The Currituck County Board of Commissioners, on May 5, 2025, unanimously adopted a resolution in opposition to House Bill 765 in the North Carolina General Assembly, which would cause sweeping changes to planning and zoning standards. House Bill 765, “An Act to Reform Local Government Development,” would limit a local government’s ability to include certain aspects within its planning and zoning regulations.
Currituck County’s stance is that planning and zoning decisions should remain with local governments for the orderly management of growth, public safety, and welfare of citizens. Commissioners also note that House Bill 765 was written and submitted for consideration without any input from counties.
If House Bill 765 is enacted, changes that would impact local governments include:
- Disqualifying commissioners from rezoning votes, which are legislative, for prior undisclosed conversations or opinions, which is the standard for quasi-judicial hearings
- Removing a local government’s ability to establish or require parking or parking space requirements, including space sizes, the location of spaces, the number of spaces in a development through zoning, and eliminating a county’s ability to require street standards and installation of sidewalks with no connection
- Elimination of a county’s ability to establish minimum lot size in residential zoning districts
- Mandated minimum densities based on county population, which would be no fewer than four dwelling units per acre for Currituck County
- Eliminating a county’s ability to exclude buffers, setbacks, public or private streets, open space or recreation areas or other nondevelopable areas from the density calculation
- Eliminating a county’s ability to reserve water and sewer capacity for proposed development
The Board of Commissioners and county staff will continue to communicate Currituck County’s opposition of House Bill 765 to state representatives and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. The Board encourages county residents to contact state representatives and share their concerns as well.
