From Maydha Devarajan, Chatham News + Record
In 2012, Pittsboro adopted the town’s first Land Use Plan — a comprehensive plan sketching out the community’s vision for its future, intended to guide policy recommendations and funding and infrastructure decisions. Ten years later, the town is now in the process of updating the plan, soliciting feedback from community stakeholders through interviews and a survey.
The News + Record spoke with Town Planner Janie Phelps to get a sense of how the update will shape Pittsboro’s plans and where the town currently stands in the process.
What is the purpose of a Land Use Plan? When did Pittsboro adopt one?
As stated above, Phelps said the LUP is intended to provide a long-range vision of a community’s future and outlines guidance that is meant to help town staff and the board make decisions regarding development. Language on the town’s website and in the original Land Use Plan clearly state that the purpose of the plan is not to serve as regulation or as a rezoning of the town.
Additionally, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Statute 160D, all municipalities must have a Land Use Plan to guide future development as part of the requirements for zoning.
The town, in collaboration with consultant Triangle J Council of Governments, first adopted the Land Use Plan in October 2012. While the LUP was in development, the town was considering several other issues simultaneously, including a pedestrian plan, a parks and recreation study and an affordable housing study in partnership with the county. At the time, the town had also just gotten its wastewater treatment plant approved and was waiting to hear back from N.C. Dept. of Environmental and Natural Resources about wastewater discharge.
The Land Use Plan was in development for a number of years; the Plan Advisory Committee met with different entities back in 2007 to examine trends in growth and the environment to create a planning process for establishing the LUP.
Why is the Land Use Plan being updated now? What’s different?
The town approved a contract with engineering and planning firm Stewart Inc. in May 2022, and held a kickoff meeting for plans for the update in July. In the town’s case, the current LUP doesn’t account for certain development factors that have rapidly changed in Pittsboro, namely the impact of three megasites within 40 miles of each other.
“I think that’s really a big game changer for all of our areas around here,” Phelps said.
Phelps also said, so far, one of the biggest concerns shaping the update consistent across stakeholder meetings and survey responses is wastewater capacity.
“What the land use plan does is it gives (the town) guidance on essentially what should go where, and that’s based off of the community input, and then also just the professional knowledge, research and everything that goes into it,” she said. “So if we can’t provide any sewer or water for development, then there’s not really going to be many rezonings and stuff going on.”
Walkability and conservation are issues that have also cropped up in responses from the survey, which was distributed on Sept. 30.
Currently, Phelps said the town has received over 237 responses, up from the 97 she’d previously reported at the board’s meeting on Oct. 10. The final date to take the survey is Nov. 13; the survey is available on the town’s Land Use Plan update webpage and at surveymonkey.com/r/PittsboroLUP.
The town has an active 14-member steering committee, with appointments approved by the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners, whose responsibilities include serving as an ambassador for the plan, holding regular meetings and encouraging others to get involved in the update process. The committee’s next meeting will be in December.
In addition, the town is holding stakeholder interviews, with the next date set for Oct. 21; Phelps also said that the town will have a meeting for community input, in an open house setting, likely in the middle of November but the exact date has not yet been settled.
Phelps noted that the frequency with which LUPs are updated depend on the community itself and that doing it every five to 10 years in Pittsboro works out well.
“We’re updating our land use plan, because 10 years, in our opinion, is not current enough because of everything that we have going on,” she said.
Why should I participate?
Phelps encouraged Pittsboro residents to participate in discussions surrounding the Land Use Plan update — public engagement is key, she said, to shaping the LUP. She directed residents to visit the town’s page on the Land Use Plan update, accessible at nc-pittsboro.civicplus.com/387/Land-Use-Plan-Update, for a brief overview of the LUP and its purposes.
“We really want to know what the citizens want, what they want to see, what they foresee in the future,” she said.
Eventually, the next step for the town would be sorting out inconsistencies between Pittsboro’s Land Use Plan and its other plans that touch on areas like transportation and parks and recreation, likely through a multi-year contract with a consultant.
“So what a comprehensive plan will do is essentially pull them all together, and vet them, find what works with each other,” she said. “And if there’s inconsistencies, what needs to change, so it does work with each other.”
Phelps said the draft of the Land Use Plan update should be ready for the board of commissioners by the end of January for discussion and a decision on adopting the plan.
Chapelboro.com has partnered with the Chatham News + Record in order to bring more Chatham-focused stories to our audience.
The Chatham News + Record is Chatham County’s source for local news and journalism. The Chatham News, established in 1924, and the Chatham Record, founded in 1878, have come together to better serve the Chatham community as the Chatham News + Record. Covering news, business, sports and more, the News + Record is working to strengthen community ties through compelling coverage of life in Chatham County.
