FORSYTH COUNTY ZONING MORATORIUM
(Ron Seder 11/26/98)

On November 23, 1998 the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners imposed a zoning moratorium to last until April 1, 2000. This means that no property is to be rezoned until April 1, 2000. Following is an e-mail inquiry I received on Thanksgiving Day and my response to it. Both have been edited to clarify.

e-mail inquiry

"I have written to you before. My question is why do we have a zoning moratorium? Is it not the commission's job to decide the fate of zoning issues? I believe I have a constitutional case to this both on the state and federal level. I am a JD. What do you think?"

My response

I just don't know enough about the law to give advice as to whether or not you have a constitutional case. Certainly property owners have rights to do things with their property. However, other citizens have a right not to suffer significant negative consequences resulting from that property use.

I think the question is then what might be considered significant negative consequences. Are taxes paid by the citizenry for additional infrastructure to support the additional development significant negative consequences? Is traffic gridlock and resultant wasted time and decreased safety a significant negative consequence? Is the possibility of a severe water shortage if a drought occurs a significant negative consequence? Is the lack of sewer that discourages industry and may contribute to future health problems because of a concentration of failing septic systems a significant

negative consequence? Is helter-skelter development that may lead to a degraded future quality-of-life because of improper Land Use Plans or Zoning Ordinances a significant negative consequence?

I think the points raised in the above questions may all be legitimate causes for more intelligent management of development. Again, I don't know specifically what the law says, but I think common sense indicates that development cannot be completely left to its own designs without regard to its negative impact on others, and therefore, at some point the general citizenry has the right and responsibility to exercise some control through their elected officials. However, I don't believe the general citizenry has the right to arbitrarily stop development just because it enjoys the open spaces owned by someone else. We all have individual rights guaranteed to us in the Constitution, regardless of the will of the majority.

If I were still on the Board of Commissioners I would favor some form of moratorium on residential rezonings at this time. We do have some serious infrastructure problems that will only get worse because we cannot provide the infrastructure fast enough to keep up with our population growth. Therefore, I believe we should do something that will help slow the population growth.

I do question the wisdom of a moratorium on rezonings for desirable types of industry. I believe that a continuing growing industrial tax base, and a growing supply of good jobs locally both contribute favorably to the future quality-of-life in Forsyth County.

Many other Commercial rezonings largely offer needed services to our citizens and follow the population growth. However, I would favor a zoning moratorium here until we have the new Mater Land Use and Development Plan and a new Zoning Ordinance in place because they will probably offer revised guidelines for the geographical placement of those zonings.

These are unusual actions, but the growth rate of Forsyth County is also unusual. I do think that we must be especially aware of the consequences of any of these actions for the development community. There are a lot of business and employment implications important to many. I would not favor at this time an action that would have a large immediate impact on the development industry, such as a moratorium on building permits. Let's hope we anticipate and effectively manage the growth challenges so that we will not need a building permit moratorium.

Thanks for your e-mail. My views may be different from yours, but they are my views honestly motivated.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Ron Seder