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ABOUT

The Advance Morehead City project is an initiative being undertaken by the City to update and modernize its current Unified Development Ordinance.  A Unified Development Ordinance (or “UDO”) is the basic set of laws used by the City to foster redevelopment, support employment growth, ensure a wide range of housing options, protect the environment, and help ensure a prosperous future for City residents.  It includes the zoning provisions, the subdivision requirements, development application review requirements, and the zoning enforcement standards.

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  • Replacement of antiquated or ambiguous language with modern, clear, defensible, and user-friendly language;

  • Restructuring (renumbering) of ordinance in a consistent, logical format;

  • Specification of requirements for calculation and measurement;

  • Addition of new graphics, illustrations, tables, and charts;

  • Attention to compliance / conformance with local, state, and federal laws and relevant court cases;

  • Clarification and specification, where necessary, of procedures for various approval processes to include specific requirements to provide applicable local/state/federal approvals, exemptions, or permits;

  • Attention to newer uses or trends that have occurred since the time of the original 2001 UDO adoption, including newer uses and standards for these uses;

  • Evaluation and proposed update to the table of permissible and special uses; and

  • Evaluation of current zoning district classifications, to include consideration for alignment with future land use designations contained in the Morehead City Plan 2032.

 

In addition to these basic objectives, the City’s request for proposals also identifies a series of other topics for exploration as part of the project, including:

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  • Codification of street standards and/or alignment with Code of Ordinances and Public Services Department practices;

  • Design considerations for non-residential construction;

  • Incentives for affordable/workforce housing; 

  • Incentives for environmental protection, such as low impact development
    and/or sustainable development; and

  • Incentives to mitigate water quality and water quantity problems.

 

The City’s request for qualifications is available under the DOCUMENTS tab of this website.

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The City’s new Morehead City Plan 2032 is a policy document adopted by the City Council in August 2023 that identifies the City’s shared vision for the future, the goals for growth and development, and a set of recommendations for the City to undertake in order to reach those goals.  Page 57 of the Plan identifies five key Planning Principals that serve to organize the Plan’s goals and objectives.  These include:

 

  1. Grow with Purpose (be thoughtful about where the City grows and how that growth looks);

  2. Enrich our Culture (honor and celebrate the City’s history, support the City’s arts and culture);

  3. Move with Ease (pursue a connected and multimodal transportation system);

  4. Cultivate new Opportunities (promote a year-round economy and housing options tailored to local needs); and

  5. Live with Water (the coastal environment and maritime traditions are the City’s greatest asset).

 

The Plan also organizes its goals and objectives by neighborhood area.  It identifies the following seven neighborhood areas (on Pages 59 & 60):

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  1. Downtown;

  2. Midtown;

  3. Southwest;

  4. Northwest;

  5. Country Club West;

  6. Country Club East; and

  7. East.

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In addition to the planning principles and neighborhoods mentioned above, page 65 of the Plan also includes a new future land use map that identifies 12 future land use classifications that are used to guide how parts of the City are zoned or rezoned in the future. The UDO will establish zoning districts based on these future land use designations.

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The UDO is the primary means by which the City will achieve many of the goals and objectives identified in the 2022 Land Development Plan, including broadening the range of housing options, preserving historic areas, encouraging development of activity centers in designated locations, and protection rural character and environmentally-sensitive areas.

In addition to implementing the Plan Morehead City 2032, the updated UDO prepared as a part of Advance Morehead City will utilize a new user-friendly page layout and numbering system, be highly illustrated, and include numerous navigational aids to make the document easier to use.  In addition to structural improvements, the new UDO will focus on greater predictability through simple language, inclusion of more detail on purpose and intent, and clear descriptions of decision-making criteria.  The new UDO will also promote a greater level of flexibility in pursuit of beneficial forms of development and redevelopment (in the Downtown, along designated corridors, and in employment centers like the Port).  There will be incentives for preferred development forms, menu-based approaches to development standards that allow applicants to choose from among a range of options for meeting some development requirements, and various methods of alternative compliance. 

 

Finally, the new UDO will be consistent with applicable State law, federal law, recent court precedent, and national best practices in land use regulation as a means of reducing legal exposure, protecting private property rights, and ensuring greater harmony between the natural and built environments.

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