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Board approves change to shopping-center definition, raises size threshold and permit tiers
Summary
The Currituck County Board of Commissioners approved a staff-initiated text amendment that raises the local definition of "shopping center," adds a 4-acre lot-size requirement and allows smaller centers to proceed by zoning compliance permit rather than a special use permit.
The Currituck County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 6 approved a staff-initiated amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance that raises the local definition of a “shopping center,” adds a minimum parcel size and changes permitting thresholds.
Planning staff said the amendment raises the square-foot threshold that defines a shopping center from 5,000 to 15,000 square feet, changes the minimum number of tenant spaces from four to three, and adds a 4-acre parcel minimum. The amendment also allows shopping centers smaller than 30,000 square feet to proceed through a zoning compliance permit (including review by the Technical Review Committee) while keeping a special use permit requirement for centers of 30,000 square feet or larger.
“What we were seeing was lots of applications for what’s really similar to strip shopping centers,” Planner Meghan Turner told the board, saying some applicants were subdividing units to avoid shopping-center rules. Turner said the new definition is intended to limit the application of shopping-center design standards to larger, multi-tenant developments and to restore a previous, larger-lot threshold used before the current ordinance.
Commissioners asked whether parcels smaller than 4 acres would be subject to nonresidential design standards rather than shopping-center standards; staff confirmed they would. Commissioners also discussed how parking requirements could make larger acreage necessary depending on building size and applicable parking ratios.
With no public comment on the item, a commissioner moved to approve PB 24-01 (Shopping Centers text amendment) as consistent with the Unified Development Ordinance and Imagine Currituck 2040 Vision Plan Land Use Goal 3; the motion carried.
The board and staff said the change is intended to encourage larger, coordinated commercial developments where appropriate while removing the shopping-center label — and its special-use-review requirement — from smaller multi-tenant commercial buildings.
