Introduction to Zoning and Development Regulation in North Carolina, Fifth Edition

Introduction to Zoning and Development Regulation in North Carolina is the fifth edition of a publication that has gone by different—though similar— names across the previous four volumes. Since the publication of the last edition in 2013, there have been a number of important changes to the law of development regulation in North Carolina. 

The passage of Session Law 2019-111, which combined state statutes governing development regulation for counties with statutes governing development regulation for cities into a new chapter of the North Carolina General Statutes, is perhaps the most significant of these changes. The laws granting land use regulatory authority to cities and counties were for decades split between G.S. Chapter 153A, Article 18 (for counties) and Chapter 160A, Article 19 (for cities). In 2019, a years-long effort to reorganize and update the development regulation statutes culminated in the adoption of a new Chapter 160D, which consolidated and reorganized the separate city and county statutes for development regulation into a unified, coherent whole. Chapter 160D also pulled in other statutory provisions related to land use regulation, such as rules for adult businesses, family care homes, and airports, that had been scattered across the statute books.

Chapter 160D retained the general scope of authority granted to local governments in prior law and made few substantive changes to the law. This book discusses these changes when appropriate and summarizes the key provisions of Chapter 160D and other important development regulatory authority. It also highlights the case law that supplements and fleshes out portions of the relevant statutory rules.