BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Brunswick County’s Planning Board will soon consider revising its outdoor lodging code to add flexibility to requirements for campgrounds and RV parks.
Changes include reducing the minimum required number of lots, removing a requirement for campgrounds to be paved, and allowing so-called “tiny homes” in RV parks.
The changes
Next week, the Brunswick County Planning Board will look at several changes to the county’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). As the UDO now stands, the code does not include specific language that regulates yurts — large rounded tents — or tiny homes.
Kristie Dixon, Brunswick County’s planning director, said the county gets calls about tiny homes every day.
She said technically, stick-built tiny homes are already permitted on residential land if they meet state building code. Tiny homes on wheels are also permitted in campgrounds, Dixon said. For someone who may want to create a community comprised of just tiny homes, Dixon said the county’s planned development process also has flexibility written into it to begin such a project.
If the changes are passed by Commissioners at a future date, tiny homes and yurts would also be allowed in outdoor RV resorts.
The code change would allow for:
- Cabins, yurts and/or tiny homes may occupy up to 40 percent of an outdoor RV resort.
- At campgrounds, including government-run facilities, cabins may occupy up to 40 percent of the campsite.
Despite multiple inquiries about starting outdoor RV resorts, Dixon said only one property owner operates one on in the unincorporated county. “We’ve had outdoor RV resorts for some years but nobody’s really ever used them,” Dixon said. “It’s changing them to make it more desirable.”
Under the proposed outdoor lodging changes, campsite lots won’t have to be as large, campgrounds won’t have to include as many campsites and campsites won’t have to be subdivided into individually-owned lots.
These outdoor lodging changes include:
- Reducing minimum campsite size in RV resorts from 2,400 sq. ft. to 1,920 sq. ft.
- Reducing the minimum amount of campsites required at campgrounds from 15 to 10.
- Removing the requirement for campgrounds to be internally paved.
- Removing the requirement for campsites to be individually subdivided.
All proposed changes will be reviewed next week at a public hearing in Bolivia. The county’s planning board will meet to review the changes on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the second-floor conference room at the Brunswick County Government Center in Bolivia.
Update: This article has been updated to include information provided by Kristie Dixon.
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