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Pitt County planning staff outlines two-year effort to create unified development ordinance
Summary
Planning staff told the board the county will seek a consultant, form steering committees, and run public outreach and hearings to combine multiple planning ordinances into a single unified development ordinance; funding was included in the FY 2026–27 budget.
Jones, a planning staff member, told the Pitt County Planning Board that the county will develop a unified development ordinance (UDO) to consolidate multiple planning-related ordinances into a single, clearer document and that the FY 2026–27 budget includes funding to support the work.
Jones said the UDO effort will combine seven separate ordinances (address/flood damage prevention, manufactured home-park ordinance, buffer/protection, soil erosion and sedimentation control, water-supply watershed, the county's zoning ordinance and stand-alone sections such as outdoor advertising and shooting ranges) into one document to reduce inconsistencies and improve usability for citizens, developers and staff. "It's a tool that's used by local governments to manage growth and development. It consolidates development regulations into a single document making the requirements easier to understand, administer, and enforce," he said.
Jones described a tentative timeline of roughly two years: issue a request for qualifications for a consultant by the end of the month, select a consultant, establish steering committees and work groups that will include planning-board members, conduct public outreach and surveys with heavy public involvement, draft the ordinance, and hold public hearings before formal adoption. He said staff will monitor state legislation as it moves through Raleigh and incorporate relevant changes and that topics likely to be reviewed in the UDO include solar farm regulations, data centers, mining operations, subdivision interconnectivity for emergency response, recreational-space requirements for new subdivisions, and agricultural-preservation measures.
Jones also listed other near-term planning activities in the department's work program: developing a farmland-preservation plan with soil-and-water staff, updating the county greenway plan with Cultural Arts and Recreation, ongoing housing rehabilitation and homelessness-program work, and continuing efforts to find grant funding for a Whitehurst Station waterline extension to provide public water where none exists currently. He said staff expects to provide monthly updates to the planning board and county commissioners and to invite planning-board members to serve on steering committees and work groups during the UDO process.
