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Easly City Council extends six-month development moratorium with exemption for small lot divisions
Summary
The council voted to extend a six-month moratorium on acceptance, review and action on zoning and development applications but adopted an amendment exempting divisions of land under one acre or single lots divided into no more than two lots.
The Easly City Council voted in June 2025 to extend a six-month moratorium that temporarily suspends the acceptance, review and or action upon applications for zoning approvals, development and construction permits. The council approved an amendment that exempts limited, small-scale divisions of land from the moratorium.
Councilman O’Shields moved an amendment to the draft ordinance (read as “ordinance 20 25 0 5” in the meeting), proposing that the moratorium not apply to the division of land on property that is less than one acre, nor to a single lot that can be divided into no more than two lots subject to the city's current zoning and land-development requirements. Under the amendment, such a division of land may occur only once.
O’Shields explained the proposed exemption on the record with the motion’s wording: “I’d like to make a motion to amend ordinance 20 25 to provide an exemption to the moratorium as follows. The moratorium shall not apply to the development of the division of land on property that is less than 1 acre and a single lot that can be divided into no more than 2 lots subject to the city's current requirements of its zoning ordinance and land development regulations. Under this exemption, the division of land can only occur once.”
A city staff member (Mr. Hughes) clarified how the two conditions operate: one exception covers property less than one acre; the other covers a single lot (of any size) that is being divided into no more than two lots. The council voted to adopt the amendment by voice/hand vote and then voted to approve the moratorium extension as amended. The clerk recorded the motion and the council announced the measure had passed; the transcript does not list named vote tallies.
What this means: The moratorium will remain in effect for six months but will not block small lot splits that meet the two limited conditions the council adopted. The ordinance text was referred to in the meeting as “ordinance 20 25 0 5.” The meeting record did not identify who seconded O’Shields’ amendment and the roll-call vote counts were not stated aloud in the transcript.
The council did not attach additional conditions or a different effective date in the public record presented at the meeting; staff and councilmembers discussed the motion on the floor and then recorded that the motion passed.
The moratorium extension and its exemption will affect developers and landowners seeking small lot divisions during the six-month period; larger development applications will remain paused while the moratorium is in force.
