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On December 11, state lawmakers enacted Senate Bill 382, a bill that provides disaster relief funds to Western North Carolina. However, tacked onto the last two pages of the 132-page bill is an alarming provision for local municipalities on the Outer Banks.

The provision, entitled, “No Local Government Initiated Down-Zoning Without Consent of Affected Property Owner,” prohibits local government from downzoning property, creating nonconformities or reducing uses unless they have the permission of landowners.

At the December 4 commissioners’ meeting, Nags Head town manager Andy Garman called the provision alarming and astonishing, stating that almost everything the town does would meet the definition of downzoning.

“Zoning is downzoning,” he said. “Before there was zoning, there were no rules. The adoption of zoning is downzoning because why do you need rules unless you’re trying to protect something?”

Garman explained how zoning has benefited the town of Nags Head. For example, restricting development around Nags Head Woods; running lot lines perpendicularly between the beach road and the ocean, which allows homes to be moved back in the event of erosion; higher standards for large residential dwellings; and removing and then reimagining the multi-family standards to protect the historic district in town.

“These are some examples of the things the town has done to protect the town. That would be eliminated with this bill and so I think you can see the concern that I have about this,” he said.

Mayor Ben Cahoon explained that state lawmakers took an existing bill that regulated dentistry and gutted it to expedite the process. They added recovery aid which, Cahoon said, is good and much needed, but then tacked things on like this zoning regulation.

“They do this because they have the power to do this,” the mayor said. “I understand you’re sitting in that seat and you have a recovery bill in front of you. It’s a difficult place to take a stand on something that’s buried in there about zoning, but they need to stop doing business this way.”

In an email response to The Coastland Times December 15, Garman said SB 382 has affected much of the planning board’s workplan for the year, including several zoning amendments the Board of Commissioners had asked the planning board to review as part of the town’s Strategic Plan.

Garman added that commissioners are scheduled to discuss this issue as part of Wednesday’s commissioner agenda, and he expects they will provide direction to the planning board on any efforts to approach the legislature about revising the downzoning provision.

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