You can tell me what to do, sometimes: local zoning ordinance application to North Carolina and its political subdivisions

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Last Modified
  • February 28, 2019
Creator
  • Breece, Bradley Joseph
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of City and Regional Planning
Abstract
  • A delegation of the State's police power, North Carolina municipalities since the 1920s and counties since the 1950s have been empowered to impose local zoning regulations. In its initial iteration, the zoning enabling statute for municipalities did not address whether local zoning codes would apply to the State or its political subdivisions. To fill this breach, North Carolina courts developed a governmental-proprietary use test to determine if local zoning regulations would apply to government projects. Since 1951 for cities and 1959 for counties, North Carolina statutory law has superseded this judicial test and presently declares that local zoning laws are applicable to the "erection, construction, and use of buildings by the State of North Carolina and its political subdivisions." The term "building" is left undefined in the zoning enabling statutes. While a pair of judicial decisions and standard tools of statutory interpretation, including legislative history, give some suggestion on how a court may interpret "building" prospectively, more guidance is needed from the General Assembly in order to better elucidate and effectuate its intent. Faced with an undefined scope of "building," as well as the General Assembly's plenary ability to exempt the State and its political subdivisions from local zoning regulations on an ad hoc basis, local governments are forced to strike a "delicate balance" with State actors based more on politics and bargaining power than on a more legally principled basis. To better meet the general policy goals of enabling North Carolina municipalities and counties to zone as well as the policy of subjecting State and political subdivision buildings, but not other non-building uses to those local zoning laws, the General Assembly would do well to better define and cement their limitations on local zoning authority.
Date of publication
DOI
Resource type
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Malizia, Emil E.
Degree
  • Master of City and Regional Planning
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language
Location
  • North Carolina, North Carolina, United States
Extent
  • 80 p.
Access right
  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • December 10, 2010

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