Local News - November 2003

Leaders seek to harness rapid growth

Published November 7, 2003

By ALICE SMITH, Staff Writer

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County leaders are looking at ways to manage growth and reduce the strain on utilities, schools and other infrastructure.

“Density has been the most time consuming project we’ve worked on to date,” said Kelly Atkins, director of Building and Land Development.

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and Planning Board met Wednesday to go over their options.

Officials feel the need to move on something soon, because with the economy on an upswing, they expect a huge development boom, especially in the eastern part of the county, which is already quickly growing.

Within the last couple of months, several “serious players” have come to the zoning office with big development plans, said Zoning Administrator  Randy Hawkins.

And with the construction of the new N.C. 16, a corridor study of N.C. 73 and a discussion of N.C. 150 at the state level, the whole county could open up.

“One of the things I keep telling people about east Lincoln is that you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Commissioner Tom Anderson said.

West Lincoln is not immune to growth, Anderson said. N.C. 73 and 150 could have an huge impact.

“If those two roads get four lanes, it’s going to be different in ways none of us can imagine,” he said.

Density options

The boards mainly discussed three options to deal with density, though they were presented with eight. The first would keep the current rules in effect.

Option 6 would call for a minimum lot size of three-fourth of  an acre for all residential districts except Rural-Residential. If a structure tapped on to available water and sewer systems, the lot size could be decreased to one-half acre for Residential Single-Family and Residential-Suburban.

The third possibility, Option 7, provides no bonus for tapping onto water and sewer. It leaves the lot size requirement at one-half an acre for R-SF and R-S, but creates two new zoning districts — RSF-32 and RSF-43.

People wanting to rezone from Residential Transitional with no infrastructure could go to RSF-32 or RSF-43. Residents usually want to r ezone R-T property to R-SF to keep mobile homes out of their area, Atkins said.

Using the two new zoning districts would lower the impact on the environment, reduce strain on county water and sewer systems and lower density.

“You’re trying to steer the growth to where the infrastructure is,” Atkins said. “The consensus of the planning board was that we don’t want to kill growth, we want to manage it.”

County staff will recommend that the board choose option 7 with the two new zoning districts.

Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance

An APFO places conditions on development approvals to the availability and adequacy of public facilities.

The county would have to create a capital improvement plan (CIP) that would state concrete plans for new infrastructure, like when a new school would be built.

If a proposed subdivision exceeds the level of service adopted in the CIP, the developer would have several options:

·  Wait until the level of service is adequate

·  Contribute, based on an adopted formula to keep the level of service at an acceptable level

·  Lower density of the proposed development so it does not impact the service

·  Withdraw the plan completely

Preparing an APFO is a lengthy and complicated process, officials said, and the county would need to bring in professionals to advise on the project.

The county is still in the early stages of discussion of an APFO, Atkins said, and there are many more meetings in the future.

It would be necessary to create a committee including homebuilders, Realtors and residents to perform a study.

An APFO won’t eliminate the need for taxation, leaders agreed.

But it will “soften the impact of growth and will assist with the management of growth” providing the county with another source of revenue.

“This county at this point in time has absolutely no tools whatsoever to manage and control growth,” Anderson said.

“This is a tool — is it the best tool in the world? No. But it’s a good tool.”

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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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