Moore County adopts 2025 Land Use Plan, staff to move definitions to UDO

The Moore County Board of Commissioners voted Oct. 7 to adopt the 2025 Moore County Land Use Plan after a public hearing that included steering-committee members and multiple residents. The plan updates county demographic and geographic chapters and adds goals, recommendations and actions intended to guide future development, utilities, parks, and a “small town model” overlay district.

Planning Director Ruth Peterson outlined the process: three listening sessions at county high schools, a steering committee that met from July 2024 to March 2025, and a planning commission recommendation. Peterson also explained that Session Law 2024-57 changed local authority around downzoning; that law limits certain implementation tools and shaped which action items the steering committee could recommend for inclusion.

Steering-committee and process-leader remarks noted four priority outcomes: a master utilities plan to clarify where growth can be supported by water and sewer; stronger protections for rural agricultural areas; development of a master parks, recreation and open-space plan; and use of a small-town model to concentrate mixed-use, walkable development and limit sprawl.

Public commenters and some steering-committee members urged that the plan preserve certain definitions and action language so the county would have a record of measures to implement should state law change. Commissioners and staff discussed where definitions belong; planning staff recommended removing all definitions from the plan and instead placing terms in the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) via the statutory text amendment process. The board’s final motion adopted the plan with multiple amendments reflecting steering-committee edits and the staff recommendation to remove definitions from the adopted plan; the motion passed on a voice vote.

The board directed staff to use the adopted plan as the policy framework for subsequent UDO amendments and to proceed with master plans for utilities and parks as implementation steps. Commissioners repeatedly emphasized that the plan is a living policy document and that if state law changes the board could revisit actions removed due to Session Law 2024-57.

The plan contains five goals, 24 recommendations and 53 actions and includes updated future land-use categories, maps showing water and sewer lines, and a small-town overlay intended to guide concentrated growth near infrastructure.