NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1959 SESSION

CHAPTER 1006
HOUSE BILL 372

AN ACT AUTHORIZING COUNTIES TO ADOPT ORDINANCES PROVIDING FOR THE ZONING AND REGULATION OF BUILDINGS AND OTHER STRUCTURES AND THE USE OF LAND, OTHER THAN FOR FARMING, IN AREAS OUTSIDE THE ZONING JURISDICTION OF MUNICIPALITIES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. Chapter 153 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article immediately following Article 20A, to be designated as Article 20B, and to read as follows:
"ARTICLE 20B.
"G. S. 153‑266.10. For the purpose of promoting health, safety, morals, or the general welfare, the board of county commissioners of any county is hereby empowered to regulate and restrict
"(a)	the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures,
"(b)	the percentage of lot that may be occupied,
"(c)	the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces,
"(d)	the density of population, and
"(e)	the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes, except farming.
"No such regulations shall affect bona fide farms, but any use of such property for nonfarm purposes shall be subject to such regulations. Such regulations may provide that a board of adjustment may determine and vary their application in harmony with their general purpose and intent and in accordance with general or specific rules therein contained.
"G. S. 153‑266.11. For any and all said purposes, the board of commissioners may divide the county, or portions of it as determined in accordance with the provisions of G. S. 153‑266.13 below, into districts of such number, shape, and area as may be deemed best suited to carry out the purposes of this Article; and within such districts it may regulate and restrict the erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, or use of buildings, structures, or land. All such regulations shall be uniform for each class or kind of building throughout each district, but the regulations in one district may differ from those in other districts.
"G. S. 153‑266.12. Such regulations shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan and designed to lessen congestion in the streets; to secure safety from fire, panic, and other dangers; to promote health and the general welfare; to provide adequate light and air; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration of population; to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks, and other public requirements. Such regulations shall be made with reasonable consideration, among other things, as to the character of each district and its peculiar suitability for particular uses, and with a view to conserving the value of buildings and encouraging the most appropriate use of land throughout such county. Such regulations shall further be made with reasonable consideration to expansion and development of municipalities within the county, so as to provide for the orderly growth and development of such municipalities.
"G. S. 153‑266.13. The county zoning ordinance may regulate all territory in the county outside the zoning jurisdiction of any municipalities within the county. In addition, the county zoning ordinance may regulate territory within the zoning jurisdiction of any municipality whose governing body, by resolution, agrees to such regulation; provided, however, that any such municipal governing body may, upon one year's written notice, withdraw its approval of the county zoning regulations, and those regulations shall have no further effect within the municipality's jurisdiction.
"Where the board of commissioners determines that it is not necessary to zone the entire county in order to serve the public interest, the board may, after a public hearing, designate one or more portions of the county as a zoning area or areas. Any such area or areas may be regulated in the same manner as if the entire county were zoned, and the remainder of the county need not be regulated. No zoning area may be designated which is less than six hundred forty (640) acres in area, or which contains less than ten separate tracts of land in separate ownership.
"G. S. 153‑266.14. In order to avail itself of the powers conferred by this Article, the board of commissioners shall appoint a county planning board or a joint planning board under the provisions of G. S. 153‑9(40) or of a special Act of the General Assembly. If the board of commissioners creates one or more zoning areas within the county under the provisions of G. S. 153‑266.13 hereof, it shall also appoint an advisory commission for each such zoning area, composed of residents of the area. Each advisory commission shall be charged with the duty of making recommendations to the planning board and the board of commissioners concerning zoning regulations for its area.
"G. S. 153‑266.15. The county planning board or joint planning board shall have the duty of preparing a zoning plan, including both the full text of a zoning ordinance and a map or maps showing proposed district boundaries. The planning board may hold such public hearings as it deems necessary in the course of preparing this plan. The planning board shall certify this plan to the board of county commissioners.
"On receipt of a zoning plan from the county planning board, the board of commissioners shall hold a public hearing thereon, after which it may adopt the zoning ordinance and map as recommended, adopt it with modifications, or reject it. 
"The zoning ordinance, including the map or maps, may from time to time be amended, supplemented, changed, modified, or repealed. No amendment shall become effective, unless it first be submitted to the planning board for its recommendations; failure of the planning board to make recommendations for a period of 30 days after the amendment has been referred to it shall constitute a favorable recommendation. No amendment may be adopted until after a public hearing thereon.
"G. S. 153‑266.16. Whenever in this Act a public hearing is required all parties in interest and other citizens shall be given an opportunity to be heard. A notice of such public hearing shall be given once a week for two successive calendar weeks in a newspaper published in the county, or, if there be no newspaper published in the county, by posting such notice at four public places in the county, said notice to be published the first time or posted not less than 15 days prior to the date fixed for said hearing.
