Living in the Neighborhood

Land Use Policy in Our Neighborhood

The principal issue in land use policy is who determines how land is to be used, the owner of the land or the community in which the land exists. In personal terms, we all want to be able to do what we want with our own property, but we also want to live in a livable, attractive, economically viable community. This conflict between individual rights and community rights has lead to the development of zoning ordinances and restrictive deed covenants in neighborhoods. Based on personal experience, I believe this is a very positive development.

We had friends who purchased a home years ago on a forested lot at the end of a cul-de-sac. It should have been perfect, but the adjacent property was owned by a quarry. The quarry put up a chain link fence on the property line to keep the kids from falling in the hole, then quarried right up to the chain link fence. The hole was a hundred feet deep. Our friends lay in bed on rainy nights and wondered if their house was going to slide into the quarry. It took them years to sell their home, and then for only a fraction of its real worth.

Lined with towering oaks, Providence Road in Charlotte between Queens Road and Queens Road (no kidding) was by design one of the most beautiful residential streets in North Carolina. The governor had his home there. About fifty years ago, one of the neighbors decided to sell his sweeping front yard to a gas station. One person’s actions destroyed this beautiful, expensive, and politically powerful neighborhood for everyone else. And there was nothing anyone could do because there was no zoning law at the time. It is now a strip mall. The governor’s home has been a succession of marginal restaurants and shops. This travesty precipitated the adoption of zoning ordinances in Mecklenburg County, by the way.

Before Pat and I moved to Davidson, we lived in Eastover in Charlotte right around the corner from Providence Road. Many of our neighbors were uncertain as to the direction our neighborhood would take – remain single family or convert to apartments or commercial. Houses were not maintained. Property values were stagnated by indecision. We worked with our neighbors to get the entire neighborhood upgraded to single family residential, the most restrictive zoning. People began to invest in their homes. New families moved in. Property values took off. When we sold our house, the land under it was valued at just under one million dollars an acre. Zoning worked.

I have more stories like this. Most of us do. It has a lot to do with why we are living here. Davidson has some of the most restrictive land use policies in North Carolina. Our neighborhood has a very restrictive Neighborhood Covenant. The rights of the individual property owner are restricted so that the needs of the community can be given high consideration in determining how private land is to be used. Zoning and covenants are largely responsible for the beautiful (award winning in fact) neighborhood we live in. Zoning and covenants will help us keep it that way. We are all new here. How well we make this thing work is primarily up to all of us.

Neighborhood land use policy is governed by the Neighborhood Covenants we all agreed to when we purchased our property (a legal and binding part of every deed), the Council of Stewards (the neighborhood equivalent of a Town Council), and the Architectural Review Committee (the neighborhood equivalent of a Zoning Board). The Council of Stewards is elected by the neighborhood. The Architectural Review Committee is appointed by the Council of Stewards.

The Council of Stewards is responsible for policy decisions and administration. The policy standards and administrative procedures are set forth in the Neighborhood Covenants. The Neighborhood Covenants do not specifically contain detailed architectural standards for the neighborhood, but refer to the “originally approved plans and specifications” as the standards.

The most visible definition of the architectural standards is the neighborhood as it was built and includes every item of external appearance of every home, both town homes and individual homes. Since the as built exterior of every home is the standard, any exterior change, large or small, must be reviewed and approved by the Architectural Review Committee. If you want to make a change, you must submit a Request for Architectural Approval. The Architectural Review Committee meets once a month on the third Tuesday and will give you a prompt response to your request. Most requests to date have been approved, by the way.

In reviewing requests, a number of things are considered, including but not limited to:

Is it consistent with the neighborhood standards?
Is it consistent with the design and architecture of the neighborhood?
What is the impact on the neighborhood?
What is the impact on adjacent neighbors?
Does it use common property?
Does it encroach on common property, private property, public property, roads, or sidewalks?
Does it impact maintenance of common property?
Is this an isolated request or would it create a de facto standard or policy change?
Has the request already been executed without prior approval?

If the requested change could apply to a number of property owners (moving an air conditioning unit for example), it is a de facto standard or policy change and the Architectural Review Committee will probably reject the individual request and review the general issue with the Council of Stewards.

As we learn, the Architectural Review Committee will develop written standards for commonly requested items to speed the process. For example, if you want to install a storm door or a screen door, the Architectural Review Committee will have a written standard. If you follow the written standard, approval will be straightforward. It will take awhile to develop these standards, so please be patient.

Your neighbors on the Council of Stewards and Architectural Review Committee ask three things of you:

Remember that it is our neighborhood and it is our shared responsibility to take care of it.
Remember that the Council of Stewards and the Architectural Review Committee are staffed by our neighbors. They are all volunteers who are willing to put in considerable time and effort to preserve the quality and the value of our neighborhood. It is hard and often thankless work. Treat these folks with the kindness and respect they deserve.
Always request and receive approval before proceeding with a change. The adage that “it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” does not apply here. I was a member of the Zoning Board in Charlotte for years. We were required by law to turn down any request where the land owner had proceeded without approval, no matter how valid the request. Tough, but it had to be that way for the zoning ordinance to work.

Mike Stenhouse
Architectural Review Committee