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Pender County planning board approves zoning change to allow pervious parking surfaces
Summary
Planners approved a zoning text amendment allowing professionally designed pervious parking and alternative surfacing options for small lots, with design, maintenance and safety standards and certain exclusions for high-pollutant uses.
The Pender County Planning Board unanimously approved a zoning text amendment on March 4 that expands allowable surfacing options for off-street parking and vehicular use areas to include professionally designed pervious materials.
Senior planner Virginia Norris told the board the proposed update to section 7.10.5 permits materials such as porous pavers, grid pavers, porous asphalt and pervious concrete when designed to the NCDEQ stormwater manual and installed and certified by licensed professionals. The amendment includes required operations and maintenance manuals, design standards and limitations for uses with high pollutant loads (for example fueling stations), and additional flexibility for small parking facilities (20 spaces or fewer), which may use non-compacting gravel or ABC stone with clear delineation.
Board members asked about objective criteria an administrator could use to accept alternative materials; staff said the county would consult its stormwater consultant and the fire marshal and noted state guidance (hydraulic conductivity benchmarks) can inform decisions. One member suggested adding an explicit numeric baseline in the ordinance; staff indicated editorial corrections and technical baselines could be refined as the amendment proceeds to the commissioners.
The board found the text amendment consistent with the Unified Development Ordinance and the Imagine Pender 2050 plan and voted to approve it. The amendment is intended to encourage low-impact development, expand options for small businesses and improve stormwater outcomes while retaining design and safety safeguards.