"G. S. 153‑266.17. If it exercises the powers granted by this Article, the board of commissioners shall provide for the appointment of a board of adjustment consisting of five members, each to be appointed for three years; provided, that the board of commissioners in the appointment of the original members of such board, or in the filling of vacancies caused by the expiration of the terms of the existing members of any such board, may make appointments of certain members for less than three years to the end that thereafter the terms of all members shall not expire at the same time. The board of commissioners may, in its discretion, appoint not more than two alternate members to serve on such board in the absence, for any cause, of any regular members. Such alternate member or members shall be appointed for the same term or terms as regular members, and shall be appointed in the same manner as regular members and at the regular times for appointment. Each alternate member, while attending any regular or special meeting of the board and serving in the absence of any regular member, shall have and exercise all the powers and duties of such regular member so absent.
"Such board of adjustment shall hear and decide appeals from and review any order, requirement, decision, or determination made by an administrative official charged with the enforcement of any ordinance adopted pursuant to this Article. Such appeal may be taken by any person aggrieved or by an officer, department, board, or bureau of the county. Such appeal shall be taken within such time as shall be prescribed by the board of adjustment by general rule, by filing with the officer from whom the appeal is taken and with the board of adjustment a notice of appeal, specifying the grounds thereof. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken. An appeal stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action appealed from, unless the officer from whom the appeal is taken certifies to the board of adjustment, after notice of appeal shall have been filed with him, that by reason of facts stated or property, in which case proceedings shall not be stayed otherwise than by a restraining order, which may be granted by the board of adjustment or by a court of record on application, on notice to the officer from whom the appeal is taken and on due cause shown. The board of adjustment shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal and give due notice thereof to the parties, and decide the same within a reasonable time. The board of adjustment may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify the order, requirement, decision, or determination appealed from, and shall make such order, requirement, decision or determination as in its opinion ought to be made in the premises, and to that end shall have all the powers of the officer from whom the appeal is taken.
"The zoning ordinance may provide that the board of adjustment may permit special exceptions to the zoning regulations in the classes of cases or situations and in accordance with the principles, conditions, safeguards, and procedures specified in the ordinance. The ordinance may also authorize the board to interpret the zoning maps and pass upon disputed questions of lot lines or district boundary lines and similar questions as they arise in the administration of the ordinance. The board shall hear and decide all such matters referred to it or upon which it is required to pass under any such ordinance.
"Where there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships in the way of carrying out the strict letter of such ordinance, the board of adjustment shall have the power, in passing upon appeals, to vary or modify any of the regulations or provisions of such ordinance relating to the use, construction or alteration of buildings or structures or the use of land, so that the spirit of the ordinance shall be observed, public safety and welfare secured, and substantial justice done.
"The concurring vote of four members of the board shall be necessary to reverse any order, requirement, decision, or determination of any administrative official charged with the enforcement of an ordinance adopted pursuant to this Article, or to decide in favor of the applicant any matter upon which it is required to pass under any such ordinance, or to grant a variance from the provisions of such ordinance. Every decision of such board shall be subject to review by the Superior Court by proceedings in the nature of certiorari.
"G. S. 153‑266.18. In case any building or structure is erected, constructed, reconstructed, altered, repaired, converted, or maintained, or any building, structure, or land is used in violation of this Article or of any ordinance or other regulation made under authority conferred hereby, the proper authorities of the county, in addition to other remedies, may institute any appropriate action or proceedings
"(a)	to prevent such unlawful erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, conversion, maintenance, or use,
"(b)	to restrain, correct, or abate such violation,
"(c)	to prevent the occupancy of said building, structure, or land, or
"(d)	to prevent any illegal act, conduct, business, or use in or about such premises.
"G. S. 153‑266.19. Wherever the regulations made under authority of this Article require a greater width or size of yards or courts, or require a lower height of building or less number of stories, or require a greater percentage of lot to be left unoccupied, or impose other higher standards than are required in any other statute or local ordinance or regulation, the provisions of the regulations made under authority of this Article shall govern. Wherever the provisions of any other statute or local ordinance or regulation require a greater width or size of yards or courts, or require a lower height of building or a less number of stories, or require a greater percentage of lot to be left unoccupied, or impose other higher standards than are required by the regulations made under authority of this Article, the provisions of such statute or local ordinance or regulation shall govern.
"G. S. 153‑266.20. This Article shall not have the effect of repealing any Zoning Act or County Planning Act, local or general, now in force; but it shall be construed to be in enlargement of the duties, powers, and authority contained in such statutes and all other laws authorizing the appointment and proper functioning of county planning boards or zoning commissions by any county in the State of North Carolina.
"G. S. 153‑266.21. All of the provisions of this Act and any ordinance adopted pursuant hereto are hereby made applicable to the erection and construction of buildings by the State of North Carolina and its political subdivisions.
"G. S. 153‑266.22. This Article shall not apply to the following counties: Alleghany, Ashe, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Caswell, Craven, Currituck, Duplin, Franklin, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Iredell, Lenoir, Martin, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Person, Scotland, Surry, Tyrrell, Warren, Washington, Watauga and Wayne."'
Sec. l½. The provisions of this Act shall not apply to Cumberland County and Johnston County.
Sec. 2. This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 16th day of June, 1959.