The zoning changes will now be sent to the town council for final approval.
The move was made at the board's regular monthly on June 6.
The entire new ETJ-roughly a mile from the town limits in all directions-would be zoned RA, for residential and agriculture uses. Areas around the Morganwood and Westwood subdivisions would be zoned R-40, or low density residential.
The zoning still requires the approval of the town council before becoming permanent.
The town expanded the ETJ in 2003 to prevent the county from applying its own zoning rules to the areas adjacent to the town limits.
The areas brought into the town's ETJ extend from the Mount Olive community on Mercer Mill Road to just beyond the N.C. 87 bypass, across the river field area north of town and up N.C. 53.
While expanding the ETJ met with heavy resistance when it was first passed, no one spoke about the proposal at Monday's planning board meeting. The measure is expected to be voted on at the next town council meeting, after a public hearing.
In a brief to the board, Town Planner Mary Jo Gollnitz said proper zoning is required by the town in all areas to maintain proper development.
Over 100 residents of the areas in question attended the town council meeting when the public hearing was held on the issue in November, 2003.
At the time, Mayor Kenneth Kornegay and Town Manager David Smitherman said the move was to protect the town from development that could have unwanted effects on air and water quality. At that time, town officials said they had no plans to zone the areas in question.
Under the county's zoning, which was passed the next April, the areas in question-including along N.C. 53 West-could have been zoned to allow heavy industrial uses.
Council members at the time said the move was not an attempt to raise tax revenues.
"We are not planning to tax these people," Mayor Kenneth Kornegay said when the council passed the measure in 2004.
Smitherman explained that the ETJ was strictly a protective measure.
"The town is trying to control what becomes our neighbors," he said. "Even though the town's ETJ extends across the bridge, I doubt the town would ever expand that far. Supplying required town services across the river would be prohibitive compared to the tax benefits the town might receive."
Smitherman and the commissioners agreed that any areas that likely would be annexed into the town limits lay inside the N.C. 87 Bypass crescent.
"That's a natural, logical boundary," Smitherman said in January 2004.
Property owners in the areas will be notified by letter of the public hearing, which will likely be scheduled for the July town council meeting.
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