Butner council approves land-development ordinance changes on disturbance thresholds, ADUs, manufactured-home definitions and sidewalks

Butner Town Council approved a package of four text amendments to the town's Land Development Ordinance in a public hearing.

Planning Director Jennifer Ganser explained the changes: (1) amend Article 15 to update the land-disturbance level from one-half acre to one acre to conform with recent state statute; (2) limit lots to a single principal residential dwelling while continuing to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) smaller than the principal structure; (3) add clarifying language to the manufactured-home definition (language adapted from Granville County) to ensure travel trailers and campers are not treated as manufactured homes; and (4) revise the fee-in-lieu-of-sidewalk section to add some districts, add a conflict-with-other-infrastructure criterion and make the ordinance administrator (with technical-review-committee guidance) the approval authority rather than the planning board for those limited fee-in-lieu requests.

Several council members and residents asked about appeals, notice to council if fee-in-lieu funds accumulate, and specific thresholds for ADUs; staff explained that administrative determinations under the LDO are appealable under N.C. Gen. Stat. 160D and that the fee-in-lieu account is tracked in the town's audit. Planning staff said $23,000 is currently in the fee-in-lieu account from a 2018 transaction.

The council voted to adopt the consistency statement and approve TA-26-01 with the amendments as presented; planning staff said future administrative practices will include notifying council when fee-in-lieu requests occur and that any proposal to spend the fund would come before council.