Statesville City Zoning Code

The provisions in the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated "The Code of the City of Statesville," and may be so cited. This Code may also be cited as "The Statesville City Code."

(Code 1959, § 1-1)

State Law reference— Codification of ordinances, G.S. § 160A-77.

In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances, the following definitions and rules of construction shall be observed, unless inconsistent with the manifest intent of the city council or the context clearly requires otherwise.

Bond. When a bond is required, an undertaking in writing shall be sufficient.

City. The words "the city" shall mean the City of Statesville, in the County of Iredell, and the State of North Carolina, except as otherwise provided.

City council. The words "the city council" or the "the council" shall mean the city council of the City of Statesville, North Carolina, or the governing body thereof.

City engineer. The term "city engineer" is included in the term "director of public works."

City limits or corporate limits. The words "city limits" or "corporate limits" shall mean the legal boundary of the City of Statesville, North Carolina.

City manager. The words "city manager" shall mean the city manager of the City of Statesville, North Carolina.

Computation of time. In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by this Code or by order of court, the day of the act, event, default or publication after which the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included. The last day of the period so computed is to be included, unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than seven (7) days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and holidays shall be excluded in the computation. A half holiday shall be considered as other days and not as a holiday.

State Law reference— Computation of time, G.S. § 1-593.

County. The words "the county," "county" or "this county" shall mean the County of Iredell.

Delegation of authority. Whenever a provision appears requiring the head of a department of the city to do some act or make certain inspections, it is to be construed to authorize the head of the department to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspection unless the terms of the provision or section designate otherwise.

Gender. Words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter.

Interpretation. In the interpretation and application of any provision of this Code, it shall be held to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. Where any provision of this Code imposes greater restrictions upon the subject matter than the general provision imposed by the Code, the provision imposing the greater restriction or regulation shall be deemed to be controlling.

Joint authority. All words giving a joint authority to three (3) or more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons or officers.

Keeper, proprietor. The words "keeper" and "proprietor" shall mean and include person, firm, association, corporation, club and partnership, whether acting by themselves or through a servant, agent or employee.

May. The word "may" is to be construed as being permissive and not mandatory.

Mayor. The words "the mayor" or "mayor" shall mean the Mayor of the City of Statesville, North Carolina.

Month. The word "month" shall mean a calendar month.

Nontechnical and technical words. Words and phrases shall be construed, according to the common and approved usage of language, but technical words and phrases and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law shall be construed and understood according to such meaning.

Number. Words used in the singular include the plural and the plural includes the singular number.

Oath. The word "oath" shall be construed to include an affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in such cases the words "swear" and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed."

Or, and. "Or" may be read "and," and "and" may be read "or" if the sense requires it.

Owner. The word "owner," applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, the holder of the title in fee simple and every mortgage of record of the whole or part of such building or land.

Person. The word "person" shall include a corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization and any other group acting as a unit, as well as an individual.

Personal property. The term "personal property" includes every species of property except real property, as herein defined.

Preceding, following. The words "preceding" and "following" shall mean next before and next after, respectively.

Property. The word "property" shall include real and personal property.

Real property. The term "real property" shall include lands, tenements and hereditaments.

Residence. The term "residence" shall be construed to mean the place adopted by a person as his place of habitation and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning. When a person eats at one (1) place and sleeps at another, the place where such person sleeps shall be deemed his residence.

Seal. The word "seal" shall mean the city seal, corporate seal, seal of the city corporation, or seal of the City of Statesville, North Carolina.

Shall. The word "shall" is to be construed as being mandatory.

Sidewalk. The word "sidewalk" shall mean any portion of a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.

Signature or subscription. A "signature" or "subscription" includes a mark when the person cannot write.

State. The words "the state" or "this state" shall be construed to mean the State of North Carolina.

Statute references. Whenever reference is made, for example, to G.S. § 160-272, it shall be construed to refer to General Statutes of North Carolina, section 160-272, as amended, or to whatever section is cited.

Street. The word "street" shall mean and include any public way, road, highway, street, avenue, boulevard, parkway, alley, lane, path, viaduct, bridge or other public place and the approaches thereto within the city when any part thereof is open to use of the public and established for purposes of vehicular traffic.

Tenant, occupant. The words "tenant" or "occupant," applied to a building or land, shall include any person who occupies the whole or part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.

Tense. Words used in the past or present tense include the future as well as the past and present.

Title of office. The title of any office shall be construed to include the words "of the City of Statesville, North Carolina."

Writing, written. The words "writing" and "written" shall include printing and any other mode of representing words and letters.

Year. The word "year" shall mean a calendar year.

(Code 1959, § 1-2)

State Law reference— Similar definitions and rules of construction, G.S. § 12-3.

(a)

The catchlines of the several sections of this Code, underlined, are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the sections and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of such sections, nor unless expressly so provided shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.

