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I'm looking at some property, 15+ ac. in Cedar Grove - Orange County, that I plan on building on. I haven't lived in the area long so don't know the nitty gritty of it.
Question is - are there any ordinances that would hamper a farm or custom home build? I've skimmed the ordinances, which is over 600 pages long, but even if there is something in there would it really matter? Mostly thinking about the farm bit, since I realize that the build would of course be inspected. There're always those oddball ordinances like you can't carry ice cream in your back pocket, you can't sing off key in NC, there are many websites dedicated to just that after all. Just because it's there doesn't mean it will be enforced.
The land is currently zoned as agricultural residential. I've heard grey-water systems are not allowed, what about livestock rules? I currently have free-range chickens and goats. I know it's a broad question, but looking for random things that people have dealt with and been irked by.
Seems like half the houses in-town Carrboro have chickens in their yard and that's in the "city"....I'm betting in Northern Orange county your chickens and goats wouldn't be an issue.
There are some things, but plenty of people build custom houses and keep livestock. The livestock would need to be kept on your property of course and not free ranging over to your neighbor's farm and eating all his tomatoes.
There are some regulations about what you can do with your farm as well. There were a bunch of signs up in western Orange Co saying "Stop The Party Barn" because they didn't want folks to have a wedding/event venue on their farm.
Watch out for the Flat River Watershed Protection plan which covers extensive parts of Orange and Person counties plus parts of Durham. We're building on a farm right now and ran into the watershed protection rules and it really delayed the permitting process. We managed to over it but it was a pain. The health department and other departments had to come out to inspect and approve. It didn't impact our project but it delayed it. Just so you know.
You should contact the Orange County Planning and Inspections office. In our limited experience they are extremely responsive.
Biggest questions are likely where your well would go (if there isn't one there yet), where your septic drainfield will go, how big and what size house the perc on the area will allow, and then where your animals will be (I assume they can graze on the drainfield, but not near the well). With 15 acres all this should be manageable, but they will be able to provide you all the hoops you'll need to jump through.
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