ACTION BY THE HEARING OFFICER.
12.5.1. Designation of Hearing Officer. The Board of County Commissioners shall designate a panel of hearing officers. The Board of County Commissioners shall select a Hearing Officer from that panel for the beneficial use or value determination process.
12.5.2. Establishment of date for hearing and notice. The Hearing Officer shall schedule and hold a hearing on a beneficial use or value determination application within sixty (60) calendar days of receipt of the complete application from the Administrator.
12.5.3. Hearing. At the hearing, the mineral estate owner or oil or gas lessee or owner’s or lessee’s representative shall present the owner’s or lessee’s case and the County Attorney or County Attorney’s representative shall present the County’s case. The Hearing Officer may accept briefs, evidence, reports, or proposed recommendations from the parties. Interested parties other than the owner or lessee shall be permitted to intervene in the proceedings provided: the intervenor shall be an organization or association registered to receive notice under this Ordinance; any public or governmental agency; or any owner of a surface or subsurface estate or lessee of an oil and gas lease within one (1) mile of the site perimeter, or any person aggrieved or with standing to intervene.
12.5.4. Findings of the Hearing Officer. Within sixty (60) calendar days of the close of the hearing, the Hearing Officer shall prepare and transmit in writing to the Administrator, County Attorney, owner, lessee, and owner’s and lessee’s representatives, and all other represented parties, a summary of all the evidence, testimonial or documentary submitted, rulings on objections to evidence, and a written recommendation regarding the relief to be granted based on the evidence submitted and the standards set forth in
SECTION 12.9: GRANTING RELIEF.
12.5.4.1. If the Hearing Officer’s recommendation is that relief is not appropriate, the recommendation shall specify the factual and legal basis for the recommendation.
12.5.4.2.
If the Hearing Officer’s recommendation is that some form of relief is appropriate, the recommendation shall:
(a) Recommend a form of relief, pursuant to
SECTION 12.9: GRANTING RELIEF.
(b) Indicate the basis for the recommendation, including, as applicable:
(1) identification of the County land development code regulation, general or area plan policy, development order or other action that resulted in the recommendation for relief;
(2) the date the land development code regulation, general or area plan policy, or other final action of the County affected the property so as to necessitate relief; and
(3) determine whether the oil and gas project proposed for the site, taking into account all of the findings and development order of the Board, constitutes an as applied public nuisance or creates adverse public nuisance effects or impacts, for which no relief can be recommended.
ACTION BY THE ADMINISTRATOR.
Based on the recommendations of the Hearing Officer, the Administrator shall prepare the item for consideration by the Board. Within thirty (30) calendar days of receipt of the recommendations of the Hearing Officer, the Administrator shall forward the Hearing Officer’s recommendation to the Board to set a public hearing on the matter.
ACTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
Following receipt of the matter from the Administrator, the Board shall within thirty (30) days set the matter for a public hearing. The County shall provide the same notice as required on the Application for the Oil and Gas Overlay Zoning District Classification and the applicant and any other interested party shall be provided an opportunity to be heard prior to the decision of the Board. The recommendation of the Hearing Officer is not binding on the Board. At the hearing, the Board shall grant a development order by resolution, approving, modifying, reversing, or approving with conditions, the recommendations of the Hearing Officer, based on the standards of this Section. The development order shall:
(a) state a date, if any, upon which a development order granting relief will cease to be in effect;
(b) state that neither the Board’s development order nor any process or evidence constitutes an admission of a taking of property, or other unconstitutional deprivation;
(c) direct County staff to undertake any additional steps necessary to implement the development order; and
(d) address other matters necessary to implement the purpose and intent of this section.
