Harnett County weighs conditional zoning as board approves water plant land, runway expansion

Harnett County Commissioners reviewed conditional zoning, approved a $2.8 million land purchase for a new water treatment plant and greenlit major infrastructure and community projects during the Jan. 13 meeting.

Development Services Director Mark Locklear brought a formal request for conditional zoning to the board. Over half of North Carolina municipalities use conditional zoning to form agreements that meet requirements for both applicants and municipalities. Because NC Senate Bill 382 restricts how land use is locally governed, conditional zoning presents an opportunity to preserve land use plans.

There are benefits. For example, in negotiations, higher quality development and density restrictions and preserving agricultural areas are benefits of conditional zoning. It can place price restrictions.

Promoting “affordable housing” presents the problem of building for low-income, which attracts less industry and does not build the county’s tax base required to maintain services. Read about it here.

However, it will increase staff demand, including commissioners’, and may become the preferred method and potentially require new hires.

“You brought us some good news today,” Commissioner Barbara McKoy said.

The board will vote on using conditional zoning in Feb.

Harnett Regional Water Director Tommy Burns led a discussion on finalizing the land purchase for the Northeast Water Treatment Plant, and the board approved the $2,800,000 land purchase.

Three tracts of land in Erwin adjoin the water intake owned by Harnett Regional Water, and they are essential for the construction of the new water plant. The location allows further expansion into the central and eastern parts of the county and into Cumberland County’s southern end.

General Services Director Barry Blevins and Deputy County Manager Coley Price reviewed their recommendation of Edifice LLC as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for construction services for the new animal adoption center at 3708 U.S. Highway 421 in Lillington.

The board approved Edifice LLC as the CMAR with a pre-construction fee of $88,000 and construction fees at 4% of the cost of the work.

Brad Abate, the Jetport director, introduced a plan to design and build a runway extension with funds already received from legislation, and the board approved the work authorization.

The $999,374 runway project will be funded by the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund and is expected to take 45 weeks to complete.

Commissioners approved the library’s request to apply for the $5,000 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Grant. It requires a matching $5,000. Assistant Library Director Joanna Cox said the community will read “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver.

County Manager Brent Trout said they were looking for a new location for the parole and probation center after complaints from downtown Dunn.

The state has regulations on square footage and drug testing and building occupancy and parking spaces. Having adequate bathrooms for occupancy has been the major hurdle in finding an existing structure.

Chairman Duncan Edward Jaggers said not allowing the residents to go in the building to use the bathroom was going to be a problem regardless of the location of the building.

“I talked to you about putting bathrooms in there that’s not accessible to the rest of the building would help the situation right now until we can find somewhere,” Jaggers said.

McKoy asked about the lease, which is a three-year lease and is on year two.

Commissioner William Morris said he did not want to build a monumental building.

“Go down here to the corner at Mr. Matthews’ carpentry class and build us some type of mobile unit. If our kids can go to school in them, then our convicts meet their probation officer in them,” Morris, a former Erwin police chief, said.

Morris suggested placing a mobile unit near development services and said if the convicts did not like living in the mobile units, could “go across the street and feel right at home” at the Harnett County Detention Center.

The next meeting is Jan. 20 at 6 p.m.

Jan. 14, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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