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