For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCESSORY BUILDING. A subordinate building consisting of walls and a roof, the use of which is clearly incidental to that of a principal building on the same lot.
ADMINISTRATOR, SUBDIVISION. The Dare County Planning Director shall serve as the SUBDIVISION ADMINISTRATOR unless otherwise designated by the Dare County Manager.
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. Dare County Board of Commissioners.
BUILDING SETBACK LINE. The line within a property defining the required minimum distance between any building and the adjacent right-of-way or lot.
DOUBLE FRONTAGE LOT. A lot with front and rear street frontage.
LOT. A portion of a subdivision or any other parcel of land intended as a unit for transfer or ownership or for development or both. LOT includes the words PLOT, PARCEL or TRACT.
OFFICIAL MAPS or PLANS. Any maps or plans officially adopted by the Board of Commissioners as a guide for the development of the county.
PLANNING BOARD. Dare County Planning Board.
ROAD. A right-of-way for vehicular traffic. ROAD shall include the word STREET.
(1) CUL-DE-SAC or MINOR DEAD-END ROAD. A road permanently terminated by a turn-around or dead-end.
(2) MARGINAL ACCESS ROAD. A minor (service) road which parallels and is immediately adjacent to a primary road or highway, which provides access to the properties abutting it and which separates the abutting properties from high speed vehicular traffic.
(3) PRIMARY ROAD. A road designed to carry heavy volumes of vehicular traffic.
(4) SECONDARY or COLLECTOR ROAD. A road designed to carry medium volumes of vehicular traffic, to provide access to the primary road system and to provide access to abutting properties.
SUBDIVIDER. Any person, owners, broker, surveyor, engineer, planner, corporation, partnership or the like who subdivides or develops any land deemed to be a subdivision as defined in this section.
SUBDIVISION.
(1) Any division of a tract or parcel of land into 2 or more lots, building sites or other divisions when 1 or more of those divisions are created for the purpose of sale or building development (whether immediate or future) and includes all divisions of land involving the dedication of a new street or a change in existing streets however, the following shall not be included within this definition and is not subject to any regulations enacted in this chapter:
(a) The combination or recombination of portions of previously subdivided and recorded lots, if the total number of lots is not increased and the resultant lots are equal to or exceed the standards of the county as established by this chapter.
(b) The division of land into parcels greater than 10 acres, if no street right-of-way dedication is involved.
(c) The public acquisition by purchase of strips of land for the widening or opening of streets.
(d) The division of a tract of land in single ownership, the entire area of which is no greater than 2 acres, into not more than 3 lots, where no street right-of-way dedication is involved, and if the resultant lots are equal to or exceed the standards of the county as established by this chapter.
(e) The division of a tract into parcels in accordance with the terms of a probated will or in accordance with intestate succession under G.S. Chapter 29.
(f) The combination, recombination or reconfiguration of previously subdivided and recorded lots if the total number of lots is not increased, the nonconforming sizes of the resultant lots are equal to the original nonconforming lot sizes, and no other new conformities of any kind are created. (Example: Lot A is 10,000 square feet and Lot B is 12,000 square feet. These lots may be reconfigured such that Lot A is now 12,000 square feet and Lot B is 10,000 square feet. However, a reconfiguration that results in Lot A being, say, 8,000 square feet and Lot B being 14,000 square feet would not be allowed as the resultant lot sizes are not equal to the original lot sizes. Similarly, an otherwise permitted, reconfiguration that caused an existing structure to violate current setback requirements or other regulations would not be permitted as the reconfiguration created a new nonconformity).
(g) The combination or reconfiguration of previously subdivided and recorded lots if the total number of lots is decreased and the size of the resultant lot(s) are equal to or greater than the originally recorded lots size and no other new nonconformities of any kind are created. Example: two nonconforming lots of 5,000 square feet are combined into 1 lot of 10,000 square feet.
(2) Dare County may provide for expedited review of subdivisions of land as set forth in this chapter.
(3) A plat for recordation under the provisions of § 153.18 for the division of a tract or parcel of land in single ownership if all of the following criteria are met:
(a) The tract or parcel to be divided is not exempted under division (1)(b) of this definition.
(b) No part of the tract or parcel to be divided has been divided under this definition in the 10 years prior to division.
(c) The entire area of the tract or parcel to be divided is greater than 5 acres.
(d) After division, no more than 3 lots result from the division.
(e) After division, all resultant lots comply with all of the following:
1. Any lot dimension size requirements of the applicable land-use regulations, if any.
2. The use of the lots is in conformity with the applicable zoning requirements, if any.
3. A permanent means of ingress and egress is recorded for each lot.
(Prior Code, § 153.05) (Ord. passed 11-29-1982; Am. Ord. passed 3-16-2009; amended 3-21-2011; amended 3-21-2011; amended 8-7-2017)