A New UDC To Guide Development Space, Place, & Pace
PROJECT CONTACT:
Sherry Ashley
Planning Director
(704) 878-3539
sashley@statesvillenc.net
HELPFUL LINKS:
TASK 1 - PROJECT INITIATION
TASK 2 - CODE DIAGNOSIS
TASK 3 - ANNOTATED OUTLINE
TASK 4 - INITIAL DRAFT UDC & ZONING MAP
TASK 5 - REVISED DRAFT UDC & ZONING MAP
TASK 6 - ADOPTION
PROJECT BACKGROUND
UPCOMING TEAM VISIT: TASK 2 - CODE DIAGNOSIS
JANUARY 2025
Description: The consulting team will travel to Statesville to overview the Code Diagnosis with the City’s Steering Committee and the City Council. The Code Diagnosis is a brief analysis of the City’s current development regulations and adopted policy guidance along with a series of recommendations for revision to the current UDC provisions to bring them into closer alignment with the City’s Land Use Plan and best planning practices. Additional details on the trip dates will be posted to this webpage soon.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Statesville Soars is a project to update the City’s Unified Development Code (or “UDC”). The UDC controls the type and location of development as well as the rules for development to follow. It controls aspects of landscaping, lighting, open space, parking, housing density, and many others. The main goal of the UDC is to promote the public’s health, safety, and general welfare. It is also an important tool for protecting property values and ensuring that new development contributes to the wealth and prosperity of the City. The UDC also includes the City’s zoning map, or the geographic distribution of uses like homes, businesses, roads, and parks.
While the UDC is the set of laws the City uses to control growth, the rules in the UDC are based on the City’s adopted land use policy guidance. For example, the City adopted its 2045 Land Development Plan in 2022. The Land Development Plan is a set of policies and goals for the future development of Statesville with three main goals: 1) Prioritization of growth and re-investment in targeted areas of the City; 2) Supporting expansion of the local economy by promoting jobs and a more diversified economy; and 3) Enhancing the quality of life for residents through more housing choices, more walkable neighborhoods, and protecting sensitive environmental features. These are policy goals for future development that are realized through development laws like those in the UDC.
The UDC is the primary tool for implementing the City’s adopted policy guidance, and while it has served the City well over the last 14 years, it needs to be updated to reflect the newly-adopted Land Development Plan. Statesville Soars is the project to update the UDC and this web page is a one-stop source for details about the Statesville Soars project. Draft project materials are listed to the right and a series of answers to frequently asked questions are found below. Anyone may pose a question to the City staff and project team by typing their question in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
PROJECT
SCHEDULE
This graphic shows the draft project schedule. It includes seven tasks to be completed by December 2025.
Documents from each task are listed in the sidebar to the right.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
01. What Is The Statesville Soars Project?
The Statesville Soars project is an effort undertaken by the City of Statesville, with assistance from CodeWright Planners, Neighboring Concepts, and Tidewater Associates to prepare an updated Unified Development Code (or “UDC”) and new Official Zoning Map to implement the City’s adopted policy guidance and to establish new development rules and procedures. The updated UDC is expected to bring greater procedural clarity and predictability to the development review process, easier administration, a wider range of housing choices, greater prioritization of infill redevelopment in strategic corridors, and increased development quality.
02. Why Is The Project Called "Statesville Soars"?
“Statesville Soars” is a unique name and logo for the Unified Development Code Update, project documents, and community engagement efforts. Statesville has been a pioneer in hot air balloon manufacturing and pilot training since 1969 and hosts the Carolina BalloonFest every October. Statesville Soars honors the City’s place in ballooning culture and embraces the idea that an effective development code can help elevate development quality and resident satisfaction. To soar means to overcome factors that weigh us down or to rise above current conditions in pursuit of excellence or an alternative future. Statesville Soars is a fitting metaphor for the project given the City’s ballooning heritage and its desire to strive for a better future for its citizens.
03. What Is The Unified Development Code?
A Unified Development Code (or the “UDC”) is an integrated set of standards and regulations governing the use of land within the corporate limits of the City and its extraterritorial jurisdiction. The UDC establishes the kinds of land uses that may be permitted, where those uses may be permitted, the process used by the City to consider requests to establish allowable uses, how uses and land development activities may be operated, how sites and site features supporting land uses are to be configured, and how violations of the City’s land use rules are determined and addressed. In addition to the written rules, the UDC also includes the Official Zoning Map, or the geographic distribution of zoning districts (and thus allowable use types).
