Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)

On February 21, 2012, the City of Raleigh held the official public hearing for the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), one of the most significant text changes Raleigh has undertaken related to the development regulations.

The UDO addresses contemporary development and zoning practices in a format that is easily understood by administrators and the development community. The UDO supports the goals and policies of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan while reducing regulations and shifting most development approvals to staff providing more predictable outcomes. In addition, the UDO will create regulations that address market trends, incorporate best practices and address contextual issues throughout the city.

The draft text change has been referred to the Planning Commission, where their role is to review the text change and prepare a recommendation to the City Council. The staff is now in an advisory role to the Planning Commission.

Next Steps:
March 13-June 12: Planning Commission review of Unified Development Ordinance. The Raleigh city staff will be compiling all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 and presenting the list to the Planning Commission for deliberation.

To facilitate their review, The Planning Commission has adopted a meeting schedule to review the draft text change starting March 13, 2012.

The adopted meeting schedule proposes to review the UDO chapter by chapter in numerical order. A list of comments to be discussed at each meeting can be found in the Chapter Staff Report, found through the link below.

Additional Comments:
The Planning Commission welcomes attendance and public participation at their meetings during the time they will be reviewing the Unified Development Ordinance text change. A procedure has been established to allow for this as noted below:

Comments shall be submitted in writing to the Planning Department staff at least 2 weeks prior to the associated chapter discussion. All comments will be presented to the Planning Commission in accordance with the adopted meeting schedule and addressed on or as close to the date of the chapter review as possible. Please send all comments to Christine.Darges@raleighnc.gov.

Below is a list of documents that will assist with the review of the UDO:
May 22 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
May 15 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
May 8 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
April 26 Chapter 4 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
April 24 Chapter 4 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
April 17 Chapter 3 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
April 10 Chapter 3 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
April 3 Chapter 2 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
Chapter 2 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
Chapter 1 & 2 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
Chapter 1 Staff Report	A compilation of all public hearing comments submitted on February 21 that will be presented to the Planning Commission for deliberation.
Public Hearing Draft of the UDO	This 24 MB file will take some time to download. Individual chapters of this document are available for ease of download to the right of this page under "Related Information".
Public Hearing Presentation	This is the presentation given to Council for the Public Hearing on February 21 at the 6:30 p.m. session.
Summary of New Content	To help with the comparison of the 2011 public review draft and the 2012 public hearing draft.
Public Hearing Draft Overview	The UDO is intended to fix three major problems, find out which ones and how it will correct them.
Comprehensive Plan Amendments	Now that a consolidated draft of the UDO is available, it is apparent that amendments to the Comprehensive Plan will need to be adopted simultaneously with the UDO to provide policy guidance for future rezoning actions.
Zoning Conversion Reference	Summarizes the major differences between the existing districts and the proposed new districts.
UDO Audit	Staff review of current code and proposed UDO.
Email Comments Limehouse Comments	Comments submitted by the public and staff’s response these comments.
Nov 1st CC Update	Summary of additional items that included in the Draft UDO.
Public Review Draft of the UDO	The version of the UDO released for public comment in April and May of 2011 is still available for comparison purposes.