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Local Government Law Bulletin Number 34 November 1988 DAVID M. LAWRENCE~ Two Major Zoning Decisions: Cfirismon v. Guilford County and Hall v. City of Durham Pltilip P, Green, Jr. WithintheshortspanoftwomonthstheNotth blo~ks that our courts had imposed on "contract Caxolina Supreme Court has produced two of its zoning,"s "conditional zoning,"6 single-purpose most important zoning decisions, Chrismon v. 2oning, T and "spot zoning.''~ Allofthesetechniques, Guilford County~ and Hal] v. City o/Durham? Not to some degree, were efforts to accommodate a only has it given its wholehearted blessing to the rezoning applicant while restricting use of the re- . . special use district/conditional use district I"SUD/ zonedpropertymorenarrowly thanotherwisewould CUD"] zoning technique, but it has extensively be possible under the ordinance, so that the appli- clarified the "spot zoning" and "contract zoning" cant would not later abuse those privileges. Once doctrines. In Chris,non it overruled the court of theyweremledout, anewsystembadtobedevised. appeals' decisiona on every major point: in Hall it SUD/'CUD zoning is in essence a combination affirmed that court's decision4 but modified its fa- of two types of zoning procedures that North tionale. Carolina's appellate courts had upheld: {1} issuance of special use permits {or conditional use permits, as The Chrismon Case some units prefer to call them}~ and {~} amendments pursuant to "floating zone" provisions of the zoning General Background °rdinance'~° The SUD/CUD system works like this: First, To understand the CMismon holding, it is the text of the the zoning ordinance is amended to necessary first to have some understanding of the add one or more d~stricts, designated special use SUD]CUD zoning technique~ which was pioneered districts or conditional use districts {the terminol- by the city of Greensboro in 197~:. 8UD]CUD ogy is immaterial]. Each of these new districts is a zoning grew out of a general deslxe by zoning otfi- "floating zone" because no land is actually mapped cials~ neighboring property owners, and others to with the new designation until its owners have have a means of enforcing commitments made by applied for such rezoning. Within a special use tezoning applicants concerning their specifle plans district there are no "uses by right"--a special use for the affected property. It reflected legal road- · permit must be seemed for each use made by the INSTITUTI~ OF GOVERNMENT, The Unlversily of North Carolina at Chap~,l'HiB Copyright ~ 1988