AG 2003 04 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MEMORANDUM TO: Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners CC: John Day, Interim County Manager Fletcher Hartsell, County ALtorney FROM: .~onathan B. Marshall/Planning Services Director DATE: April 9, 2003 SUBJECT: Unified Development Ordinance and Development Review Last year the Board of Commissioners tabled consideration of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) until April of this year. The following is a review of the current status of that ordinance, as well as some of the issues that were raised when it was tabled. In addition, ! am including some information and discussion about the related issues of development review, utility service areas and adequate facilities review. St~3tu$ of the UDO The UDO has been adopted by Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg and Mt. Pleasant. County Planning Staff administers the UDO for the Towns of Mt. Pleasant and Harrisburg. It has not been adopted by the Town of Midland, which uses a modified version of the current Cabarrus County Zoning Ordinance. There were a number of issues raised during the Board of Commissioners' discussion that ultimately led to it being tabled, and it is worthwhile to revisit some of those issues. The issue is listed in bold and is followed by the discussion. The UDO is not "unified". There are differences in the versions of the UDO used by each jurisdiction. The City of Kannapolis has made some grammatical corrections as well as some minor changes for clarification. The Town of Harrisburg has added an architectural overlay section for N.C. Highway 49 to their version. The City of Concord has made changes as issues have been identified and has appointed a UDO Advisory Committee (UDOAC) to address major issues (more discussion of this will follow). Many of the changes made by Kannapolis and Concord have also been adopted by Mt. Pleasant and Harriburg, but not all. For this issue to be properly addressed there must be an update of all the versions and a central repository of all amendments that follow. The UDO /$ unified in the sense that the zoning, subdivision, flood plain, sediment and erosion control, and storm water ordinances are all included in a single document.