Commissioners told town planners Nov. 14 to keep the land closer to Wake County's land use designs than their own.

On July 5, the Wake County Board of Commissioners added 2,179 acres between the town and Wendell Falls.

Town Planner David Bergmark said Monday the town would need to update the area's zoning from Wake County's to Wendell's categories. Bergmark recommended using the Wendell zoning that aligns with the county's rules to ensure a smooth transition for property owners.

But Commissioner Sid Baynes said even little differences could cause big problems.

For instance, Wake's R-40 zones allow residential lots of a minimum of 40,000 square feet, with a minimum width of 110 feet. The county also requires a residence to be set back 30 feet from the property line at the front or corner of the lot, 10 feet on the side and 30 feet from the rear of the lot. Wendell's similar zone requires a minimum 43,560 square foot lot, with a 100-foot minimum width, and setbacks of 40 feet from the corner.

If Wendell rezones the ETJ, there will be properties that are affected by the size standards and identified as nonconforming lots.

Wendell does not allow a nonconforming lot to be developed if it can be combined with an adjoining lot owned by the same person to create a conforming lot.

Bergmark proposed rezoning the nonconforming lots R2 or R3, which cover the size standards the lots fall into, so the owners would be able to develop the individual properties.

"We can reduce, for example, 25 nonconforming lots to only three or four by changing their zoning," he said.

Baynes said he does not want Wendell's rezoning to affect developers' ability to build on the properties that were planned using Wake County's zoning rules .

"The simple way to handle this is to allow variances for (nonconforming) lots. That does not change years of work that have gone into these developments," Baynes said.

Baynes identified Tanner's Creek and Arbor Trace as two subdivisions that would benefit more from variances than rezoning.

'Bad message to send'

Commissioner Ira Fuller agreed with Baynes and asked the planning staff to look at the rezoning further.

"We want to have no negative impact on these property owners," Fuller said. "There may be some few who are affected that we can't help, but we shouldn't begin by negatively impacting development. That's a bad message to send."

Baynes said if a large tract of land has not been platted and the Wendell rezoning minimizes land sizes, a developer could put in much smaller lots than what was proposed in Wake County's zoning plans.

"I want to stop this because we're headed down the wrong path. Giving variances for larger minimum size lot sizes is a simple thing," Baynes said.

Baynes added that a nonconforming lot designation could make selling the property difficult for the owner and allowing variances would simplify that process.

Commissioners Carol Hinnant and Christie Adams also spoke in favor of working to assist the property owners, not put hurdles in their way.

"I understand housekeeping, but we don't want to harm people," Hinnant said.

Bergmark said staff is seeking public input, before taking the proposal to the planning board in December.

If the planning board recommends the rezoning plan it would come before town commissioners in January to decide if it is ready for a public hearing and vote in February.

The board took no action at the meeting, but advised the staff to incorporate the variances and send the ETJ proposal to the planning board.