LUMBERTON — In an effort to get a grip on haphazard housing development, the Robeson County Board of Commissioners moved forward Monday on writing a new subdivision ordinance that will end new housing developments with dirt roads.
A new ordinance will be ready for adoption this spring, according to Dixon Ivey, county Planning director. In the meantime, the commissioners amended an ordinance to put some restrictions on families from subdividing land for housing for relatives.
The county put a moratorium on new subdivision development in December until this month. The commissioners were unified behind ending new developments that result in dirt roads that become impassable and the subject of complaints from residents.
“We’re not trying to stop subdivision developments,” Commissioner Roger Oxendine said. “We’re trying to stop building roads that an emergency vehicle and school buses cannot get down.”
The commissioners say they field many complaints from residents of trailer parks or who live in dirt road developments. The county does not pave roads.
“Promises are made, and 20 years down the road there is heartache,” Commissioner Jerry Stephens said. “It’s a major problem.”
But building subdivisions with roads built to state standards come with a price tag, the commissioners were told.
David King, who owns a trailer park near St. Pauls, said installing roads, ditches, fire hydrants, water and sewer adds more than $4,000 to each half-acre lot in a trailer park. King said assessing homeowners for road maintenance is a failed proposition.
Jon Hunt, who owns Jon Wayne Mobile Home Sales and is developing several subdivisions in the county, took objections to the plan one step farther. The new ordinance runs contrary to affordable housing in a poor county.
“You’re pricing people out of the market,” Hunt said. “The ordinance needs more thought put into it.”
Commissioner Raymond Cummings said, “We can do better than allowing roads with holes in them.”
The commissioners’ next meeting will be on Feb. 3, but it will not be held in the new county headquarters, which remains under construction.
Renovations of the former Southern National Bank headquarters is a year behind its original scheduled completion date and a month or two behind its revised schedule, County Manager Kellie Blue said.
The cost of renovations remains on target at $13.9 million. Blue said major delays were caused by the discovery of asbestos in the 1960s-era building.
In other business, the commissioners adopted a new social media policy that prohibits county employees from using personal social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and others, during work hours. The new policy also prohibits workplace harassment, discrimination, bullying or publishing defamatory comments regarding other county employees. Publishing confidential county information also is prohibited.
The commissioners also took up the issue of what to do about a county road with a bad reputation. At the urging of the county’s 911 Committee for Addressing, the commissioners voted to change the name of Cousin Road, near Maxton, to Tranquility Lane.
“We had a request that the new name would promote a more positive image,” said Mattie Caulder, assistant director of Emergency Management.
Finally, the commissioners voted unanimously to rezone eight acres along old U.S. 74 from Highway Commercial to Residential Agricultural so landowner Donald Sampson can place a mobile home on the property for a family member.
