The Pender County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 3 adopted the county's 2050 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, a nonregulatory framework intended to guide land-use decisions, infrastructure funding priorities and long-range implementation across the county. The board approved the plan as presented with the changes recommended by the Planning Board.

Planning staff told commissioners the plan reflects roughly 20 months of work including two rounds of countywide public engagement, more than 1,400 survey responses between September and October 2024 and multiple in-person meetings. The document lays out three high-level vision themes — coordinate growth and conservation, support the county's fiscal health, and maintain a high quality of life — and nine goals broken into 31 policies and about 114 specific implementation actions prioritized by time horizon.

The plan also includes a future land use map that identifies place types such as residential neighborhoods, neighborhood centers, industry/commerce and coastal neighborhoods. Staff said the map recognizes a growth boundary near NC 210 to direct medium-density development toward southern Pender County while preserving rural agricultural land farther north.

Planning staff described several changes made since the draft version went to public review: altered place-type designations around Penderlea after local feedback, expansion of rural neighborhood and residential areas near the 421 corridor aligned with expected infrastructure investments, and adjustments to neighborhood-center and regional-center guidance on parking and building siting. Staff also said the plan adds narrative and a policy reference to Senate Bill 382 (a state-level provision that restricts local governments' ability to initiate downzoning without property-owner consent) and modifies the language on package treatment plants from a blanket discouragement to a more nuanced "discouraged unless" approach tied to consistency with the future land use map and the anticipated limits on centralized sewer expansion.

At the Nov. 3 meeting the Planning Board's requested edits were restated in the motion and then incorporated into the adoption. Staff said the plan is advisory, not regulatory: commissioners must consider the plan when making zoning and land-use decisions, but it does not automatically change current zoning. If adopted by the county, the plan will next be submitted to the Division of Coastal Management/Coastal Resources Commission for the certification required of a CAMA (Coastal Area Management Act) county plan.

Commissioners recorded the motion to adopt with the Planning Board edits and approved it by voice vote. The plan will now be forwarded for the state review and certification required of coastal county comprehensive plans.

The board and staff said the next steps include prioritizing the plan's implementation actions, updating related regulatory documents (including the Unified Development Ordinance) to align with the new vision, and tracking progress through the plan's implementation timeline.

Speakers at the related public hearing included planning staff who presented the draft and residents who raised site-specific concerns (for example, stormwater, traffic and the map designation adjacent to Scotts Hill). Commissioners asked staff to keep working with property owners and with NCDOT on infrastructure questions.

The board's adoption completes a major milestone in the plan process and begins the implementation phase, which staff said will include prioritized actions for the 12 year and 35 year horizons, updates to the UDO and continued public engagement.