TITLE
title
ADOPT NEW UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE (UDO)
end
SPONSOR
Sponsor
J. Leslie Bell
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BACKGROUND
Background
The proposed Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is intended to replace the current Guilford County Development Ordinance (Ordinance) that was adopted and became effective Jan. 1, 1992. Both the current land development ordinance and the proposed UDO is applicable to land development in the unincorporated area only of Guilford County excluding municipal extraterritorial jurisdictions (ETJ) and the Piedmont Triad International Airport planning area. With the passage of time, the current Ordinance has been amended numerous times with no comprehensive review and update having been completed since initial adoption. The current Ordinance is a 28+ year-old tool/document, coupled with its physical layout/organization, contains language ambiguity and conflicts, procedural and review processes that increase transaction time and costs, design standards that are limited in flexibility, contains section which need clarification which are difficult to enforce or interpret, and lacks some continuity as currently written.
On October 14, 2020, the Guilford County Planning Board recommended that the Board of County Commissioners schedule a public hearing and adopt the proposed UDO. The Planning Board also recommended (following a non-required public hearing) that the proposed UDO become effective immediately and that upon adoption, that the County will allow applicants to either use the new UDO or the current land development ordinance for a period of one year from the effective date. This assists with transition to the new UDO by providing options in case some unforeseen circumstances arise with the new UDO that could unintentionally delay an applicant from moving forward with a proposed development project.
The UDO also reflects the Planning Board's zoning amendment to the official Guilford County zoning map (following a required public hearin...
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