04. What Is The City's Adopted Policy Guidance?
The City’s adopted policy guidance is a set of goals, objectives, and policies for future land use and development in Statesville. It represents a generally agreed-upon or shared vision and direction for the future. Adopted policy guidance is based on sound research and practice that seeks to understand current needs, project those needs into the future, and make recommendations about how to optimize future outcomes based on shared desires and goals. The primary piece of adopted land use policy guidance in Statesville is the 2045 Land Development Plan. This document expresses the City’s vision for its future in terms of land use and outlines the goals and actions necessary to realize this vision. Also included in the City’s adopted policy guidance is the Mobility + Development Plan, Route 2 Recreation Statesville Recreation & Parks Master Plan, 2023-2028 Statesville Strategic Plan, and the Downtown & NC 115 Streetscape/Land Use Master Plan.
05. What Are The Key Goals Of The 2024 Land Development Plan?
Statesville’s 2045 Land Development Policy was adopted by City Council in 2022 to establish a vision for the future development of land in Statesville. Looking out into the year 2045 Statesville’s plan for land development supports a priority on growth and reinvestment, expansion of the local economy, and enhancements to quality of life to ensure Statesville is competitive in attracting economic development and fueling a cycle of growth and improvement. The plan identifies six strategic focus areas of the City: three of these are targeted for their potential to attract new growth (Airport/I-40, Jane Sowers North, and Larkin Regional Commerce Park), and three are identified as “redevelopment” strategic focus areas (Broad Street/Signal Hill Mall, Front Street/US-64, and Shelton Avenue/Southern Neighborhoods.
The 2045 Land Development Plan calls specifically for Statesville to “update the Unified Development Code (UDC) consistent with this plan.” It calls for an update of zoning districts to achieve the intended character of the Land Use and Character section of the plan. It also directed for more “user-friendly” flow charts to support greater clarity. The Plan also places a priority on housing choices, calling the rules to codify design standards for apartments, mixed-use buildings and accessory dwelling units to increase housing supply without being overly prescriptive.
06. What Are The Project Goals For Statesville Soars?
Statesville Soars is an effort to implement the 2045 Land Development Plan and other land use policies, broaden housing choices, and raise the bar for development quality in Statesville. This project will include updates to the City’s development rules and zoning map make Statesville’s development rules more user friendly, predictable, and focused on the pace and timing of new development. It is intended to balance growth along the perimeter of the City with rules to promote infill and redevelopment within Statesville’s already built-out urban core. The project includes the following six goals:
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Implement Adopted Policy Guidance
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Broaden Housing Choices
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Promote Infill & Redevelopment in Targeted Areas
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Create a User-Friendly and Predictable Development Code
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Use Placemaking to Encourage Economic Growth
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Raise the Bar for Development Quality
07. Why Is The City Doing This Project Now?
The City of Statesville has recently updated its plan and vision for growth. The 2045 Land Development Plan set goals for how and where the City should grow, but until enacted in City code, these goals are just advisory and somewhat aspirational. In addition, the nation-wide housing shortage and increasing cost of housing has impacted Statesville, as it has hundreds of cities nationwide, with disproportionate impacts being felt by households and families with economic disadvantages. This crisis is another driver that provides an opportune moment for the City to allow more forms of housing and thereby increasing housing supply to support attainable price points.
08. Will My Property Be Affected?
Development in the City’s planning jurisdiction is subject to the rules in the current UDC. While many of the rules in these current documents will likely be revised or amended as part of the updated UDC, lawfully established development that predates the updated UDC will instead be subject to the City’s prior rules. The new UDC will include a series of details about how development applications in process at the time of the adoption of the new UDC will be addressed. Generally speaking, most development applications in process at the time of adoption may choose to follow the new rules or the prior rules. Land that is vacant and not subject to a development application at the time the updated UDC is adopted will be subject to the rules and requirements in the updated UDC. Every effort will be made to ensure that lawfully-established existing development is not impacted in a negative manner by the adoption of the updated UDC. Some changes to the Zoning Map may be proposed but not before several opportunities to learn more about them and weigh in on their desirability.
