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Harrisburg council approves UDO change to require underground utilities along Highway 49
Summary
After a lengthy hearing, the Town of Harrisburg approved a text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance allowing the town to require utilities be placed underground along Highway 49 for new commercial construction or full redevelopment; the ordinance includes a fee‑in‑lieu option and exemptions for site constraints.
The Town of Harrisburg council voted to approve a text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance that will allow the town to require utilities be installed underground for new commercial construction and full redevelopment along Highway 49.
Planning staff told the council the proposal applies only to new construction or buildings that are effectively replaced, and would not force partial remodels to bury lines. The amendment includes a fee‑in‑lieu option and a case‑by‑case exemption where geological conditions—such as bedrock—or other engineering constraints make undergrounding infeasible.
Why it matters: staff said burying utilities would improve the corridor’s appearance, reduce weather‑related outages and support long‑range plans to create a more complete street with sidewalks and landscaping. Staff cited a planning estimate of about $2,000,000 per mile to bring aerial lines underground and said the roughly four‑mile stretch of Highway 49 through town could cost about $8,000,000 if the town paid full project costs; the ordinance is designed to leverage private development over many years rather than require an immediate town outlay.
Council debate centered on cost, fairness and implementation. Several council members asked whether the ordinance should define a numeric threshold for when a redevelopment counts as “new construction.” Planning staff and the town manager said the town typically uses a 50% guideline in practice—to treat projects that replace more than half of a building as new construction—but explained the amendment intentionally leaves that determination flexible so staff can apply context‑sensitive judgments and bring ambiguous cases back to council or to the board of adjustment for variance. As planning staff put it, the ordinance is a long‑term policy to be applied parcel by parcel rather than a one‑time town project.
The amendment will require coordination with NCDOT and Duke Energy for permitting and construction staging, and staff told council that property owners would bear most of the upfront cost with the town using its fee‑in‑lieu account to fill gaps over time.
The council moved, seconded and approved the ordinance at the public hearing; the transcript records that the motion carried but does not record a roll‑call tally in the meeting record.
