Section 7.02 Development Processes and Permits

   7.02.1   PURPOSE AND INTENT

   In order to establish an orderly process to develop land within the jurisdiction of the Town of Lillington consistent with standard development practices and terminology it is the purpose of this section to provide a clear and comprehensible development process.

   7.02.2   PROVISIONS AND APPLICABILITY

   The provisions of this section shall be applicable to all development activity under the jurisdiction of the Town of Lillington.

   A.   Permit to Start Construction Required

   No land shall be used or occupied and no structures shall be erected, moved, extended, or enlarged, nor shall any timbering, clearing and grubbing, or filling of any lot for the construction of any building be initiated until the Administrator has issued an appropriate permit which will certify that the proposed work is in conformity with the provisions of this ordinance.

   B.   Fees and Inspections

      1.   The Town of Lillington is authorized to establish fees to be charged by the town for the administration of the regulations in this ordinance. Based on the town’s official fee schedule, fees shall be paid to the town to cover the cost of processing, advertising and other administrative expenses regarding each application and/or plan as specified in this ordinance.

      2.   Agents and officials of the town are authorized to inspect land development activities to ensure compliance with this ordinance, or rules or orders adopted or issued pursuant to this ordinance, and to determine whether the measures required in approved development plans are being appropriately followed. Notice of the right to inspect shall be included in the certificate of approval of each plan.

      3.   No person shall willfully resist, delay or obstruct an authorized representative, employee or agent of the town while that person is inspecting or attempting to inspect a land development activity.

      4.   The town shall also have the power to require written statements or filing reports under oath, with respect to pertinent questions relating to the land development activity.

   C.   Permit/Process Table:

Development Permit/Process	Process Type	Review/ Recommendation	Final Action	Appeal Process	Public Notice Level
Appeal of Administrative Decision	Quasi-Judicial	N/A	N/A	Superior Court	1
Certificate of Compliance	Administrativ e	Administrator	Administrator	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Conditional Zoning Districts	Legislative	Planning Board	Board of Commissioners	Superior Court	1, 2, & 3
Design Review	Administrativ e	Administrator	Administrator	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Final Plat	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Floodplain Development Permit	Administrativ e	Administrator	Administrator	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Major Site Plan	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Major Subdivision Preliminary Plat	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Minor Subdivision	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Rezoning (Map Amendment)	Legislative	Planning Board	Board of Commissioners	Superior Court	1, 2, & 3
Site Construction Plan	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Special Use Permit	Quasi-Judicial	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Commissioners	Superior Court	1, 2, & 3
Subdivision Construction Plan	Administrativ e	Administrator/ TRC	Administrator/ TRC	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Temporary Use/ Special Event Permit	*Administrati ve	*Administrator	*Administrator	Board of Adjustment	N/A
Text Amendment	Legislative	Planning Board	Board of Commissioners	Superior Court	1, 2 & 3
[1] Transportation Impact Analysis (TIA)	**Administrat ive	**Administrato r/ TRC	**Administrato r/ TRC	N/A	N/A
Variance	Quasi-Judicial	Board of Adjustment	Board of Adjustment	Superior Court	1, 2 & 3
Zoning Permit	Administrativ e	Administrator	Administrator	Board of Adjustment	N/A

[1] See Article 5, Section 4.14 - Transportation Impact Analysis.

*Requires Board of Commissioners approval if street closure is involved.

**TIAs may be required as part of a conditional zoning or master plan approval as determined by the Administrator.

   7.02.3   APPLICATION COMPLETENESS

   A.   Applications to Be Complete

      1.   No application is complete unless all of the information required herein is included and all filing fees have been paid. An application that includes such information is deemed complete.

      2.   Additional information may be required by the Administrator to decide whether or not the development, if completed as proposed, will comply with all of the requirements of this ordinance. Failure to provide additional required information may result in application denial. The presumption established by this UDO is that all required application information is necessary.

      3.   Review for completeness of application forms is solely for the purpose of determining whether preliminary information required for submission constitute a decision as to whether application complies with the provisions of the UDO.

      4.   The Administrator may agree to process an application without all required information at the risk to the applicant that the decision-making body may later require the information prior to acting on the application.

   B.   Evidence of Authority

The Administrator may require an applicant to present evidence of authority to submit the application.

   7.02.4   PUBLIC NOTICE

   The following procedures have been established for development processes/permits that require notification of the public prior to consideration and/or approval.

   A.   Level 1: Published Notice - General

   A notice shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the town once a week for two successive weeks. The first publication shall appear no less than ten days or more than 25 days prior to the date fixed for the public hearing. The notice shall include the time, place and date of the hearing/meeting and include a description of the property and the nature of the proposal.

   B.   Level 2: Mailed Notice / Full Community Notice

      1.   The owners of property owners adjacent to the the subject property shall be notified of the hearing/meeting by first class mail. Such notification shall be postmarked at least ten but not more 25 days prior to the date of the meeting at which the matter is to be heard.

