Moore’s 2025 Land Use Plan lacks a glossary but tightens growth limits

After 22 months of study and revisions, Moore Commissioners approved the 2025 Land Use Plan, presented as a policy-guiding document, but was stripped of its definitions when Vice Chairman Nick Picerno moved to remove them at the Oct. 21 agenda meeting.

Picerno said he followed the planning board’s advice.

Without definitions and, according to LUP Steering Committee Member Jeff Marcus, no natural resources and wildlife map, rural areas are at risk because the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) allows changes, and the LUP is good for only 10 years.

Chair Tom Adams questioned LUP Steering Committee Member Attorney Michael Parker about how the planning board uses the LUP and UDO.

“If we take the definitions that you all developed and put them in the UDO, it would seem to me that would then put those definitions in front of the planning board every time they were making a decision. Whereas, if you leave them solely in the Land Use Plan, maybe they pick it up and look at it and maybe they don’t,” Adams said about putting the steering committee’s definitions in the UDO.

“I agree, but my point of opposition is the Land Use Plan is a policy document designed to direct the UDO. My suggestion was to leave them in the Land Use Plan and allow them to flow over into the UDO,” Parker said about the UDO terms being changeable and the LUP terms being static.

During the public hearing, Parker explained how terms, specifically “infill” had been misinterpreted by the planning board. Definitions within the LUP would serve to protect the word’s integrity, and the planning department’s services integrity.

The planning board will now begin revising the UDO to make it consistent with the new LUP.

The LUP had a two-year deadline, was placed on the fast track for approval by Moore County Commissioners, and they approved it two months early.

Picerno has an Alaska trip in November and said he will miss Debra Ensminger’s retirement. She is the land-use planning director and a planning director, and is retiring Nov. 26 after 30 years of dedicated service to Moore County.

Moore County Planning Director Ruth Pedersen’s opening statements to the public hearing included, “Water and sewer lines show where growth could occur,” and manage “growth by keeping development out of rural areas.”

Managing growth by allowing development only where water and sewer lines exist was mentioned three times during the meeting.

This is important when private or public entities want to develop rural areas. For example, the Moore County School Board wants to build a new Carthage Elementary School on Vass-Carthage Road in a rural area where the state honored most of it as Century Farmland, and there is no existing water and sewer.

Another concern shared by the public during the 2025 LUP development was “by right” land use.

The UDO was last amended on Aug. 19, 2025.

The UDO states on page 171, “If a special use is replaced by a use otherwise permitted by right in the zoning district, the special use permit approval is deemed abandoned and the special use permit approval is null and void.”

The problem of “by right” land uses is zoning ambiguity, which allows all uses of property, including development, allowed as a matter of right except where the UDO specifically provides otherwise, and “by right” land use skips the quasi-judicial hearing process.

“The prior board decided to change “by right” and make us go through quasi-judicial hearings versus having us following the map in where we set the map for potential, uh, subdivisions, so now we’re here redoing the map,” Picerno said about the UDO now having “by right” language.

Due to Session Law 2024-57 (S.B. 382), the new LUP has no down-zoning.

A zoning or map amendment that down-zones property cannot be started, approved, or enforced without the written consent of all affected property owners.

Down-zoning refers to any zoning change that:

Decreases development density, allowing fewer buildings or units than before.

Reduces permitted land uses, limiting what the property can be used for.

Creates nonconformities on nonresidential land, including uses, lots, structures, improvements, or site elements that no longer comply with current regulations.

The rule ensures that property owners retain control over zoning changes that would limit development potential or create nonconforming conditions.

In fact, the 2025 LUP has no zoning changes.

“Those areas zoned RA will stay that way. Development now should occur predominantly in places where we have infrastructure: water, sewer and utilities. It’s now up to the planning board and ultimately the commissioners as to Nancy Reagan’s admonition on another issue in the 1980s, to ‘Just say, ‘No’. No, we will not look on favor with developers on development in rural areas. And no, we will not let Moore County look like Chatham County and become just another bedroom community for Raleigh,” Adams said and thanked all those who contributed to the 2025 LUP, including God.

Chairman Kurt Cook said that, as a Baltimore native, he saw land turn into concrete and did not want that for Moore County.

Picerno referred to a typed response legend by Steering Committee Leaders Larry Best and Robert Hayter on suggested additions to the 2025 LUP, and he removed the following:

“Adding an appendix which contains the items recommended by the steering committee that are currently not allowed by the down-zoning law is needed and important to the implementation of the Plan and the future considerations by the County’s elected officials and staff.”

“Michael Parker’s recommendation 2. [Number] 2 is intended to protect both agriculture and residential land use. This objective can be accomplished by development requirements within the UDO.”

The 2025 LUP includes the following additions, as recommended by Larry Best and Robert Hayter:

Agriculture and forestry were moved to the “employment section to improve the role they play in the County’s economy, culture and land utilization.”

Low-density residential development is 1 unit per acre. (It was 2 units per acre.)

“The items related to natural resources, wildlife, and open spaces should be addressed as part of the Plan’s objective for the County to conduct a Master Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan.”

“All landowners have the right to request rezoning of their properties. The Steering Committee was aware of that aspect of the crafting process. Even overlay districts do not change the underlying zone without a landowner’s request to do so. So, the currently proposed future land use plan does not need to be revised.”

Larry Best said the LUP has a master utilities plan to show where growth is allowed and protect rural agriculture, has a master space plan that identifies areas “to get in front of growth,” identifies small-town areas to prevent sprawl, and is efficient because it shows “where we live” in service areas where there is infrastructure.

Oct. 22, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers

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