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Burke County adopts zoning changes to ease housing, approves rezoning on US 64
Summary
The Burke County Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted a zoning text amendment that reduces minimum lot sizes and eases frontage requirements to encourage housing development, and approved a rezoning for a Morganton-area property to allow expanded mixed use and small-scale business activity along U.S. 64.
The Burke County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a zoning text amendment to streamline site-plan standards and relax minimum lot-size and frontage rules, and separately voted 5-0 to rezone about 4.5 acres along U.S. 64 from Residential-3 (R-3) to Residential Mixed Use (RMU) for a local home builder.
County planning director and deputy county manager Alan Glines told commissioners the code changes would allow smaller lots where public sewer is available, reduce a universal 100-foot frontage requirement to a 70-foot standard (with flag-lot and cul-de-sac options), and consolidate repeated site-plan language to Article 7. The board adopted ordinance number 2025-dash-06 to enact the text amendment after the planning board recommended approval 6-0.
The rezoning request (ordinance number 2025-dash-o5; ZMA 2025-o3) covers a 23-acre tract on U.S. 64 in Morganton Township; the applicants, Brian and Robin Smith, asked to rezone roughly 4.5 acres at the front of the parcel to RMU so the owner — a custom home builder — could expand on-site equipment and vehicle maintenance for his business. Brian Smith spoke at the public hearing: “I built this building a couple of years ago ... I needed a place to store my my my equipment, my skid steer, track hose, stuff like that,” and said he had since had other builders inquire about equipment repair services the site could host.
Glines said the parcel sits along a state highway where mixed uses already exist and the county’s Blueprint Burke strategic plan supports small business development along major corridors. The planning board reviewed the case in March; one neighbor spoke in favor and the planning board recommended approval 6-0. The commissioners found the rezoning “reasonable and in the public interest” and said it would be consistent with the mixed-use character along U.S. 64.
Discussion vs. decision: commissioners heard staff and applicant testimony during the public hearing and then took formal action on two distinct items: a text-amendment ordinance (ZTA 2025-01) and a map-amendment ordinance for the Smith parcel. Both formal motions passed by recorded voice vote 5-0. No conditions or amendments to the rezoning were recorded in the motion.
Background and next steps: the text amendment revises lot-size tables to account for availability of public water and sewer (smallest lots proposed where both utilities exist), lowers standard frontage requirements, and removes redundant graphics. The adopted changes aim to make infill and small-scale housing development more feasible; staff said additional subdivision and cluster-development refinements remain under consideration and will return to the board later this year.
The rezoned portion of the Smith parcel will be reflected on the county zoning map and in the future land-use map adjustment approved by the board. The county clerk recorded both ordinances in the meeting packet.
