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Maggie Valley aldermen have called a special meeting at 9 a.m. Monday to discuss an attempt by N.C. House Rep. Mark Pless to severely restrict their power to make zoning changes in the town and to eliminate any Haywood town’s ability to zone a limited area outside their limits.

The bill seems to have been triggered at least in part by Maggie Valley’s proposed Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) a major rehaul of its zoning and development rules. A public hearing on the UDO, is still set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, and aldermen had planned to vote on its passage sometimes this month.

The plan would expand the town’s zoning districts from five to 12 and allow the town to negotiate terms with developers and property owners when they request zoning changes or variances.

Pless has introduced a bill, already passed by the state House, which would not allow Maggie Valley to “downzone,” or further restrict uses, on any property, without written permission of the property owner. The state Senate is expected to vote on it Monday, after which it would go to N.C. Governor Roy Cooper for his signature.

SEE: Towns scramble to protect regulatory authority

Here is a look at the UDO proposal that is at the heart of Maggie’s plans for the future and Pless’s apparent intentions to derail it

A UDO is a set of rules for zoning and development within a government’s territory — in this case, Maggie Valley’s. Most counties in North Carolina now have land zoning regulations; Haywood County does not. So within Haywood, zoning authority is held only in its four towns, each controlling the land within its borders and some land surrounding it, known as an extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), where a town is allowed to zone to manage its future growth.

Pless’s bill would eliminate every town’s ETJ in Haywood County.

A UDO sets out the zones within a territory. It includes a table of uses to describe what is allowed in each zoning district and what may be allowed if a board of aldermen or zoning board of adjustment grants special permission.

But a UDO is more than just a list of zoning districts and their permitted uses. It is a document that brings together other development rules for the town or county. It is also expected to be a fluid document, meaning it will change as needs or circumstances arise, said Town Planner Kaitland Finkle.

In Maggie Valley, the number of zoning districts would increase if the UDO is approved as proposed. Each of the five residential, four mixed-use and three commercial districts would be more limited in what is permitted. While this may seem more restrictive for landowners, the tradeoff is that property owners would have a better idea of what can happen on neighboring tracts.

This became an ongoing issue when developer Frankie Woods asked the town to rezone several tracts purchased by him or his business partners from R-1 (low density) to R-3 (high density). Though Woods said he did not intend to place as many housing units on the sites as permitted by R-3 zoning, opponents of the rezoning said they feared he would change his mind.

The new zoning districts in the UDO proposal are also designed for specific territories. The plan would include a central business district for the most developed, central portion of Maggie Valley, including its town hall.

The Soco Road mixed-use district would outline uses along that highway between its two intersections with Moody Farm Road. Moody Farm Road would have its own district allowing some commercial uses, though not as many as along Soco Road.

And there would be a district for Dellwood Road leading into Maggie Valley, allowing additional uses, such as garages, automobile repair and rental storage units.

The UDO would also create a small commercial district along Jonathan’s Creek toward Interstate 40, which would allow the same uses as Soco Road in addition to uses already there. The board hopes to have a better idea of what that district would look like after a future land use plan is completed.

Much of the residential portion of Maggie’s ETJ would be designated as rural residential or low-density rural.

The town planner has spent much of the past month meeting with individual property owners to address their questions and concerns about the UDO. In many cases, proposed zones have been changed, or the table of uses have been changed, at the property owner’s request, so that most have been pleased with the proposal after the discussions.

Conditional zoning would be a major addition to Maggie Valley’s zoning rules and a key part of its UDO proposal.

With conditional zoning, if a developer is not happy with the zoning restrictions on a property, he or she could apply to the town for conditional zoning, which is an agreement between the town board and developer that the property will be developed in a certain way. In other words, if a developer wanted to change the zoning rules, the town board could agree, provided certain conditions were met. The conditions for that must be agreed upon by both parties.

If this had been in effect earlier, it could have changed the scenario in which Frankie Woods was requesting rezoning of residential properties, Finkle said.

Under the old zoning rules, the town did not have the option to set conditions. Under new rules, Woods and the town could agree upon a specific number of housing units as well as other conditions such as lighting or green space, if the zoning were changed.

Many times when property owners have opposed zoning changes on neighboring tracts, Finkle said, they have told her that if they could have been sure of what would happen on the site, they might not have opposed rezoning. Conditional zoning would allow that to happen.

Woods attended a recent workshop on the UDO proposal and told aldermen he was “tickled pink” with the options it could give him.

The new UDO would dramatically limit where manufactured homes could be placed. The new zoning districts would allow manufactured homes in only three of the 14 zoning districts.

“Rural residential” would allow any sized manufactured home by right, and “low density residential will allow Class A manufactured homes, commonly known as doublewides, if approved by the board. Manufactured homes would also be allowed in the “seasonal short-term residential” district.

Manufactured homes already in place in Maggie Valley could continue. And if a manufactured home was destroyed by fire, for example, it could be replaced by one of the same size. But new sites could not be added under the new rules except in the specified zoning districts.

Under the UDO, manufactured homes would be those with axles and HUD (Housing of Urban Development) code approval, commonly known as “single” and “doublewides.”

Modular homes, in which a house is built in pieces then assembled on site on a permanent foundation, have to meet county building codes and are considered the same as houses built fully on site. Module homes would therefore not be restricted.

The proposal would allow manufactured home parks only in the rural-residential or short-term seasonal districts and would require special permission as a “floating district.”

Properties being used for purposes that would not be allowed in the new zone are considered as “nonconforming uses.” A nonconforming use is one that was already in place before zoning rules prohibited it.

For example, if the UDO were passed, a mobile home in any residential area of Maggie Valley not designated rural residential or seasonal short-term would be a nonconforming use. Those uses could continue to operate, even if the property were sold, but could not expand.

The new UDO would bring many properties into conforming use while a few other properties would become nonconforming.

Along with a UDO, Maggie Valley has contracted with the engineering firm of WithersRavenel to update its existing 2007 land use plan (LUP) as well as to create a new comprehensive plan. While the UDO, if passed, would describe what could happen in the town right now, the land use plan is a visioning document for Maggie Valley’s future and the future of the region around it.

This can be confusing, because there is talk of two different plans right now — the old one from 2007, which is being updated, is also up for public hearing on Monday.

Under state law, the LUP must have been reasonably updated in the last 10 years in order to enforce zoning, and the deadline for that update is June 30. The old 2007 LUP has become outdated, and the town has developed in ways that are different from its expectations.

For example, the old LUP designated the Ghost Town property atop Buck Mountain as well as areas up on Fie Top Road as being places for heavy future development. However, Finkle said, while those sites may be developed as tourist attractions, there are serious physical limitations to their development, including slope and difficulty of water and sewer access.

The town has also realized that much of its future growth will likely occur along two corridors in and out of town — Dellwood Road coming from the Waynesville/Lake Junaluska area, and Jonathan Creek Road from the intersection at the Clarion Hotel heading north toward Interstate 40. Those areas need much more attention and planning.

WithersRavenel has had two tasks related to the land use plan. The firm was first charged with updating information, through census and other records, to update the 2007 plan. That has been completed to meet the deadline, which why it is up for public hearing.

Now the firm will turn its attention to surveying the town and surrounding areas, gathering more information, creating opportunities for citizens to talk about their ideas for the future of the region, and compiling those into recommendations that the town board hopes to review in 2023.

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