Huntersville board advances broad zoning text amendments on tree save, buffers, ADUs and stormwater

Huntersville’s Town Board on July 15 moved forward a coordinated set of text amendments to the town zoning and subdivision ordinances that change how the town treats tree preservation, buffer plantings, accessory dwelling units and stormwater facilities. Planning staff told the board the packets are intended to preserve more mature canopy and specimen trees on development sites and to clear long‑standing ambiguities in the code.

The amendments include a proposed cap on mitigation for tree save — staff’s draft would limit mitigation so that residential sites must retain roughly 70 percent of required tree save on site (mitigation capped at 30 percent) and commercial sites must retain roughly half (mitigation capped at 50 percent). Staff also proposed raising mitigation for heritage/specimen trees to a 200 percent caliper replacement factor and clarified submittal standards for tree preservation plans.

Staff said the change responds to a pattern in recent years in which applicants used payment in lieu or off‑site mitigation rather than preserving existing canopy. “We get some tree save, but we don’t get a lot because of this mitigation allowance,” Planning staff member Brad Priest said during the public hearing. He showed before‑and‑after examples that, under…