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Mooresville amends UDO to allow payment‑in‑lieu for trails when construction is infeasible
Summary
The Board adopted a text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance allowing planning staff discretion to accept payments in lieu of constructing multi‑use trail segments when site conditions make on‑site construction infeasible; the change was intended to improve practical implementation of the town’s transportation plans.
The Mooresville Board of Commissioners voted to amend the Unified Development Ordinance to permit payment in lieu of constructing certain greenway or side‑path segments when site conditions make construction infeasible, and to require any payment in lieu to be documented as a condition of zoning when applied.
Planner James Coley told the board the town’s transportation plans are high level and sometimes call for trail alignments that cross difficult terrain or multiple property lines; the amendment gives staff flexibility to locate a path where it will be most useful or to accept payment that can be used to build an equivalent facility elsewhere.
The proposed change modifies the UDO’s transportation section so that payment in lieu may be considered “at the discretion of the planning director when site conditions render construction of [a] facility infeasible,” and it requires that such payments be determined and documented as a condition of zoning prior to approval. The Planning Board unanimously recommended the amendment on Aug. 26, and the board adopted the change at this meeting.
One public commenter, Richard Beck, urged the board to replace discretionary language (“may”) with mandatory language (“shall”) to remove uncertainty. Commissioners and staff responded that the explicit purpose of the amendment is to provide professional discretion in cases where on‑site construction is impractical; keeping discretionary language preserves that flexibility.
The board framed the amendment as a technical fix to avoid off‑alignment greenway segments that would otherwise run through private backyards or cross difficult topography and have little practical value. Staff said the change will permit better planning and cost‑effective implementation of the town’s pedestrian and multi‑use trail network.
The amendment will take effect once the ordinance language is finalized in the town’s codified UDO; town staff will use the new standard when evaluating conditional rezonings and developer requests that touch transportation plan alignments.
