State Wants to Take Control of Zone R15 - Cleveland, NC Zoning and Planning Meeting 5-4-2021


 

Tonight 5-4-2021 was the monthly Zoning and Planning Board meetings for Cleveland, NC. This was technically the April meeting, but some members were not able to attend on the original date, so tonight was the make up date.  

The major concern at the meeting per Town Commissioner and Board Member Bryan Little was a notice by the North Carolina League of Municipalities abut a bill to take the local jurisdiction for R15 zoned property away from local towns and have the power in the hands of lawmakers and policymakers in Raleigh at the state level. 

Little explained that this change would be a "one size fits all" approach for affordable housing with decisions made outside the area for R15 as defined here: 

https://nmcdn.io/e186d21f8c7946a19faed23c3da2f0da/71b809487afe4d7da3262b45ea8ef886/files/services/planning-and-inspections/current-planning-2/permitted-uses/R-15.pdf. 

Board member Chris Adkins said, "It's happening everywhere I'm afraid."

Board Member Jim Brown said, "What will they take next?"

The town of Cleveland does not have much property zoned R15 according to Little who said he will check and see who sponsored the bill. 

Members of the Zoning/Planning Board discussed drafting and sending a letter to the state opposing the new bill, but Little said that he planned to bring it up at the Town Board Meeting. He said that Planning/Zoning could send in a combo letter with the Board. He further stated that it was "not a bold step to be honest [in reference to sending a letter]."

The other issues discussed included adding some definitions to existing zoning documents. For example, there is not currently a definition of "landlocked" in town documents. 

Looking to the future, the board wants to address the issue of utility buildings on vacant lots. A couple of requests to do so have come up in the last few months. Brown said that it would be "wise to address it." He noted that there could be problems if an upscale housing development came to town, and someone put a utility building in the middle of a vacant lot.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleveland NC town board meeting 6/12/2023 - Town to object to ETJ rules.

Image
  The Cleveland NC town board met tonight Monday 6-12-2023. All board members were present.  Proposed Changes to ETJ Control by State of NC Town zoning/planning chair, Bryan Little, addressed the board and asked that a letter be sent to the state of North Carolina objecting to changes in the ETJ rules so that the board would have time (an extra week) to draft an official protest resolution concerning the changes to ETJ.  ETJ is extraterritorial jurisdiction and is a one mile radius around the town of Cleveland. The town makes the rules as far as land use in the area around the town, but residents are not in town limits and do not vote on town issues and do not pay town taxes.   The state of NC wants to eliminate ETJ for towns in counties of under 50,000 people which is 51% of NC counties per Little. Control would shift to the counties versus small towns like Cleveland in less populated counties. Mayor Pat Phifer said that the proposed changes to ETJ "doesn't pr...
Read more

Cleveland Town Board Feb 2023 - Residents Unhappy About Goat Rules

Image
Cleveland town board met tonight 2-13-2023 for the regular monthly meeting. All board members and the mayor were present and had new white town shirts with embroidered logos. The town finance officer made photos with the white shirts after the meeting.  Nineteen residents showed up for the meeting. Usually there are only a couple of people. Most of the attendees came in support of John and Mary Beth Babcock who signed up to address the board. The Babcocks were upset about the new code enforcement which was recently approved by the board. They had been notified that they were not allowed to have goats in town limits and that they had to get rid of the goats or pay daily fines.   John Babcock Mary Beth Babcock   Mrs. Babcock read from a prepared statement. She said that the goats had not been an issue for five years but that the family had been notified that they needed to get rid of the goats or face fines. She said that the goats were her 11-year-old daughter's pets and h...
Read more

Cleveland NC Town Board 5-8-2023 - Finance Strategy Paying Off Big

Image
  Tonight was the monthly board meeting for Cleveland, NC. Various budget issues took up the bulk of the meeting including a review of the new investment strategy. Last year, the town made $7,300 in interest for the entire year. Last month, with the new investment plan adopted earlier, the interest was $21,000 for just the single month. All board members voted to roll investments back into treasury bills as they mature and to continue with the current investment strategy. Ice Machine for Town Hall The board had voted previously to rent an ice machine for town hall and to pay maintenance. The board decided to go with a hotel type dispenser for sanitary reasons. Instead of digging into the ice, it would have a feed to dispense the ice. This type of machine had not been available, however, so the company put in a different ice machine.  The current concern is that the requested machine can now be put in [around August]  but at a cost of $325 quarterly as opposed to $160 quar...
Read more