Skip to code content (skip section selection)
Compare to:
   12.3.3   Public/Institutional Uses
      (A)   Aviation
         Improved or unimproved facilities for the landing and takeoff of flying vehicles, including loading and unloading areas and passenger terminals for aircraft. Accessory uses include freight handling areas, concessions, offices, parking and maintenance, and fueling facilities. Specific use types include:
         (1)   Airport/Landing Strip
            An area designed, used, or intended for use for the landing and take-off of aircraft, and any supporting operations facilities, such as maintenance, loading and unloading, storage, fueling, or terminal facilities.
         (2)   Heliport
            An area designed, used, or intended for use for the landing and take-off of helicopters, and any supporting operations facilities, such as maintenance, loading and unloading, storage, fueling, or terminal facilities.
      (B)   Cemetery
         Land used or dedicated to the interment of human or animal remains, including columbarium, mausoleums, and maintenance facilities. May include crematorium as an accessory use.
      (C)   Cultural Facilities
         Public or nonprofit facilities that display or preserve objects of interest or providing facilities for one (1) or more of the arts or sciences or provision of government services. Accessory uses may include parking, offices, storage areas, and gift shops. Specific use types include:
         (1)   Library
            A public facility for the use, but not sale, of literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials.
         (2)   Museum
            A building having public significance by reason of its architecture or former use or occupancy or a building serving as a repository for a collection of natural, scientific, or literary curiosities or objects of interest, or works of art, and designed to be used by members of the public for loaning or viewing, with or without an admission charge.
      (D)   Day Care
         This use category includes facilities licensed by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Child Development that provide care, protection, and supervision for children or adults on a regular basis away from their primary residence for less than twenty-four (24) hours per day. This category does not include public or private schools or facilities operated in connection with an employment use, shopping center, or other principal use, where children are cared for while parents or guardians are occupied on the premises or in the immediate vicinity. Accessory uses include offices, recreation areas, and parking. Specific use types include:
         (1)   Day Care Center
            A "stand-alone" commercial day care facility intended for the care of three (3) or more children of any age or more than six (6) adults.
         (2)   Day Care Home, Large
            A day care facility established in a residential dwelling in which the occupant of the dwelling provides for the care and keeping of seven (7) to twelve (12) children not related to the care provider by birth, marriage or adoption or between four (4) and six (6) adults.
         (3)   Day Care Home, Small
            A day care facility established in a residential dwelling for the care and keeping of up to six (6) children not related to the care provider by birth, marriage, or adoption or up to three (3) adults.
      (E)   Government Services
         A building, structure, or facility owned, operated, or occupied by a governmental agency to provide a governmental service to the public. Specific use types include:
         (1)   Governmental Office
            A building occupied by a governmental agency that provides direct services to the public such as employment, public assistance, motor vehicle licensing and registration, and similar activities.
         (2)   Public Safety Station
            A use designed to protect public safety and provide emergency response services, often located in or near the area where the service is provided. Employees are regularly present on-site. Accessory uses include offices and parking. Examples include fire stations, police stations, and emergency medical and ambulance stations.
         (3)   Public Utility Facility
            Buildings, structures, or other facilities used or intended to be used by any public agency or utility. (Private or non-governmental utility facilities are included under "non-governmental utility facilities," below.) This category includes buildings or structures that house or contain facilities for the operation of publicly-owned or publicly-licensed water, wastewater, waste disposal, or electricity services. This use also includes water storage tanks; radio, television, and microwave transmission or relay towers; and electric or gas substations, water or wastewater pumping stations, or similar structures used as an intermediary switching, boosting, distribution, or transfer station of electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, cable television, or telephone services. This category includes passageways, including easements, for the express purpose of transmitting or transporting electricity, gas, water, sewage, communication signals, or other similar services on a local level. Additionally, a public utility facility means any energy device and/or system that generates energy from renewable energy resources including solar, hydro, wind, biofuels, wood, geothermal, or similar sources. Accessory uses may include control, monitoring, data, or transmission equipment.
         (4)   Town Owned and/or Operated Facilities and Services
            Land, government offices, public safety stations, utility facilities, buildings, structures and other facilities owned and/or operated by the Town for providing typical and customary governmental services to citizens and owners of property within the corporate limits of the Town and its urban services area. This includes, but is not limited to, administration, recreation, public safety and protection, social and transportation services. Such services may or may not be delivered directly at the same site on which the buildings and facilities are located. Related activities and structures (above or below ground) typically associated with these uses and accessory to their operation include, but are not limited to, offices, utility facilities, indoor/outdoor storage and parking.