09. What Parts Of The City Are Most Appropriate For Development?
The 2045 Land Use Plan seeks to encourage compact and incremental growth and development by favoring areas of the City that are already served by infrastructure investment on water, sewer, streets, and other utilities. These lands are identified in the Land Use Plan as “Tier 1” lands. The Plan also describes a spectrum or continuum of development appropriateness, based on proximity to the City’s core and its pre-existing utility resources. The Tiered Growth Map below shows these growth areas. In addition, the Plan also identifies six focus area: three greenfield or new development areas (Airport/I-40, Jane Sowers North, and Larkin Regional Commerce Park), and three redevelopment or infill areas (Broad Street/Signal Hill Mall, Front Street/US-64, and Shelton Avenue/Southern Neighborhoods). Generally speaking, these target areas are appropriate for new development or redevelopment regardless of the development tier where located.
10. What Does "Housing Choice" Mean?
Housing Choice is a concept included in many recent development regulations and plans that supports the idea of a broader array of different kinds of housing formats, both in terms of structure, but also in terms of ownership. Most development regulations recognize single-family detached dwellings, apartments, and townhouses (single-family homes that are attached to one another). However, there are many other kinds of housing alternatives, including mixed-use developments that include residential and non-residential uses in the same building (like live/work use), accessory dwelling units (like small living quarters above detached garages) that can be inside an existing single-family home or in a separate building on the same lot. There are also duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, which are like small-scale apartment buildings. There are also small-lot/small-size housing developments that share driveways and common lands like bungalow court, cottage courts, or pocket neighborhoods. There are also single-family detached rental developments, short term rentals, and single-room occupancy developments. Development regulations that provide increased housing choice include some or all of these alternatives.
11. How Does Housing Supply Impact Housing Prices?
One of the main reasons many cities have expensive housing or a lack of attainable housing is because zoning rules often limit the types of housing that can be built. Zoning rules can be a hinderance to the construction of more housing when it exclusively allows single-family housing. More and more cities are exploring how to increase housing supply by allowing different types of housing like accessory dwelling units that are often built in conjunction with a single-family house, or low -rise apartment buildings which are oftentimes missing from a City’s housing stock.
The 2045 Land Development Plan calls for several improvements to the code which help direct project focus. The Plan directs the project to improve design standards for multi-family buildings to elevate design specifically for Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)-eligible developments. It also expresses a priority of adding to Statesville’s housing stock without being “overly prescriptive” identifying opportunities to include design standards for apartments, mixed-use buildings, and accessory dwelling units. All of these strategies, if implemented, work to support the goal of increasing housing supply to support more attainable housing choices for Statesville.
12. How Can I Get More Involved In The Process?
Public engagement is critical to the success of the Statesville Soars UDC project. City staff and the consulting team are devoted to making sure that anyone who wishes to be involved and share input or feedback on the project may do so at numerous points throughout the process.
Public engagement during the early phases of the Statesville Soars is targeted to technical experts and interested parties and broadens to the general public after initial draft materials are ready for consideration. The project web page is built to share information about the project, includes draft work products, status updates, and many other elements designed to keep folks informed about our progress. This webpage will be maintained and updated throughout the course of the project.
The project is overseen by the City’s UDC Steering Committee (a group of senior City staff members) who will be meeting at least six times throughout the course of the project to consider draft work products and provide initial reactions to project concepts.
Statesville Soars includes a series of four public forums at key stages in the process (review of Code Diagnosis, review of Annotated Outline, review of Initial Draft Text and Zoning Map, and review of Revised Draft Text and Zoning Map). Public forums are structured as open houses where a summary presentation is given and there is time for informal questions and answers. Some public forums (like those associated with the new Zoning Map) may be set up as public workshops with numerous different “stations” where residents and interested individuals can speak directly to City staff or the consulting team. All public forums will take place in person and be located in Statesville. Details on public forums will be posted on this webpage as the project progresses.
There are also a series of office hours available for anyone to request a meeting during one of the consulting team’s trips to Statesville over the course of the project. Office Hours are an opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with members of the consulting team, or a brief presentation to a City group. Office hours are conducted during scheduled consulting team visits to Statesville, and are 30-minute meetings held in the 1st floor conference room at the City’s Planning Department located at 227 South Center Street in downtown Statesville (free parking is available on-site).
Office hours must be scheduled in advance by contacting the City at 704-878-3539. Presentations to City groups may also be scheduled in advance, and may be virtual, depending upon timing.
The adoption process includes at least two public meetings for interested individuals to attend and share input on the proposed regulations with the Planning Board or the City Council during the Adoption task anticipated in winter 2025.
