Town of Black Mountain seeks public input on Unified Development Ordinance
Series of community meetings to be held in October
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
October 3, 2023
The Town of Black Mountain Planning & Development Services Department will host a series community feedback meetings in the month of October, seeking public input on the proposed Unified Development Ordinance. Photo by Fred McCormick
A series of meetings to be held this month in town hall will seek feedback from Black Mountain residents regarding the proposed Unified Development Ordinance.
The document, once finalized and approved by elected officials, will reestablish zoning and development regulations, replacing the town’s existing land use code and implementing planning policies reflected in the town’s comprehensive plan.
A draft of the 11-chapter UDO, available for review on the town’s website (linked here), will be unveiled to the public at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 4 in a community input meeting hosted by the Town of Black Mountain Planning & Development Services Department. Additional forums will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 5; 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 11 and 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 12.
Each session will allow members of the public to arrive at any time and review the proposed document, according to Planning Director Jessica Trotman.
“The idea is to provide folks with a general idea of what a UDO is and what it is not,” Trotman said. “We’re not rezoning the town, and we’re not rewriting the entire (land use code). These meetings will be an opportunity for people to see what the UDO looks like online, and we will also have paper copies.”
Town staff initiated work on the UDO in early 2022, following the adoption of the comprehensive plan — Elevate Black Mountain — in the summer of 2021.
“One of the major drivers behind turning a comprehensive plan into reality is the development regulations that implement that vision,” Trotman said. “Of course, not everything in your comprehensive plan can be achieved through zoning regulations, but a lot of it can.”
Establishing a UDO under the authority granted by N.C. General Statute Chapter 160D, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2019, is intended to address “dated” language in Black Mountain’s land use code, according to the planning director.
“The land use code has been revised by many people over many years, and that inherently creates opportunities for inconsistencies and poor organization,” she said. “The UDO will bring all of the development regulations into one document, making it much easier to read and navigate. It’s a much more modern way of organizing those regulations.”
The current draft of the UDO includes individual chapters related to zoning districts and land uses, building and site design, subdivision standards, environmental management and administration. Subsections within each chapter feature regulations addressing landscaping and buffering, public facilities standards for subdivisions and flood damage prevention and hazard reduction.
“This document is organized by priority of use, so things the public would need to access more often are found in the beginning,” Trotman said. “With the current land use code, if you’re building a subdivision, you go into one section to find lot sizes and into entirely different sections to find what can be put on those lots or the landscaping requirements. The UDO is much more intuitive.”
Appendices in the UDO include recommended species for trees and shrubs, links to N.C. Department of Transportation road standards, state fire codes and water line standards. General plat and mapping regulations are presented in a dedicated section.
Short-term rentals, defined as “any dwelling or portion thereof that is available for use or is used for accommodations or lodging of guests paying a fee or other compensation for a period of less than 30 consecutive days,” require a zoning permit and annual renewal. Owners or managers of short-term rental properties must submit to an annual fire safety inspection and post public safety contact information, noise ordinance requirements and garbage and recycling management information related to wildlife, including bears.
Parking for short-term rentals must include one space per bedroom and vehicles are required to park on the property and not in a public right-of-way.
The process of developing the current draft of the UDO has been time-consuming for members of the town’s planning board, according to Trotman.
“There has been a lot of work done by the planning board, and they have put in a huge amount of effort on this project,” the planning director said. “They are hard workers and critical readers, so I’ve really appreciated their work on this.”
The task required the appointed advisory board members to work closely with staff, as they identified areas identified in the comprehensive plan that were not addressed by the current land use code, according to Trotman.
The upcoming community input meetings will offer the general public an opportunity to view and comment on the current draft of the UDO. A public comment option is also available on the online document hosted on the town’s website.
“We will take all of the public comment and staff will go through it and organize it,” Trotman said. “Every single comment will go to the planning board for their review, while staff’s job is to sort them in to groups. Once the planning board reaches a consensus on items they consider, we’ll work that into an updated draft.”
Once finalized by the planning board, the UDO will be reviewed in a town council workshop before the final document is presented for approval in a public hearing in early 2024.