Franklin County Imposes 90-Day Moratorium on New Subdivisions

Franklin County Commissioners have imposed a 90-day moratorium on the construction of new single and multi-family subdivisions.

The move by the Board at a called session Monday evening is to give the County time to continue working on a plan to control the recent rapid growth of new subdivisions.

One area that is still being firmed up is charging impact fees to developers of those new subdivisions.

“The Board discussed the importance of managing housing in the County at our regular meeting last week. After a lengthy discussion, we developed a plan. Some of this we had already been working,” said Commission Chair Jason Macomson. “The first part is impact fees. The Board directed staff to develop and present a list of impact fees for subdivisions and Mr. DeLozier has been working on that for some time. Impact fees are paid by the developer and they help offset the impact of a development on public services and public safety. This list is going to be presented at our March 29 work session and once the Board gives the go-ahead, that list has to be submitted to the State and approved before we can approve it locally. And that who process may take a few months to complete.”

Another part of the plan Macomson said is a zoning text amendment that would designate bigger lot sizes for new subdivisions.

“The second part is the zoning text amendment and the Board directed the staff to prepare a zoning text amendment to introduce at our April regular meeting. This zoning text amendment and this will effectively double the required minimum lot size for major subdivisions from one acre, which is the current minimum, to two. The size can actually vary slightly above or below one acre or with the change two acres, depending on whether or not water and sewer are available,” he explained.

For the plan purposes, a major subdivision would be any subdivision with six or more houses.

The text amendment would have to go before the Planning & Zoning Board for a public hearing approval and then to the County Commission for another public hearing and to be voted on, which he said could be completed in two to three months.

Meantime work on revising and updating the entire zoning ordinance continues and is expected to be completed by the summer.

“It’s also important to note that for the past year the entire staff has been working on revising the entire zoning ordinance. Franklin County adopted a zoning ordinance back in 2005 and there haven’t been a whole lot of changes since that time. So, it’s time to do a whole update but you have to get that right. There are a lot of moving parts and it’s very complicated. And we’ve been working on that for over a year. It’s possible that won’t be completed until sometime this summer but it will incorporate any changes that we make,” Macomson said.

Commissioner Ryan Swails motioned to approve the 90-day moratorium which was seconded by Commissioner Eddie Wester.

During the discussion, Swails said the moratorium is a good starting point.

“I think it allows us to get as much information as possible so that we can hopefully make a good decision with that information. There are a lot of considerations and I know the staff has been working really hard to provide an impact fee update and bring that all together as well as what increasing the acreage will do for growth. So, I think it’s appropriate to go ahead and do 90 days,” Swails said.

Commissioner Robert Franklin suggested a 180-day moratorium and echoed the suggestion by Franklin County School Superintendent Chris Forrer to work with other county leadership.

“We need to be working with the school system and see what their thoughts are,” he said…We really need to work with the school system. We’re going need some time to talk to some people because there are people out there that are not too excited about what’s fixing to take place,” Franklin noted.

Commissioner Eddie Wester pointed out that if the moratorium needed to be extended the Board could do that.

And Commissioner Kyle Foster agreed the County needed time to firm up its plan for residential growth.

The Board then voted 4-0 to pass the moratorium. County Planning and Zoning Director Scott DeLozier clarified that the moratorium only applies to developers applying for new subdivision permits beginning on March 14th. Permit applications submitted before Monday are not affected by the moratorium.

The Board will hear next from County Manager Derrick Turner and DeLozier regarding their recommendation for imposing impact fees when they meet for their work session on March 29.