NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1959 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1007

HOUSE BILL 374

 

 

AN ACT AUTHORIZING COUNTIES TO REGULATE THE SUBDIVISION OF LAND IN AREAS OUTSIDE MUNICIPAL SUBDIVISION-REGULATION JURISDICTION.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1. Chapter 153 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article immediately following Article 20, to be designated Article 20A and to read as follows:

"Article 20A.

"G. S. 153-266.1. The board of county commissioners of any county is hereby authorized to enact an ordinance regulating the platting and recording of any subdivision of land as defined by this Article, lying within the county and outside the subdivision-regulation jurisdiction of any municipality. Such ordinance may also regulate territory within the subdivision-regulation jurisdiction of any municipality whose governing body by resolution agrees to such regulation; provided, however, that any such municipal governing body may, upon one year's written notice, withdraw its approval of the county subdivision regulations, and those regulations shall have no further effect within the municipality's Jurisdiction.

"G. S. 153-266.2. Before the county commissioners may adopt a subdivision control ordinance or any amendment thereto under the provisions of this Article, the said board of county commissioners shall hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance. A notice of such public hearing shall be given once a week for two successive calendar weeks in a newspaper published in the county, or if there be no newspaper published in the county, by posting such notice at four public places in the county, said notice to be published the first time, or posted, not less than fifteen days nor more than twenty-five days prior to the date fixed for said hearing.

"G. S. 153-266.3. No county shall regulate the platting and recording of subdivisions in any manner other than through the adoption of an ordinance pursuant to the provisions of this Article. Such ordinance may provide for the orderly development of the county; for the coordination of streets and highways within proposed subdivisions with existing or planned streets and highways and with other public facilities; for the dedication or reservation of rights of way or easements for street and utility purposes; and for the distribution of population and traffic which shall avoid congestion and overcrowding and which shall create conditions essential to public health, safety and the general welfare.

"Such ordinance may include requirements for the final plat, plat to show sufficient data to determine readily and reproduce accurately on the ground the location, bearing, and length of every street and alley line, lot line, easement boundary line, and other property boundaries, including the radius and other data for curved property lines, to an appropriate accuracy and in conformance with good surveying practice.

"G. S. 153-266.4. Any subdivision ordinance adopted pursuant to this Article shall contain provisions setting forth the procedures to be followed in granting or denying approval of a subdivision plat prior to its registration. Such ordinance shall give the following agencies an opportunity to make recommendations prior to the approval of any individual subdivision plat:

(a)       The district highway engineer as to proposed streets, highways, and drainage systems;

(b)       The county health director as to proposed water and sewerage systems;

(c)       The county school superintendent as to proposed school sites;

(d)       Such other agencies and officials as the county commissioners may deem necessary or desirable.

The ordinance may provide that final approval of each individual subdivision plat is to be given by (a) the board of county commissioners, (b) the board of county commissioners on recommendation of the county planning board, or (c) the county planning board.

"From and after the time that a subdivision ordinance is filed with the register of deeds of the county, no subdivision plat of land within the county's subdivision-regulation jurisdiction shall be filed or recorded until it shall have been submitted and approved by the appropriate board, as specified in the subdivision ordinance, and until such approval shall have been entered on the face of the plat in writing by the chairman of said board. The register of deeds shall not file a plat of a subdivision of land located within the territorial jurisdiction of the county commissioners as defined in G. S. 153-266.1 hereof which has not been approved in accordance with these provisions, nor shall the Clerk of Superior Court order or direct the recording of a plat where such recording would be in conflict with this Section. The owner of land shown on a subdivision plat submitted for recording, or his authorized agent, shall sign a statement on the plat stating whether or not any land shown thereon is within the subdivision-regulation jurisdiction of the board of county commissioners.

"G. S. 153-266.5. The approval of a plat pursuant to regulations adopted under this Article shall not be deemed to constitute or effect the acceptance by the county or the public of the dedication of any street or other ground, public utility line, or other public facility shown on the plat.

"G. S. 153-266.6. If a board of county commissioners adopts an ordinance regulating the subdivision of land as authorized herein, any person who, being the owner or agent of the owner of any land located within the platting jurisdiction granted to the county commissioners by G. S. 153-226.1, thereafter transfers or sells such land by reference to a plat showing a subdivision of land before such plat has been properly approved under such ordinance and recorded in the office of the appropriate register of deeds, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The description by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from such penalties. The county, through its county attorney or other official designated by the board of county commissioners, may enjoin such illegal transfer or sale by action for injunction.

"G. S. 153-266.7. For the purpose of this Article, the following definition shall apply:

"Subdivision. A 'Subdivision' shall include all divisions of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots, building sites, or other divisions, for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale or building development, and shall include all divisions of land involving the dedication of a new street or a change in existing streets; provided, however, that the following shall not be included within this definition nor be subject to the regulations authorized by this Act: (1) The combination or recombination of portions of previously platted lots where the total number of lots is not increased and the resultant lots are equal to or exceed the standards of the county as shown in its subdivision ordinance; (2) the division of land into parcels greater than five acres where no street right of way dedication is involved; (3) the public acquisition by purchase of strips of land for the widening or opening of streets; (4) the division of a tract in single ownership whose entire area is no greater than two acres into not more than three lots, where no street right of way dedication is involved and where the resultant lots are equal to or exceed the standards of the county as shown in its subdivision ordinance.

"G. S. 153-266.8. The powers granted to counties by this Article shall be deemed supplementary to any powers heretofore or hereafter granted by local act for the same or a similar purpose, and in any case where the provisions of this Article conflict with or are different from such provisions of any local act, the board of county commissioners may in its discretion proceed in accordance with the provisions of this Article or, as an alternative method, in accordance with the provisions of such local act.

"G. S. 153-266.9. Should any Section, clause or provisions of this Article be decided by the courts to be unconstitutional or invalid for any reason, such decision shall not affect the validity of the Article as a whole or any part thereof other than the part so decided to be unconstitutional or invalid.

"G. S. 153-266.10. This Article shall not apply to the following counties: Alleghany, Ashe, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Caswell, Craven, Currituck, Duplin, Franklin, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Iredell, Lenoir, Martin, Moore, Pender, Person, Scotland, Surry, Tyrrell, Warren, Washington, and Wayne."

Sec. 2. All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act, except as indicated by G. S. 153-266.8 above, are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict.

Sec. 3. This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 16th day of June 1959.