by Jackie Nunnery
LANCASTER—Following a joint public hearing with the planning commission, the Lancaster board of supervisors on Thursday, August 27, approved the new legacy residential (LR2) district, affecting 535 parcels within 14 developments across the county.
According to director of planning and zoning Andrea Pruett, residential (R2) zoning was “designed as a higher density zoning district that allowed apartment-style residential development and related, supportive commercial activities” and developed under a master plan. The R2 zoning was repealed in 2005 in response to “higher than expected waterfront density.” In 2009, the residential community (R4) district was created to accommodate higher density, but must be at least 800 feet from tidal shores and wetlands, based on the W1 waterfront overlay (W1) requirements.
“We currently do not have any zoning district that would allow the multi-family waterfront properties that are currently zoned R2. There is no other district that they could rezone to,” county administrator Don Gill said.
The existing R2-zoned properties remained “in a holding zone,” Pruett said. “Subject to the original R2 zoning ordinance and approved master plan. This has been problematic as the permissible uses for the repealed zoning cannot be updated. Staff frequently field questions from real estate agents and potential buyers regarding the implications of parcels which are located in the repealed R2 zone.”
Pruett stressed that the R2 legacy zoning would apply only to those existing R2 parcels. “No other property can be rezoned into a legacy zoning district.” The new district would allow the county to make updates to the code as necessary, among them updates to permissible uses, street design regulations and modifications to existing master plans.
The planning commission voted 6-0 to uphold their previous recommendation of approval with Ty Brent, Steve Sorensen, David Chupp, Claudette Henderson, Tara Booth and Glendon Pinn voting in favor. Latoy Davenport was absent. Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve with William Smith, Ernest Palin, Craig Giese, Jason Bellows and Bill Lee voting in favor…..
