. When multiple parcels are included within a proposed map amendment, a posting on each individual parcel is not required but the town shall post sufficient notices to provide reasonable notice to interested persons.

(4)

No amendment to this ordinance or the map that down-zones property shall be initiated nor is it enforceable without the written consent of all property owners whose property is the subject of the down-zoning amendment, unless the down-zoning amendment is initiated by the town.

(b)

Legislative amendments.

(1)

The notice of the hearing must be published once a week for two successive weeks.

The notice of the hearing shall be published the first time not less than ten days nor more than 25 days before the date scheduled for the hearing. In computing such period, the day of publication is not to be included but the day of the hearing shall be included.

No application for any change in the zoning classification of property or any part thereof shall be filed until the expiration of one year from the date of last determination by the town board of commissioners as to a prior request for rezoning; provided, however, that the one-year waiting period for filing an application shall not be applicable for rezoning property previously considered for rezoning by the town board of commissioners where the new application requests rezoning to a different zoning classification than that previously requested.

A member of the board of commissioners shall not vote on any legislative or map amendment to this ordinance where the outcome of the matter being considered is reasonably likely to have a direct, substantial, and readily identifiable financial impact on the member. A member of the board of commissioners shall not vote on any amendment to this ordinance or map if the applicant for the amendment is a person with whom the member has a close familial, business, or other associational relationship.

(Ord. of 6-3-2021)