Survey Results on Planning and Development Regulations in NC

Are North Carolina cities and counties making more use of conditional zoning? Are the approval rates for variances and special use permits going up or down in North Carolina? Are form-based codes and standards only something we read about, or are they actually being implemented in our state? Are cities abandoning use of extraterritorial planning and development regulation? These are great questions. Many of us who work in this field think we know the answers. But reality sometimes shows our assumptions and perceptions are less than entirely accurate. To learn what is really happening on the ground, the School of Government periodically surveys all North Carolina cities and counties about their planning and development regulation practices. We conducted our sixth such survey in 2017-18. Prior surveys were conducted in 2002-03, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2008-09, and 2011-12. After a few delays occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the enactment of Chapter 160D, we now have a report on the survey results. The full survey report is online here. A few of the answers to the questions above are a bit surprising. The most recent survey of North Carolina cities and counties regarding planning and development regulations was conducted from the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2018. As with prior surveys, response levels were high: 356 cities and counties completed the survey. The population of these responding jurisdictions was 83% of the state’s population, providing a good snapshot of what is going on around the state and allowing for a comparison of trends relative to previous survey responses (which all had similar response rates). There are two [...]