(b)

The history or source notes appearing in the parentheses after sections in this Code are not intended to have any legal effect but are merely intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section. Cross references and state law references which appear after sections or subsections of this Code or which otherwise appear in footnote form are provided for the convenience of the user of this Code and have no legal effect.

(c)

All references to chapters, articles or sections are to the chapters, articles and sections of this Code unless otherwise specified.

(Code 1959, § 1-3)

(a)

The repeal of an ordinance, or its expiration by virtue of any provision contained therein, shall not affect any right accrued, any offense committed, any penalty or punishment incurred or any proceeding commenced before the repeal took effect or the ordinance expired.

(b)

When an ordinance which repealed another shall itself be repealed, the previous ordinance shall not be revived without express words to that effect.

(Code 1959, § 1-5)

The right of appeal from the decision of any city official's action shall lie to the city council. The decision of the city council shall be final.

(Code 1959, § 1-6)

It is hereby declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code, since the same would have been enacted by the city council without the incorporation in this Code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.

(Code 1959, § 1-4)

(a)

Except as set forth in subsection (b), violation of any provision of this Code or any other city ordinance shall be a misdemeanor as provided by G.S. § 14-4(a).

(b)

Except as set forth in subsection (c), violation of any provision of this Code shall subject the offender to a civil penalty in the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00), to be recovered by the city in a civil action in the nature of debt if the offender does not pay the penalty within a period of seventy-two (72) hours after he has been cited for violation of the ordinance. Citation shall be in writing, signed by the appropriate department head or the department head's designee charged with the enforcement of the particular ordinance which has been violated, and shall be delivered or mailed to the offender either at his residence or at his place of business or at the place where the violation occurred. Each day's continuing violation shall be a separate and distinct offense. Violations of the following provisions shall not be misdemeanors, but shall subject the offender to the civil penalty; chapter 3; chapter 5; chapter 9; chapter 10; chapter 11; portions of chapter 12, including sections 12-4, 12-86, 12-125 and 12-170; chapter 13; portions of chapter 14, excluding section 14-11, subsection (a), sections 14-17 through 14-19, 14-52 through 14-54 and section 14-76; section 15-37; chapter 19; chapter 20; chapter 21; chapter 22, excluding section 22-2; chapter 23, article VIII; and the city's zoning ordinance. Any action to recover such civil penalty may be joined in action for appropriate equitable or other legal remedy, including injunctions and orders of abatement and including an action to recover damages owing to the city by reason of expenses incurred by the city in abating, correcting, limiting and otherwise dealing with the harmful effects of the offending action.

(c)

Violations of chapter 20 shall subject the offender to civil penalties as set forth in section 20-29.

(Code 1959, § 1-7; Ord. No. 25-87, 6-15-87; Ord. No. 17-20, 8-3-2020)

Cross reference— Zoning, App. A.

(a)

By contract or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the city council. A supplement to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the city council or adopted by initiative and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code, and shall also include all amendments to the charter during the period. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.

(b)

In preparing a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code which have been repealed shall be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof from reprinted pages.

(c)

When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them into a unified Code. For example the codifier may:

(1)

Organize the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions;

(2)

Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement, and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;

(3)

Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing section or other subdivision numbers;

(4)

Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections _______ to _______" (inserting section numbers to indicate the sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Code); and

(5)

Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Code; but, in no case shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.

Any and all additions and amendments to this Code, when passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the city council to make the same a part thereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated in the Code, so that reference to The Code of the City of Statesville shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments.

The provisions appearing in this Code, so far as they are the same as those of The Code of the City of Statesville, 1959 and all ordinances adopted subsequent to such Code and included herein, shall be considered as continuations thereof and not as new enactments.

(a)

Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any offense or act committed or done, or any penalty or forfeiture incurred, or any contract or right established or accruing before the effective date of this Code.

(b)

The adoption of this Code shall not be interpreted as authorizing or permitting any use or the continuance of any use of a structure or premises in violation of any ordinance of the city in effect on the date of adoption of this Code.

Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any ordinance:

(1)

Promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the city or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the city or any evidence of the city's indebtedness;

(2)

Fixing the salary of any city officer or employee;

(3)

Granting a franchise or relating to cable television;

(4)

Dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, widening, paving, etc., any street or public way in the city;

(5)

Providing for an appropriation or tax;

(6)

Which, by its own terms, is effective for a stated or limited term;

(7)

Providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;

(8)

Rezoning specific property;

(9)

Dedicating or accepting any subdivision plat;

(10)

Describing or extending the boundaries of the city;

(11)

Fixing the amount of the annual license tax to be paid to the city;

(12)

Prescribing the charge to be paid for water and sewer taps and connections or the rates to be paid for utility, water or sewer service rendered by the city, and the amount of the deposit required to ensure the payment thereof;

(13)

Approving the Industrial Development Corporation, or any similar-type ordinance;

(14)

Adopting personnel rules or regulations or otherwise relating to personnel;

and all such ordinances are hereby recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this Code.