New Land Development Code
By: Brian Burgess, Director of Alexander County Planning & Development Department
In our last article, we discussed some of the reasons that zoning is important to the community, as well as when a zoning permit is required. While these regulations are important, it is also important to make sure that any regulations we adopt are useful, necessary, and reasonable. To help make sure our land use policies meet those criteria, the Planning Department is in the process of adopting a brand-new Land Development Code.
A Land Development Code (LDC) is the name for a bundle of ordinances that pertain to land development. Zoning, subdivisions, property addressing, road standards, and many other aspects of land use all fall under the scope of the LDC. While the County currently has ordinances for most of these topics, they are scattered among a handful of documents that don’t always work well together. The LDC brings each of these topics into one comprehensive document to simplify the development process.
The new LDC will change many aspects of the County’s land use regulation, focusing more on areas that need attention and less on areas that have been over-regulated in years past. For example, the County’s previous subdivision ordinance required all new roads to be built to NCDOT specifications. Years ago, this would have been a reasonable requirement, but the cost of paving a road to that standard has skyrocketed in recent years, leaving many property owners in an unreasonable dilemma. An average person who wanted to give some land to their children or family would have been required to install a road that would cost more than the land and homes combined! The new LDC relaxes those standards based on the size of the development, with modest increases to road standards as the size of a development grows.
Another significant change in the new LDC is the permitting of residential development in almost every district, as well as allowing a greater mix in the type of development allowed. One of the common themes our office saw during the Comprehensive Plan’s public input survey is the need for more housing. Increasing housing stock is one of the easiest ways to help make housing affordable, and having a diverse mix of housing options helps residents meet their needs throughout the course of their lives. Seniors and young professionals have been drawn to townhomes and duplexes in recent years due to their modest size and relative affordability. Young families need “starter homes” in safe neighborhoods. By allowing this kind of development to take place, we are giving our family members who might otherwise seek housing far from home a chance to stay nearby.
There are far too many changes in the new LDC to discuss in such a short article, though they all have the same goal – to help make Alexander County the place we want it to be. There will, of course, be times when our department will need to adjust the LDC to meet new and emerging conditions. For now, though, we are hopeful that these changes will reflect the vision outlined in the County’s Comprehensive Plan – the next topic in this series.
For more information, send an email to planning@alexandercountync.gov.