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Burke County commissioners approve rezoning for Smith property and adopt broader zoning code amendments
Summary
The Burke County Board of Commissioners rezoned 4.5 acres of a Smith family property on US 64 from Residential-3 to Residential Mixed Use and adopted a zoning text amendment that changes lot-size and site-plan rules to ease housing development and streamline standards.
Burke County commissioners on Monday approved two land-use actions: a map amendment to rezone a 4.5-acre portion of a 23-acre tract on U.S. 64 owned by Brian and Robin Smith, and a countywide zoning text amendment that revises lot-size, frontage and site-plan standards.
The rezoning motion, introduced by Commissioner Burns, adopted Ordinance 2025-05 to change the parcel identified by PIN 1780170205709 from Residential-3 (R-3) to Residential Mixed Use (RMU) and to adjust the future land-use map for that parcel. Planning Director and Deputy County Manager Alan Glines told commissioners the property lies in the Morganton Township and Salem Fire District, is not in a watershed area and that the Planning Board recommended approval by a 6–0 vote after one neighbor spoke in favor.
Glines said the applicant, Brian Smith, is a custom home builder who built a 40-by-62-foot outbuilding in 2022 with Board-of-Adjustment approval and now seeks flexibility to expand light equipment and mechanic work for his business. Smith told the board he hired a mechanic and had inquiries from other builders seeking equipment repairs. “I built this building a couple of years ago… I needed a place to store my equipment,” Smith said during the public hearing.
The commissioners also adopted Ordinance 2025-06, a zoning text amendment (ZTA 2025-01) staff described as a clean-up and modernization of the county code. Planning staff said the changes remove obsolete graphics, consolidate duplicate site-plan checklists, and relax some lot-size and frontage requirements to make housing development more feasible. Under the revisions, minimum lot sizes can be reduced where public sewer is available (down to one-quarter acre when both water and sewer exist), and proposed minimum lot frontage in many cases would fall from 100 feet to 70 feet with options for flag lots and smaller cul-de-sac frontages.
County staff framed the ZTA as a multi-article reorganization: Article 3 (lot sizes), Article 5 (special use standards), and Article 6 (site and building standards) will be renumbered and clarified. Alan Glines said the county intends future work on cluster development incentives and other refinements to support more housing.
Both ordinance votes were unanimous. The board found the changes consistent with the Blueprint Burke strategic land-use plan and with the mixed-use character along state highways such as U.S. 64.
The rezoning and text-amendment approvals followed staff presentations, a public hearing for the rezoning (with the applicant speaking in support), and a public hearing for the text amendment that drew no public speakers.
Recordings and meeting minutes show the Board adopted the rezoning (ZMA 2025-03 / Ordinance 2025-05) and the zoning text amendment (ZTA 2025-01 / Ordinance 2025-06) by recorded voice vote, 5–0.
