Currituck updates 'lot of record' definition to reflect 1989 UDO and require lot designation before zoning permits

Currituck County commissioners voted Sept. 2 to amend the Unified Development Ordinance definition of “lot of record,” changing baseline dates and adding clarifying language to make enforcement more straightforward.

The amendment, PB 25-16, retains the five-part concept of a lot of record — a lot in an approved subdivision, lots created prior to the relevant ordinance date, lots with existing principal structures where a valid building permit was obtained, lots that met regulations at the time of creation, and lots that meet current subdivision regulations — but updates the historic date from the subdivision ordinance of Aug. 2, 1965 to the county’s unified development ordinance effective 04/02/1989. The amendment also clarifies that a lot of record must be established before issuance of a zoning permit for a principal use.

Miss Turner, planning staff, explained that proving the existence of a valid building permit for older lots is sometimes difficult because records are incomplete. The proposed language will also explicitly cover lots where a principal structure was demolished with a permit and adds a phrase referencing the lot “as it existed in 2025” in order to close a loophole in which an existing structure could be removed and the lot reconfigured to claim different treatment.

Turner told commissioners the planning board recommended approval because the amendment conforms to the Imagine Currituck 2040 vision plan and UDO land use goals. No members of the public spoke on the item, and the motion to adopt the amendment passed with a recorded “aye” vote and the clerk announcing the motion carries.

The amendment does not change the substantive development standards in the UDO; it clarifies how staff and property owners demonstrate that a parcel qualifies as a lot of record and makes the county’s longstanding practice — that a lot of record must exist before a zoning permit for a principal use is issued — explicit in the ordinance.