![]() The planning-commission report on the project noted that the particular proposal was for “very attractive” buildings of “outstanding architectural” quality. Consideration of the rezoning petition that was approved included extensive discussion of the particular project proposed. Two previous applications for similar rezonings of this site had been denied. City of Raleigh, a 9.26-acre tract was rezoned from R-4 to R-10 to allow for the construction of twin high-rise apartment towers in what had been a single-family residential area. The court has since dropped this characterization but has retained the result-the practice remains illegal in North Carolina. These early cases termed this practice contract zoning. Both cases arose in Raleigh, and both invalidated rezonings that allowed multifamily development in single-family residential neighborhoods. Two cases from the early 1970s established this principle of North Carolina zoning law. Failure to Consider All Permissible UsesĪ rezoning to a conventional zoning district that is based on a single project rather than on all permissible uses in the new zoning district is invalid. The court held this was not illegal contract zoning since there was no commitment of the county to sell the land to this developer and no commitment from the developer to build the plant. During those discussions, the county rezoned a parcel owned by the county to facilitate the location of a chicken-processing plant. The county was recruiting a poultry-processing company to locate in the county. This Chrismon analysis was applied in Morgan. When rezonings to general-use districts are involved, all potential uses in the new district must be fully considered for the rezoning to be valid. The court there ruled that the practice was not contract zoning but was nonetheless illegal. ![]() The Hall decision resolved this question. An element of reciprocity was not clearly present in the Allred and Blades cases. The Blades court termed such a decision contract zoning, but the Chrismon court emphasized the necessity of a reciprocal agreement in order to have a contract. This definition raises the question of whether a rezoning to a general-use district that is based on a specific proposal rather than all permitted uses is indeed contract zoning. To alter the zoning for a specified period of time thereafter. In Hall, the court provided further elaboration on the contract-zoning definition:Ī typical example of such reciprocal assurances occurs when the applicant assures the city council that the property will be used only for a specified purpose and no other, and the city council, in consideration of such assurance, agrees to rezone the property in question and not ontract zoning of this type is objectionable primarily because it represents an abandonment on the part of the zoning authority of its duty to exercise independent judgment in making zoning decisions. Illegal contract zoning properly connotes a transaction wherein both the landowner who is seeking a certain zoning action and the zoning authority itself undertake reciprocal obligations in the context of a bilateral contract. . . . Guilford County, the court held true contract zoning impermissible: While a North Carolina case has yet to involve this situation directly, in Chrismon v. In the classic contract-zoning situation, the local government and the landowner enter into a written agreement (sometimes recorded as a deed restriction) that if the government rezones the property to a specified new zoning district, the owner will carry out a particular use and accept specified limits or conditions on that use. ![]() It is also illegal to place property in a conventional zoning district based upon a representation that the land will be devoted to a particular project. Unlike conditional zoning, contract zoning is illegal in North Carolina. School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gladys Hall Coates Professor of Public Law and Government ![]()
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