WENDELL - Wendell's planning staff will have to walk a tightrope to rezone land in the town's newly-expanded extraterritorial jurisdiction to commissioners' liking while staying on the right side of the law.

The staff took a new proposal to the planning board Nov. 21 after the direction of the rezoning was questioned by commissioners at the town board's Nov. 14 meeting.

The planning department is trying to assimilate 2,179 acres between the Wendell town limits and Wendell Falls into the ETJ. Residential developments in the area were planned by Wake County, so the zoning regulations differ slightly from Wendell's ordinances.

Properties affected by different size standards are identified as nonconforming lots.

At the last town board meeting, Commissioner Sid Baynes pushed for any nonconforming lots to be allowed with a variance. A variance is a permit that allows a property owner to make use of the property in a way that conflicts with the rules in a town ordinance - but only if compliance would cause a hardship.

Interim Town Manager Teresa Piner said there is a difficulty with variances because it costs the landowner to ask for a variance and the variance has to be sent before the town Board of Adjustment.

Piner added that since the town can't offer blanket variances in neighborhoods where several lots might become nonconforming, each new property owner would have to go to the town for an individual variance.

A town's board of adjustment determines if a variance is appropriate but doesn't write or vote on ordinances.

According to the NC Institute of Government, variances should not be granted freely or a town can open itself to charges of discrimination when a variance is denied. If an ordinance causes a hardship throughout a community, the board of adjustment should recommend the town's governing body change it.

Town planner David Bergmark was the first to climb onto that tightrope, proposing to the Planning Board a change in Wendell's zoning ordinance to match Wake County standards. The change would affect Wendell's zoning only on 30,000-square-foot lots.

Wendell and Wake County development standards for 30,000-square-foot lots are almost the same, except the county allows lots narrower than town lots. To avoid creating nonconforming lots that aren't wide enough, Wendell commissioners could vote on a text amendment to change its ordinance.

"Essentially we are taking our RR (zoning) district, where the minimum lot width is 100 feet, and switching it to 95 feet to match Wake County," Bergmark said. "There is only a five-foot difference in the dimensional standards. We will not run into similar problems (with other developments) if we change our zoning to the county dimensional standards."

Baynes was also concerned that a large tract not yet finalized in Wake County could be redesigned by a developer for much smaller lots if Wendell rezoning minimizes the land zoning.

Bergmark told the planning board that protection from design swaps already are in place in town ordinances.

"There are regulations in place that do not allow lot changes; they must remain the same size as the properties within 300 feet," Bergmark said.

Properties in another development discussed by commissioners would add several nonconforming lots due to cul-de-sacs included in the design. While the properties meet the minimum lot size, the lot widths at the front of the property do not meet town standards.

Bergmark said the town can measure the lot width at the construction setback from the front of the property.

But even these steps won't eliminate all nonconforming lots. The changes to the plan proposed to the town board Nov. 14 came to the planning board just one week later; it goes back to commissioners in December.

The ETJ plan will bounce back and forth a few more times.

If the staff can get the approval of the elected officials, the plan will return to the planning board for an official recommendation before commissioners put it to a vote in the new year.

"If you're comfortable with it, you could recommend the plan for the town board to approve. If they (opt) for a text amendment, it would come back before the planning board," Bergmark said.

Another wrinkle the plan will face is the turnover in board members once Baynes and commissioner Carol Hinnant's terms end in December. New commissioners Sam Laughery and James Parham will be part of the final vote to approve the ETJ zoning.