Jacksonville Unified Development Ordinance Nears Adoption

In 2007 the City of Jacksonville embarked on a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) project. The project is the first comprehensive update of the city’s zoning ordinance since its adoption in 1972.

After many hours of preparation, review by City staff, the appointed UDO Steering Committee, the Planning Advisory Board and the Jacksonville City Council, the draft UDO can be found at the following link: https://jacksonvillenc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/730

City Council has scheduled a Public Hearing on the UDO for March 18 at City Hall in Council Chambers to be held during the City Council Regular Meeting beginning at 7PM.

In conjunction with the UDO, land with a zoning district classification from the previous zoning ordinance will be reclassified or translated to one of the zoning district classifications within the new UDO. As a result, every property within the City’s jurisdiction (City limits and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) will be rezoned accordingly. However, most uses allowed in the current zoning district will be allowed in the new zoning district, and few nonconformities will be created by the rezoning.

The City of Jacksonville UDO Public Town Meeting will be held March 11, 2014. The meeting will be held at City Hall, 815 New Bridge from 3:30 to 6:30PM in meeting rooms “A” and “B”. The session will offer the opportunity to view maps, check the status of current zoning for property and the permitted uses, and then compare that to the proposed zoning for property under the proposed ordinance. For most residential parcels, there is very little change in the allowed and permitted uses.

For commercial property, the City has been updating the old ordinances with some of the requirements that are to be included in the proposed Unified Development Ordinance. Therefore, even for some commercial property, the changes are slight.