1) Before adopting, amending, or repealing any ordinance or development regulation authorized by this Chapter, the town council shall hold a public hearing. A notice of the hearing shall be given once a week for two (2) successive calendar weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the area. The notice shall be published the first time not less than 10 days nor more than 25 days before the date scheduled for the hearing. In computing such period, the day of publication is not to be included but the day of the hearing shall be included.
2) When a zoning map amendment is proposed, the town shall prominently post a notice of the hearing on the site proposed for the amendment or on an adjacent public street or highway right-of-way. The notice shall be posted within the same time period specified for mailed notices of the hearing. When multiple parcels are included within a proposed zoning map amendment, a posting on each individual parcel is not required but town shall post sufficient notices to provide reasonable notice to interested persons.
Before taking such lawful action as it may deem advisable, the town council shall consider the planning board's recommendation on each proposed zoning amendment. When adopting or rejecting any zoning text or map amendment, the town council shall approve a brief statement describing whether its action is consistent or inconsistent with an adopted comprehensive plan. If a zoning map amendment is adopted and the action was deemed inconsistent with the adopted plan, the zoning amendment shall have the effect of also amending any future land-use map in the approved plan, and no additional request or application for a plan amendment shall be required. A plan amendment and a zoning amendment may be considered concurrently. The plan consistency statement is not subject to judicial review. If a zoning map amendment qualifies as a "large-scale rezoning" under G.S. 160D-602(b), the town council statement describing plan consistency may address the overall rezoning and describe how the analysis and policies in the relevant adopted plans were considered in the action taken.
3) When adopting or rejecting any petition for a zoning map amendment, a statement analyzing the reasonableness of the proposed rezoning shall be approved by the town council. This statement of reasonableness may consider, among other factors, (i) the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area proposed to be rezoned, (ii) the benefits and detriments to the landowners, the neighbors, and the surrounding community, (iii) the relationship between the current actual and permissible development on the tract and adjoining areas and the development that would be permissible under the proposed amendment; (iv) why the action taken is in the public interest; and (v) any changed conditions warranting the amendment. If a zoning map amendment qualifies as a "large-scale rezoning" under G.S. 160D-602(b), the town council statement on reasonableness may address the overall rezoning. The statement of reasonableness and the plan consistency statement required by this section may be approved as a single statement.
4) Petitions for amendments that receive a favorable recommendation of the planning board, or petitions on which the planning board fails to make a recommendation within forty-five (45) days of its first consideration, shall be scheduled for a public hearing before the town council, unless withdrawn or postponed at the applicant's request. Such hearings shall be duly advertised.
5) Petitions for amendments that receive an unfavorable or adverse recommendation of the planning board may be appealed within ten (10) days of the date of such adverse decision, to the town council by filing with the town clerk of the council a notice, in writing, stating therein the action of the planning board and the amendment requested. Before taking action on any proposed amendment, the town council shall hold a public hearing. Public hearings on proposed zoning amendments will be held at such times as the town shall decide.
6) In addition to the present public hearing notice requirements for zoning classification action (zoning map amendment) involving a parcel of land, the owner of that parcel of land as shown on the county tax listing, and the owners of all parcels of land within two hundred (200) feet in any direction of the parameter boundary of the subject parcel of land (exclusive of rights-of-way) shown on the county tax listing, shall be mailed a notice of the proposed classification by first class mail at the last addresses listed for such owners on the county tax abstracts. This notice must be deposited in the mail at least ten (10) but not more than twenty-five (25) days prior to the date of the hearing. If the zoning map amendment is being proposed in conjunction with an expansion of municipal extraterritorial planning and development regulation jurisdiction under G.S. 160D-202, a single hearing on the zoning map amendment and the boundary amendment may be held. In this instance, the initial notice of the zoning map amendment hearing may be combined with the boundary hearing notice and the combined hearing notice mailed at least thirty (30) days prior to the hearing. An optional large-scale zoning map amendment notification may be used in lieu of the mailed notice subject to G.S. 160D-602(b).
(Ord. No. 2020-10, 12-1-20)