Permit regulation debate sharpens in western NC
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Cops and Congress, written by Annie Dance.
Republican US Senate candidate Michael Whatley and state Rep. Jake Johnson (R, 113th District) are calling for faster, more predictable construction permitting as builders warn that delays are driving up costs across North Carolina. The issue has a direct connection to Lake Lure, where post-Helene rebuilding can involve town zoning approvals, Rutherford County building permits, state environmental requirements, and, in some cases, federal review.
At a roundtable meeting on Sept. 17 with Associated Builders and Contractors in Charlotte, Whatley said permitting should protect communities and ensure projects comply with applicable rules, but should not become a tool to stop development after those requirements are met. “You’ve got to make sure that it works within the community,” Whatley said. “You’ve got to make sure that it works within the regulatory structure. You’ve got to make sure that the infrastructure, you know, the roads, the water, the electricity, are capable of absorbing that type of growth. But once the answer is yes, then get it done and let’s get to work.” Johnson, whose district includes Rutherford, McDowell, Henderson, and Polk counties, including Lake Lure, focused on how delays can happen inside local permitting offices. “We have put a shot clock on commercial building, but we understand from feedback that a lot of these local governments are not complying with it,” Johnson said.
He described a scenario in which a permit approaches the end of a review period only for the applicant to receive another request for information. “You have planners. You have permitting authorities within governments that say I don’t like that project, so I’m going to run the clock out on it,” Johnson said. “If they’ve got 90 days to issue a permit, they’ll wait till day 89. They’ll find something wrong with it, and they’ll send you a piece of paper back that says we’ll come out and inspect it again in the next three months.”
Current North Carolina law uses more specific deadlines than the 90-day example Johnson gave. For qualifying commercial and multifamily projects with complete, professionally sealed plans, NCGS 160D-1110.1 generally requires a local government to issue a building-permit decision within 45 days after receiving the necessary plans and information. If additional information or revised plans are required, the local government generally has up to 10 additional days after receiving them. Applicants can also use an independent third-party reviewer in certain circumstances when the government cannot meet the statutory deadline.
Residential rules are different. If a local government chooses to review residential building plans, state law generally requires the initial review within 15 business days. If the initial review is not completed within 20 business days, the applicant is entitled to a partial permit-fee refund of 10% per additional business day, capped at 10 days. Those deadlines, however, do not mean every approval associated with a project must be completed on the same timetable.
Lake Lure has multiple permitting layers
Lake Lure’s Community Development Department administers the town’s land-use and zoning rules, including certificates of zoning compliance, subdivision regulations, sign permits, and other development requirements. The code of ordinances is 461 pages. The town advises property owners that even projects such as fences, docks, structural repairs, and some land clearing can require local permits. A Lake Lure zoning permit can also be a prerequisite to a Rutherford County building permit. The town’s certificate-of-zoning-compliance application states that “a zoning permit is required before a Rutherford County Building Permit can be issued.”
That distinction is important in a community still rebuilding from Hurricane Helene. A property owner may receive town zoning approval but still need a county building permit. Other projects can involve land disturbance, lake structure, or environmental requirements. Lake Lure reported in January that its Community Development Department was continuing to provide permitting assistance to residents working through repairs and reconstruction after Helene. During that month, the department issued seven zoning permits, seven lake structure permits (eg., boathouses), and four land-disturbance permits, among other approvals.
The town has also been looking at ways to make the process easier to track. At its Aug. 11 meeting, town officials reported that Lake Lure was considering cloud-based permitting software that could integrate with GIS maps and allow property owners and contractors to monitor permit status online. Town officials said such a system could reduce staff workload while giving applicants greater access to information about their permits.
That proposal mirrors one of Johnson’s main arguments at the Charlotte roundtable. “If you forget to check a box, that shouldn’t take weeks, if not months, to tell you,” Johnson said. “You should know within 30 seconds that the form gets kicked back. Go check that, submit it back in.” Johnson said the state has funded a pilot program intended to make internal government reviews easier to track and potentially expand that approach to environmental permitting using blockchain artificial intelligence. “What the hope is, if it goes smoothly, we can transition that into a lot of the DEQ permitting we do, which is really the biggest holdup at the state,” Johnson said.
Whatley criticizes ‘green tape’
Whatley told builders that ordinary bureaucracy is only part of the problem. He used the term “green tape” to describe environmental or development permitting that he believes is sometimes used to stop projects rather than evaluate whether they comply with the law.
“The thing that we have seen all too often lately is green tape, which is where people are actually weaponizing the permitting system to get to no, to say no, because they don’t want this type of development or they don’t want that type of development or they don’t want any development,” Whatley said.
Whatley’s comments were made as part of a broader discussion about construction and data centers. They were not findings that Lake Lure, Rutherford County, NCDEQ, or another agency has intentionally delayed a specific Lake Lure permit. He also repeatedly said infrastructure and community impacts should remain part of the review.
On data centers, Whatley said developers should ensure that roads, water, and electricity can support a project. “Every community is going to have an impact when we talk about data center construction, and the companies that are going to develop the data centers need to work with the community to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to be able to sustain it,” Whatley said. He added: “If a community says that this is not right for us to come in here, then build it somewhere else, right? But you know we can’t have a blanket no, we’re not going to build any more data centers.”
Cooper campaign stresses local control
Democratic Senate candidate and former Gov. Roy Cooper is emphasizing a different part of the data-center debate: electricity costs and local involvement. “Roy Cooper believes that data centers should pay the full cost of the energy they use, and prevent those costs from being passed on to locals,” his campaign website states. “He also believes that local communities should be fully involved in any decision made about potential data centers in their neighborhoods.”
His campaign proposal also says Cooper would “make sure data centers pay the full cost of all the power they use and prevent costs from being passed on to consumers.” The plan calls for encouraging large technology companies to develop their own energy sources, modernizing the electric grid, and prohibiting utilities from disconnecting customers during periods of dangerous heat and cold.
While the campaign positions differ in emphasis, both candidates have said local impacts should be considered. Whatley said a project should go somewhere else if a community determines it is not appropriate there. Cooper’s campaign says communities should be “fully involved” in decisions involving proposed data centers. Over 30 towns and counties have some form of moratorium on data centers, as I’ve previously reported for Cops & Congress and Carolina Journal.
Builders say time costs money
Contractors at the Charlotte discussion told Whatley and Johnson that slow permitting raises project costs. Johnson said those added expenses do not necessarily stay with the builder.
“At the end of it, those costs fall on the business owner,” Johnson said. “Those costs from the business owner fall on the folks that are going to use that store, that facility. So at the end of the day, the consumer’s paying all that.” The issue can be particularly significant during disaster recovery, when property owners may already be paying for engineering, reconstruction, cleanup, and code compliance.
At the same time, Lake Lure’s geography makes some permitting requirements consequential. The town sits around a lake and river system surrounded by steep terrain, and local rules include separate approvals for land disturbance and lake structures. The policy question is therefore not simply whether to eliminate permits. State law already requires permits for many forms of construction, reconstruction, alteration, and repair and requires permitted work to comply with the state Building Code and other applicable state and local laws.
The debate is increasingly about how government administers those requirements. For Lake Lure residents, that can mean knowing whether a project is waiting on town zoning approval, a Rutherford County building permit, an environmental review, or another requirement — and knowing quickly if an application is incomplete.
Whatley and Johnson are arguing for the same principle on a broader scale: once government determines what rules apply, applicants should receive an answer without unnecessary delay. Cooper and Whatley have two additional opponents on the general election ballot. Johnson faces Democrat John Morgan for the state house seat.