Town of Orchid's Zoning Map Simplified

At the first Town Council meeting of the new year, held on January 4, a pair of ordinances were adopted that are the culmination of last year's work on the Town's Comprehensive Plan as pertains to land use and zoning within the community. Importantly, Town's zoning map was amended by combining into one single-family residential zoning district the two former single-family residential districts (estate and standard) of which the requirements were already entirely identical except for their names and one conditional use that was extremely unlikely to suit the community at this stage of development.

The dual districts with identical specifications had tended to cause unnecessary complication and confusion for property owners, building contractors, architects, and real estate agents wishing to efficiently access the Town’s requirements for their or their clients' local property. Additionally, the terms of the two categories did not align with their popular use and understanding within the community, and further didn't match the meanings of those terms as used by the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Community Association. All opportunity for misunderstanding.

In an effort to simplify the code and make the zoning districts more user-friendly to residents and their service providers, adoption of an updated zoning map with a sole single-family residential zoning category simply entitled “single-family residential district” was approved by the Town Council. Text amendments to zoning district criteria were also approved by the Town Council to bring the code in line with the Comprehensive Plan, itself updated in 2022. Both ordinances were reviewed and recommended for approval by the Town's Local Planning Agency also.