A new Planner, a new law, and Valdese’s zoning future

Valdese spent years creating a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to simplify zoning and development, but one thing blocks it from replacing the town’s existing zoning ordinances: the North Carolina General Assembly.

Senate Bill 382 became law in December 2024. Written in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there are provisions within the bill that attempt to ensure no additional restrictions are added to zoning ordinances while western North Carolina recovers from the storm’s floods.

Part of the bill specifically addressed down-zoning, which has disrupted Valdese and other municipalities’ implementation of a UDO.

Valdese’s new Town Planner Michael Rapp said the state defines down-zoning as a zoning ordinance that affects a tract of land by “decreasing development density of the land to be less dense than it was allowed under its previous usage, by reducing the permitted uses of the land that are specified in a zoning ordinance or land development regulation to fewer uses than were allowed under the previous uses.”

With the bill’s ratification, the section in General Statute Chapter 160D regarding down-zoning changed to require written consent from all property owners before a tract is down-zoned.

“I want to emphasize that I’m not trying to say this in a bad way,” Rapp said. “I understand that this change was made in response to Hurricane Helene and trying to get that rebuilding done, but it limits us in that we’re not necessarily able to initiate, enact, or enforce without written consent of all property owners, a down-zoning.”

Rapp said down-zoning is now broadly defined, making it difficult to interpret what counts as down-zoning.

Valdese officials have voted several times in the last year to change the applicability date in the town’s UDO document due to ongoing conversation surrounding down-zoning in the General Assembly. The applicability date, also called the effective date, simply states when the UDO will apply to all existing and new land and development.

The Valdese Town Council voted on Jan. 5 to move the applicability date from Jan. 1 to July 1. Rapp said the General Assembly is expected to further address the topic in the Spring legislative session. Until then, the UDO is available as an option alongside the town’s 2024 zoning ordinances for all new developments.

“If and when the General Assembly makes a decision on either restoring down-zoning powers, or leaving it as it is, which, obviously they could do, it would be a landmark decision to be sure, but they could absolutely do it,” Rapp said. “But eventually, the Unified Development Ordinance should entirely replace the old zoning ordinance, and that was its intention from the start.”

The UDO itself makes few changes to the town’s ordinances. The primary goal of the document, Rapp said, was to combine and simplify zoning, subdivision, and flood damage prevention ordinances in a single document.

Rapp, who became the full-time Town Planner in December, credited previous Town Planner Larry Johnson for creating the UDO.

A NEW PLANNER IN TOWN

About three months ago, 27-year-old Rapp joined the Valdese planning department as an intern while he completed his Master of Public Administration degree at Appalachian State University in Boone. After his internship, he was hired as the full-time town planner.

Before Valdese, Rapp had an internship in North Wilkesboro. Rapp said he pursued that internship because he felt he didn’t know enough yet for his public administration career, and planning “is extremely important.” He said he enjoyed his time in the North Wilkesboro planning department, which led him to pursue similar opportunities.

Rapp said before he took the full-time position in Valdese, Daniel Odom from the Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG) came in once a week. Valdese still has a contract with WPCOG, he said, and the organization still offers assistance.

“To be frank with you, this is my first planning role, and sometimes these planning functions can be extremely complicated, so I do not mind having the COG to look over some of the stuff I’m doing just to confirm that we’re doing everything by the book,” Rapp said. He also thanked Odom for the guidance he has and continues to provide.