Zoning › North Carolina

North Carolina Zoning

Statewide-code state · 11 cities profiled · IBC 2021.

Overview

Preemption classification
Tier E — Light preemption

Rent control preemption. Charlotte UDO and Raleigh ADU pilots are local.

Governance
Statewide

Building and zoning code adoption is mandated at the state level.

Adopted building codes

Statewide

IBC
2021
IRC
2015
NEC
2020
IFC
2021
IECC (Residential)
2021
IECC (Commercial)
2021
View building-code adoption for North Carolina →
4 of 5 codes adopted (IBC, IRC, IECC, NEC)

Profiled counties

Wake County2 citiesMecklenburg County1 cityDurham County1 cityCumberland County1 cityGuilford County1 cityCraven County1 cityOnslow County1 cityCarteret County1 cityNew Hanover County1 cityForsyth County1 city

Cities

Showing 11 of 11
CityPopulationCodeStatusIssues
——coming soon
Cary—Town of Cary Land Development Ordinance (LDO), Chapter 4 (Zoning Districts) & Chapter 6 (Dimensional Standards) · 12 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Charlotte—Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) — effective June 1, 2023 · 15 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Durham—Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) — adopted 2006 · 19 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Fayetteville—Fayetteville Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) — Chapter 14 · 16 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Greensboro—City of Greensboro Land Development Ordinance (LDO), Chapter 30 · 27 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Jacksonville—Chapter 160D provides foundation for local zoning authority. · 9 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Morehead City—Chapter 160D provides foundation for local zoning authority. · 6 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Raleigh—Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) — adopted 2013, fully effective 2016 (UDO Remapping applied to ~1/3 of city via Z-27-14 and Z-27D-14) · 18 districtsV2 ✓data:gaps-presentcohort:needs-chapter4-retrieval
Wilmington—Wilmington Land Development Code (LDC), Chapter 18 of City Code of Ordinances · 20 districtsV1 Legacyschema:v1-legacypriority:lowdata:gaps-present
Winston-Salem—Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) — UDO ClearCode edition, adopted December 2019, effective January 1, 2020; most recent amendment on file UDO-CC25 (Council adoption 2024-02-19); online text amended through 2026-01-29. · 16 districtsV2 ✓freshness:volatiledata:gaps-present

Research status

Data quality

18%completeness2 confirmed8 not found