Whether you prefer the hustle and bustle of a walkable urban city or a laid-back rural landscape, ultimately, the decision of which one to live in is left to you. However, in most of North Carolina, walkable cities like Manhattan and Chicago would not be able to be built today, and it’s not because of their size. The issue? Zoning.
In city planning, zoning is a tool that municipalities, like cities, towns, and counties, use to divide land. Counties and cities throughout North Carolina enact ordinances that set zoning rules and limit how land may be used, which impacts the rights and interests of property owners, the government, and the general public. At the city level, they may portion off a certain part of the city as commercial and portion off other parts of the city as residential. While this might sound like a good thing, in practice when everyone lives on one side of the city and works on the other side, this causes you to spend an hour in traffic just to go 20 miles during rush hour traffic. This ever-increasing car dependency is also why you must get in your car and drive 15 minutes to a Walmart to then drive 15 minutes the other way for your kid’s soccer practice.
But zoning doesn’t just impact traffic by separating the city into residential and commercial, it also impacts home prices. As North Carolina continues to grow, the demand for new housing will only continue to increase. However, zoning restrictions artificially restrict the supply of housing in our cities where it is needed the most. This causes housing prices to continue to skyrocket today. As rent prices and housing prices continue to increase faster than wages, people will be pushed farther and farther out into the rural parts of North Carolina. The cycle of suburbia and car-dependent communities will continue to circle unless something is done. So, what can you do about this?
For the residents in a community, it might feel like there is nothing you can do. But that’s not the case. Recently, the Charlotte City Council set out to tackle this issue by adopting The Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan on March 28, 2022. The plan was created through community outreach events so that Charlotte could make changes to the city without losing sight of the people and places that make Charlotte unique. While the Charlotte City Council is making great strides towards a walkable city, disputes often arise when proposals are made to rezone the property from one type to another.
As zoning changes in North Carolina, so too will the legal challenges. When a developer acquires an old portion of the city, they may have to allocate a certain percentage of the land for low-income or multi-family housing, or they might have to make the land mixed-use instead of solely residential or commercial. For a business, the type of business that an owner has in mind for the property may not even be permitted anymore as zoning laws change. In that case, you may need to petition the local government to have the property rezoned. If you own or are planning to purchase commercial real estate, you must understand how these rules work because failure to abide by them could jeopardize your business or result in unnecessary fines and legal problems.
If you or someone you know is involved in or may become involved in a land dispute or zoning controversy, it is important to act quickly and seek legal assistance. At King Law Offices, we understand the sensitivity and complexity of these ever-changing situations and are here to help. Our experienced attorneys can guide you through the service process and the rest of your legal issues. Contact King Law Offices today at (888)-748-KING (5464) for a consultation.