UDO getting a rewrite

 The Johnston County Planning Board unveils the draft Unified Development Ordinance on Dec. 2.

In August 2023, County Commissioners adopted “Envision Johnston 2040,” a comprehensive plan for how Johnston should develop in the coming decades.

Soon, they will adopt a new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), a set of rules to help that vision come about.

“The land-use plan is the vision, and that’s very heavy on community input, community engagement,” explains County Planning Director Braston Newton. “And the mechanism to carry that vision out is the Unified Development Ordinance, which drives how development occurs and in what form.”

He gives an example. “One thing we saw from the development of our comp plan was that the community wanted to maintain as much of the rural character of the unincorporated county as possible,” Newton says. “And part of that, specifically, is creating buffers between development and operating farms.”

Under the proposed UDO, the developer of a subdivision next to a working farm would have to create or maintain a vegetative buffer between the houses and the neighboring farmland.

“I think it’s proposed to be 75 feet, which is a good amount,” Newton notes.

Another example: “In the comp plan, we identified where we have infrastructure in place that can accommodate development that is more dense,” Newton says. “The goal there is to limit sprawl.”

Toward that end, the proposed UDO eases curbs on planned unit developments, or PUDs, which mix housing with the shops, restaurants and services that cater to residents.

“Our current UDO restricts certain types of development,” Newton says, referring in particular to what he called “gap” or “workforce” housing. Such housing, he explains, could be a duplex, a townhouse or a smaller single-family home on a small lot.

“We don’t have anything in the county that addresses that,” Newton says of workforce housing. “The UDO makes it easier for the development community to provide that resource.”

Gap housing is common in PUDs. “But planned unit developments are right now extremely restricted in the county as to where they can occur and in what form,” Newton says. “The new UDO would make it easier to develop those.”

He concedes that not everyone is a fan of PUDs because they’re denser developments than the subdivisions common in rural Johnston. But “sometimes you need higher density to create affordability because land is not getting any cheaper,” Newton says. “So you allow for higher density.”

But the proposed UDO doesn’t offer a blank check for PUDs. “The developer is going to have to step up their game,” Newton says. “There’s going to have to be a higher quality of development with walkability in mind, with transit orientation in mind.”

A better UDO

Still, Newton thinks the development community will prefer the new UDO over the current one. “I think the biggest benefit to them is that it’s going to be more user-friendly,” he says. “It’s going to be easier to navigate. It’s going to be better organized. There are going to be more graphics so you can understand it better.”

“It’s going to give them more opportunities and more options to develop in the manner they desire to,” Newton adds, pointing again to workforce housing in PUDs.

At the same time, the UDO will ensure quality development, including subdivisions, Newton says. “This UDO is going to require that developer to really give more thought to design,” he says.

In particular, the UDO will ensure that new development is in harmony with the environment. “There are more regulatory standards here to protect the resources that we have and enjoy and want other people in the county to enjoy,” Newton says. “It’s very focused on maintaining and preserving environmentally sensitive areas and preserving the rural culture and nature of unincorporated Johnston County.”

“It’s really requiring the developer to think long term, think for the future, not just today,” he adds.

Is the new UDO going to prevent dense development in certain areas?

“Absolutely not,” Newton says, “because we have infrastructure there. You already have areas of Johnston County that are quickly urbanizing or have urbanized. We can’t rewind that clock. But we can set things in motion and establish requirements and regulatory standards to ensure that sprawl doesn’t continue to eat up what makes Johnston County Johnston County. We have a lot to offer, and we want to maintain it. I think this will do that.”

A community effort

At its core, a UDO strikes a balance between private property rights and the public good. Its land-use rules stem from the notion that living and working in a community means accepting some limits on private property to ensure everyone’s health, safety and general welfare.

“That means anytime anyone makes a lot-level improvement to their property, there are standards that come along with that,” Newton says.

To help write the new UDO standards, Newton’s office turned to a stakeholder group made up of residents, farmers, developers and county staff.

“It was an opportunity for them to sit down and discuss what the needs and desires were among all sectors and come to some kind of consensus,” Newton says. “In addition to that, we had really good public engagement throughout the process. We had seven public meetings across the county, one for each of the Commissioner districts.”

County Commissioners were also deeply involved. “Since it’s their responsibility to adopt plans and policies, we wanted to make sure that they were fully engaged and fully aware,” Newton says.

His office knew too that stakeholders were talking to Commissioners about the UDO. “They’re hearing from their constituency, and what better sources to understand what the constituency is saying?” Newton says.

The end game

Driving it all is that desire to help turn the vision of the comp plan into reality. “So what I think everybody’s going to see in our UDO is that we’re really focused on that,” Newton says.