Town of Waxhaw, NC
Home MenuWaxhaw's Growth Strategy
As the region grows, Waxhaw is faced with increasing challenges to preserve the Town's unique charm, while serving the expanding needs of its residents and businesses. Over the past year, our community has expressed a clear desire for greater walkability and street connectivity to relieve traffic congestion, more local jobs and commerce, and a commitment to make downtown a destination that is safe, friendly and vibrant.
To meet these needs, the Waxhaw Planning Department has updated the tools that guide the Town’s growth, including:
- The Future land Use Map, featuring the Downtown Center, Employment Centers and Neighborhood Centers.
- The Waxhaw Zoning Map, showing the entire municipal area pre-zoned according to the new simplified zoning districts.
- The Land Development Code, which replaced the Unified Development Ordinance.
We encourage our residents to take time to review the adopted documents below. You can also review the Collaborative Growth Strategy Booklet which provides an overview of our growth strategy. Thank you!
Land Use Maps
The 2016 Future Land Use Map identified existing neighborhoods, commercial centers and potential parkways; and proposed new areas for residential, business and mixed-use growth. This plan called for an update every three to five years to meet changing demands.
Expanding upon the previous plan, the new Future Land Use Map features the Downtown Center, proposed Employment Centers, and proposed Neighborhood Centers. This plan focuses on five major goals:
- economic development
- job creation
- building and diversifying the tax base
- diversifying housing stock
- coordinating joint planning areas with Union County
Zoning Map
Zoning regulates land use according to the Future Land Use Plan by permitting certain types of development to occur. This does not mean that the current land use of that property will necessarily change in the immediate future.
Notable Changes to Waxhaw’s Zoning Map:
- The Town pre-zoned the entire jurisdiction to meet our updated Future Land Use Plan with a newly adopted zoning map. This update conslidated the old 17 zoning districts into 8 simplified zoning districts.
- Due to the reduction of districts, many properties saw a change in their zoning district designation, but may not see a significant change in zoning requirements.
- Properties once governed by Conditional Use and Conditional Zoning Districts will begin as general zoning districts. Conditional Use Zoning will no longer be allowed by NC law. This change will result in a more streamlined development process. Conditional Zoning Districts will remain an option for petitioners in rezoning requests.
- Approved and vested development projects under the current UDO can continue forward.
- Properties within the designated Development Centers will likely to see increased market activity as this new growth strategy begins to take effect.