      2.   As an alternative, to the mailed notice requirements in Section 7.02.4.B.1 above and per G.S. § 160D-602(b), the town may elect to serve notice through a full community notification for pending actions that affect at least 50 properties with at least 50 different property owners. The town shall publish notice of the hearing/meeting in a newspaper of general circulation in the town. Two advertisements shall be published in separate calendar weeks. Each advertisement shall not be less than one-half of a newspaper page in size. The advertisement shall only be effective for property owners who reside in the area of general circulation of the newspaper which publishes the notice. Property owners who reside outside of the newspaper circulation area, according to the address listed on the most recent property tax listing for the affected property, shall be notified by first class mail.

   C.   Level 3: Posted Notice

   In addition to providing published or mailed notice, as required in above, a sign shall be placed in a prominent location on the subject property(ies) or on an adjacent public street or highway right-of-way with a notice of the pending action/hearing and a phone number to contact for additional information. The posting shall occur within the same time period specified in Section 7.02.4.B.1.

   7.02.5   APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

   A.   The following general standards for various applications have been identified as a means to create a hierarchy of submissions for permits/processes.

   B.   The application checklists in the appendix section of this ordinance are intended to provide further guidance to applicants as to the necessary level of detail for certain permit/process types. Permits/processes for which checklist requirements are needed are marked with “•” in the table below:

Development Permit/Process	Existing Conditions Map	Sketch Plan	Master Plan	Construction Plan	Final Plat	Building Elevations	As-Built Drawings
Conditional Zoning Districts	•		•
Special Use Permit	•		•
Design Review		•				•
Final Plat					•		•*
Floodplain Development Permit	•			•			•
Major Site Plan	•		•
Major Subdivision Preliminary Plat	•		•
Minor Subdivision					•
Construction Plans	•			•			•*
Temporary Use/Special Event Permit		•*
Vested Right			•
Zoning Permit		•*

 

*As needed by the Administrator

   C.   Existing Conditions Map

      An existing conditions map is intended to identify existing developed conditions and natural features including, but not limited to, the following:

      •   Rights of way

      •   Existing structures

      •   Cemeteries

      •   Bridges or culverts

      •   Utilities

      •   Driveways & curb cuts

      •   Sidewalks, surface parking & loading areas

      •   Streets with pavement width

      •   Existing easements

      •   Natural features such as large stands of trees, water features, special flood hazard area

      •   Soils Type

      •   Existing topography

   D.   Sketch Plan

      1.   A sketch plan shall show in simple sketch form the dimensions of the lot on which the proposed building or use is to be constructed or conducted and the following:

         •   Proposed layout of existing and proposed streets

         •   Existing or proposed lot(s) layout, building(s) location and size

         •   Nature of land use, parking areas and means of ingress/egress

         •   Environmental conditions (i.e. special flood hazard, wetlands, impervious surface area, etc.)

      2.   Sketch plans shall be reviewed as binding documents for compliance of Unified Development Ordinance conformance, but shall be used for non-binding review for all other development application processes in which a sketch plan is required. All plans shall be submitted at a scale not less than 1 inch = 50 feet (for site plans) or 1 inch = 200 feet (for subdivisions) unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator.

   E.   Master Plan

      1.   A master plan is intended to provide a detailed two-dimensional drawing that illustrates all of the required site features including:

         •   Buildings & parking areas

         •   Streets locations, street sections & new & existing rights-of-ways

         •   Property lines and setbacks

         •   Required or proposed buffers

         •   Conceptual landscaping

         •   All related development calculations (e.g., density, proposed building areas, number of parking spaces, estimate impervious surface) in sufficient detail to show compliance with this ordinance

      2.   Detailed engineering drawings such as subsurface utilities (e.g., water and sewer) and on-site stormwater facilities are not required for master plans, except that horizontal water and sewer locations shall be indicated as required by the utility provider.

   F.   Construction Plan

      1.   Construction plans shall constitute a full and complete set of engineered drawings necessary for final permitting and construction.

      2.   All plans shall be submitted at a scale not less than 1 inch = 50 feet unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator.

      3.   All streets, utilities, and stormwater, and other infrastructure systems shall be designed and constructed in accordance with the adopted Town of Lillington Specifications and utilities provider requirements where applicable.

   G.   Final Plat

      1.   The final plat shall be prepared by a professional land surveyor, licensed to practice in the State of North Carolina and shall be drawn to a scale no less than 1 inch = 100 feet, and shall meet the requirements of G.S. § 47-30.

      2.   The final plat shall constitute an accurate survey of the entire phase as shown on the approved plan and shall include all the relevant notes and certifications.

   H.   Building Elevations

   In order to reasonably evaluate the building, it is necessary to submit scaled drawings of each elevation visible from a public street. These drawings should be in color and should accurately represent the building heights, floor levels, and building materials.

   I.   As-Built Drawings

   The "as built" drawings shall show the final design specifications for all public infrastructure. The designer of the infrastructure shall certify, under seal, that the installed infrastructure is in substantial compliance with the approved plans and designs and with the requirements of this ordinance. A final inspection and approval by the Administrator shall occur before the release of any performance securities.

(Ord. passed 2-14-2017; Ord. 2020-01, passed 7-9-2019; Ord. passed 2-15-2022)