§ 6.39. ZONING REGULATIONS.

(a)

For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals or general welfare of the City, the City Council is hereby authorized and empowered by ordinance to regulate and restrict the location, height, bulk, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures, the per centage of a lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population and the location and uses of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, business, residence or other purposes, including off-street parking of vehicles. Such ordinances may provide that the board of adjustment may, in appropriate cases and subject to appropriate principles, standards, rules, conditions and safeguards set forth in the ordinance, make special exceptions to the terms of the zoning regulations in harmony with their general purpose and intent. Such ordinances may provide that the board of adjustment may authorize variances from the strict application of the regulations in such situations and subject to such limitations as may be set forth in the ordinance.

(b)

For any and all said purposes and under a comprehensive plan, the City Council may divide the municipality into districts of such number, shape and area as may be deemed best suited to carry out the purpose of this section; and within such districts the City Council may regulate and restrict the erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair and use of buildings, structures, and 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; however, the City Council may provide for the creation of conditional use zoning districts, and overlay zoning districts and transitional zoning regulations, in addition to general use districts.

It is the purpose and intent of this section to permit the City to create, through the legislative process, general use districts, in which a variety of uses are permitted; conditional use districts, in which limited uses are permitted only upon approval by the City; and overlay zoning districts, which are applied coincidental with a general or conditional use district. Said overlay zoning districts may impose additional regulations on some property within the underlying general or conditional use district and not on all properties within those districts.

A person petitioning for rezoning of a tract of land where conditional use districts or overlay districts are authorized by ordinance, may elect to request a general use district, a conditional use district, or an overlay district for the tract.

If the petitioner elects to petition for the general use or overlay district zoning, and if the petition is approved, the rezoned property may be used for any of the uses permitted in the applicable general use or overlay district. If the petitioner elects to petition for conditional use district zoning, the petition must specify the actual use or uses, and all other development regulations authorized by State law, which are intended for the property specified in the petition. The intended use or uses and development regulations must be permitted in the corresponding general use district. If the petition is for conditional use district zoning, the City Council is to approve or disapprove the petition on the basis of the specific use or uses and development regulations requested.

(c)

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 the 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 municipality.

(d)

The City Council shall by ordinance provide for the manner in which such regulations and restrictions and the boundaries of such districts shall be determined, established and enforced, and from time to time amended, supplemented or changed. No such regulation, restriction or boundary or any amendment, supplement or change therein shall become effective until the same shall have been submitted to the City Planning Commission for its recommendations and until such recommendations have been made to the City Council, and until after a public hearing in relation thereto shall be held by and before the City Council at which parties in interest and citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard. A notice of such public hearing shall be published once a week for two (2) successive calendar weeks, immediately preceding the date of such hearing, in a newspaper published in the City and qualified to publish legal advertising, said notice to be published the first time not less than fifteen days prior to the date fixed for said hearing.

(e)

Such regulations, restrictions and boundaries may from time to time be amended, supplemented, changed, modified or repealed. In case, however, of a protest against such change filed at or before the public hearing by the governing body of the municipality, required to be held by G.S. 160-175 (G.S. 160A-381385), and signed by the owners of twenty per cent or more of the area of the lots included in such proposed change, or of those immediately adjacent thereto, either in the rear, in the front, or on either side thereof extending one hundred feet therefrom, or of those directly opposite thereto across a street therefrom, extending one hundred feet from the street frontage of such opposite lots, such amendment shall not become effective except by a favorable vote of three-fourths of all the members of the City Council. The provisions of this section relative to public hearings and official notice shall apply equally to all changes or amendments.

(f)

The City Planning Commission shall have power to make recommendations concerning the boundaries of the various districts and appropriate regulations to be enforced therein. The City Planning Commission shall hold public hearings on proposed regulations, restrictions and boundaries, and proposed amendments, changes and modifications therein before submitting its final report thereon to the City Council, and the City Council shall not take action until it has received the final report of the City Planning Commission.

(S.L. 1953, Ch. 194, §1; S.L. 1959, Ch. 812, §1; S.L. 1985, Ch. 49, §1)

Amendment note: 1985 Session Laws, Ch. 49, §1, amended §100(h) of Ch. 1184 Session Laws 1949, subsection (b) of this section, by replacing the period after the last sentence with a semicolon and adding the remaining language in that paragraph and adding the next three paragraphs in that subsection.