      (F)   Hospital
         A licensed public or private institution that provides in-patient primary health services and medical or surgical care to persons suffering from illness, disease, injury, deformity, or other physical or mental conditions, and including related facilities such as laboratories, outpatient, or training facilities.
      (G)   Park and Open Space
         Uses of land focusing on natural areas, large areas consisting mostly of vegetative landscaping or outdoor recreation, community gardens, or public squares. Lands tend to have few structures. Accessory uses may include clubhouses, playgrounds, maintenance facilities, concessions, caretaker's quarters, and parking. Specific use types include:
         (1)   Athletic Field, Public
            Land, often requiring equipment, owned by a unit of government and designed for outdoor games and sports such as baseball, football, and soccer.
         (2)   Community Garden
            A private or public facility for cultivation of fruits, flowers, vegetables, or ornamental plants by more than one (1) person.
         (3)   Neighborhood Recreation Center, Public
            A common building or area, open to the public, that provides a focus for recreational, neighborhood, educational and cultural activities for the residents of that immediate neighborhood.
         (4)   Outdoor Amphitheater, Public
            An outdoor stadium, theater, amphitheater or similar structure operated by and/or in conjunction with a school, college, university, or by the Town or other unit of government.
         (5)   Park, Public
            A noncommercial, non-profit facility or land owned by the Town, the State of North Carolina, or another unit of government which is used or intended to be used by for recreation, education, or cultural use, including both active and/or passive recreation.
         (6)   Resource Conservation Facility
            Fish hatcheries and fish ponds; game preserves; botanical and zoological gardens; water reservoirs and dams.
      (H)   Religious Assembly
         Facilities used primarily for non-profit purposes by a recognized and legally established sect to provide assembly and meeting areas for religious activities. Accessory uses include Sunday school facilities, parking, caretaker's housing, pastor's housing, and group living facilities such as convents. Examples include churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques, but not associated schools, day care facilities, or other facilities not devoted to religious activity.
      (I)   Educational Use
         Public, private, and parochial institutions at the primary, elementary, middle, high school, or post-secondary level, other than trade or business schools, which provide educational instruction to students. Accessory uses include play areas, cafeterias, recreational and sport facilities, auditoriums, and before- or after-school day care.
         (1)   College or University
            A degree-granting institution, other than a trade school, which provides education beyond the high-school level, and which may provide lodging or dwelling units for students or faculty, and typically has programs resulting in an Associate's, Bachelor's, or Master's degree. In addition to classroom buildings, it may include offices, laboratories, lecture halls, athletic facilities, dormitories, and similar buildings.
         (2)   School
            An elementary school, middle school, junior high school, or high school that does not provide lodging for students, including any accessory athletic fields and recreational facilities.
         (3)   Pre-School
            A non-residential use operated for the purposes of care of pre-school-aged children. Employees of such uses are not teachers, and the primary purpose of the facility is not for education, though such uses may include educational aspects or activities.
      (J)   Non-Governmental Utility
         Buildings, structures, or other facilities used or intended to be used by any private or non-governmental utility. (Public utility facilities are included under "public utility facilities," above.) This category includes buildings or structures that house or contain facilities for the operation of privately owned water, wastewater, waste disposal, or electricity services. This use also includes water storage tanks; radio, television, and microwave transmission or relay towers; and electric or gas substations, water or wastewater pumping stations, or similar structures used as an intermediary switching, boosting, distribution, or transfer station of electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, cable television, or telephone services. This category includes passageways, including easements, for the express purpose of transmitting or transporting electricity, gas, water, sewage, communication signals, or other similar services on a local level. Additionally, a private utility facility means any energy device and/or system that generates energy from renewable energy resources including solar, hydro, wind, biofuels, wood, geothermal, or similar sources. Accessory uses may include control, monitoring, data, or transmission equipment.
         (1)   Utility Facility, Major
            A service of a regional nature that normally entails the construction of new buildings or structures, and that typically has employees at the site. Examples include water works, reservoirs, power or heating plants, or steam generating plants.
         (2)   Transportation Facility
            A facility or location that receives and discharges passenger and at which facilities and equipment required for their operation are provided. Examples include terminals for bus, trolley, taxi, commuter/passenger railroad, shuttle van, or other similar vehicular services.
         (3)   Utility Substation, Minor
            A service that is necessary to support development within the immediate vicinity and that involves only minor structures. Employees typically are not located at the site. Examples include electric transformer stations, gas stations, telephone exchange buildings, and well, water, and sewer pumping stations.