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Aberdeen adopts UDO changes, adds Highway 5 overlay and other zoning cleanups
Summary
The Town of Aberdeen Board of Commissioners on June 23 adopted zoning text amendment TA-25-02, adding language to create a corridor overlay for Highway 5 and making several procedural and use-category changes to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The planning board had recommended the package unanimously.
The Town of Aberdeen Board of Commissioners on June 23 adopted zoning text amendment TA-25-02, a package of revisions to the town’s Unified Development Ordinance that includes a Highway 5 (NC 5) corridor overlay, procedural clarifications, and new use categories for death-care services.
Planning staff member Miss Graham presented the changes during a public hearing, telling the board the amendments primarily formalize existing procedures and add targeted standards to guide redevelopment along NC 5. “We’ll review it from completeness,” Graham said, describing a single completeness review that would stop additional review until an application is deemed complete. She said the overlay language would be added to the UDO but would not be applied to specific properties until a follow-up zoning map amendment and mailed notice to affected property owners.
The overlay aims to reduce congestion and protect the corridor’s viewshed by limiting driveways directly onto Highway 5, requiring cross-access where feasible, adding enhanced landscaping, and screening stormwater-management infrastructure. Graham said the proposal includes a 50-foot setback for buildings and parking measured from the DOT right-of-way and a 300-foot study band used to identify properties that might be subject to overlay standards at the time of redevelopment.
The amendment also separates funeral homes and crematoria from a broad "personal services" use category by creating a new "death care services" classification. Under the proposal, crematoria would be limited to light- or heavy-industrial zoning, while funeral homes without crematoria and cemeteries accessory to religious institutions would be allowed in certain commercial and institutional districts.
Staff also recommended edits to bring the UDO into alignment with state requirements, including language reflecting the North Carolina residential code (which limits certain design standards for residential structures other than multifamily) and removal of references to a town-specific stormwater manual that the town does not have, deferring instead to NCDEQ and UDO requirements.
The planning board reviewed the package in May and issued a unanimous recommendation for approval. With no members of the public speaking during the hearing, Commissioner (speaker 5) moved to adopt the draft land-use plan consistency statement and then moved to approve the text amendment. After a second and voice votes of “Aye,” the mayor announced the motion carried.
Action taken: the board adopted the land-use plan consistency statement and approved zoning text amendment TA-25-02; staff will return later with zoning-map amendments if the board chooses to apply the overlay to specific parcels.
What happens next: the overlay language is now in the UDO; the town will proceed with map amendments and mailed notice to affected property owners before any overlay is applied to specific parcels.
