NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A local representative is sponsoring a bill to grant property owners more leeway in development standards and eliminate extraterritorial districts imposed by the state’s municipalities.
On Monday, Sen. Micahel Lee (R-New Hanover) introduced Senate Bill 675 — also sponsored by Sen. David Craven (R-Anson, Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond, Union) and Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance, Randolph).
READ MORE: Southport raises alarm on state bills changing development processes
The bill includes complete elimination of extraterritorial districts. These are areas outside a municipality’s corporate limits that can still be regulated by the municipality for public health and safety concerns, and be required to follow planning and zoning standards.
Residents in ETJs do not receive most municipal services, such as water, sewer, trash pickup, and fire response, which are only provided to those annexed into corporate limits. They are also not required to pay municipal taxes.
Several municipalities in the Cape Fear region, many located in Brunswick County, established ETJs, including Southport, Bolivia, Calabash, Carolina Shores, Oak Island, Ocean Isle and Shallotte. Surf City in Pender County also has an ETJ.
Since 1917, municipalities have been allowed to pass ordinances regarding public health and safety nuisances up to 3 miles outside of corporate limits. In that year, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in State v. Rice that the city of Greensboro had “unquestioned authority” to adopt an ordinance that prohibited keeping hogs in the city or within a quarter mile of the corporate limits due to sanitary concerns.
The Supreme Court further upheld the legality of these municipal measures; it concluded people’s due process and equal rights are not violated when states grant municipalities extraterritorial jurisdiction without also granting voting powers.
Many states extended this idea to allow extraterritorial planning and land-development regulations.
However, people — including Sen. Lee — have lodged criticisms against the districts due to a lack of political representation for extraterritorial residents.
“So, now they’re regulated by the government, and they have no vote,” Lee said to Port City Daily on Monday. “There’s no representation in those extraterritorial jurisdictions in municipal elections — so that’s really the impetus behind [the bill].”
Lee went on to explain extraterritorial districts are remnants of a time when North Carolina still allowed involuntary annexations. That’s illegal today, unless initiated by the General Assembly. Otherwise, a referendum must be taken absent of a voluntary petition from residents.
“A municipality would essentially obtain an extraterritorial jurisdiction to ease the development, so it more matched the codes and regulations of the city as they went through their involuntary annexation,” Lee said.
While some previous bills have attempted to eliminate extraterritorial jurisdictions, none have succeeded yet. In 2021, leaders drafted legislation to prohibit municipalities from asserting planning control over extraterritorial districts, calling it an injustice. The bill stalled in committee.
If this year’s attempt succeeds, land in extraterritorial districts would revert back to their respective counties for’s control.
Port City Daily reached out to the Brunswick County commissioners to get their thoughts on the legislation. Commissioner Frank Williams was the only one to respond.
“This is the first I’ve heard of this bill,” Williams said. “I’d need to read it and talk with our staff.”
However, one municipality has already stated its opposition. After drafting a resolution against other planning and zoning-related bills earlier this month, Mayor Hatem of Southport decried the bill to Port City Daily on Wednesday.
“This is just another attempt to take away power from the municipalities,” Hatem said.
He said Southport’s ETJ allows those living inside it to be involved in the city’s community and this bill will only shut them out. While ETJ residents are not allowed to vote in Southport’s elections, they are permitted to have representatives on the city’s boards and committees.
The ETJ also gives Southport more control over developments that pop up in the ETJ; without it, the town would have to get residents to agree to annex into the city or deal with the consequences of a bordering development’s effects on the city’s infrastructure, schools, businesses and services.
The regulation of ETJs become more imperative, when a large development comes through. Take Project Indigo, for example, which was proposed last year. It could have doubled the population of Southport and without and ETJ, Southport would have no control over the portion located just outside city limits, even though the massive development would have large effects on Southport citizens.
S.B. 675 addresses two smaller items relating to development. The first clarifies a property owner’s vested rights. One vested right obtained by permit or other local government approval shall not override any other vested right on the property.
The bill will also allow school districts to construct new school buildings in commercial zoning areas either by-right or by special use permit.
Lee told PCD the North Carolina School Boards Association and the North Carolina Charter School Association presented him with concerns over locating land for school sites.
“[They] got together and said, ‘Hey, we are having real issues finding school sites, and we think that school site is most analogous to commercial, so we would like to either be by-right permitted use, or at least have the county or city determine whether we can by special use,’” Lee said.
While he clarified this is not an issue he’s seeing in the New Hanover County area, all school districts across the state would be able to take advantage of the legislation, if passed.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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