In his continuing efforts to advance developer interests and profitability by stripping local governments of planning authority, Mr. Zenger introduced legislation (H661 now pending in the state senate) that would prohibit local governments from passing or enforcing ordinances that require safe designs on new neighborhood streets to protect residents.
Case and point: Lewisville has an ordinance, as do many towns, that requires developers to include speed calming designs to slow down traffic on straight streets over a certain length. Additionally, the town requires slightly wider streets, curb & gutter and sidewalks for safety. We have a number of new neighborhoods that have done this successfully.
However, developers prefer long straight narrower streets without safety features because they are the cheapest to build. Most of us have seen them in high density neighborhoods where the streets are long and narrow.
Mr. Zenger’s bill prohibits towns from enforcing these safety ordinances by inserting loophole language that says streets where no municipal funds are used for construction are exempt from municipal design requirements. Yet the bill’s language creates the expectation that these streets will become municipal streets in the future.
Here are the facts:
- Virtually all streets in new neighborhoods are built by developers without municipal funds. Towns use both local and state funds to maintain neighborhood streets, not to build them.
- At the time of completion, 99% of developers petition the municipality to take in the streets they build because they don’t want to assume the ongoing repair and maintenance of those streets. And residents don’t want to assume those costs either.
- The result of Mr. Zenger’s legislation is that when neighborhood streets are not built in compliance with municipal safety ordinances, the residents come to the town council complaining about speeding and ask for the town to install traffic calming devices….because of speeding.
So, municipalities have two choices.
Towns like Lewisville could amend its ordinance to say that if safety ordinances are not followed the town could decline to take in the street. However, should the town do that, the residents on that street would be outraged because they pay taxes and the town wasn’t taking care of maintenance or snow removal….or installing traffic calming safety devices.
The other choice is that neighborhood could keep their streets private and be responsible for maintenance, snow removal and safety improvements themselves….not likely. Particularly when they were led to believe that their streets would be town maintained.
In either choice, developers get off the hook for not designing safe streets leaving municipalities and residents holding the bag.
This legislation also applies to street curbs, gutters and sidewalks, all designed for safer neighborhoods.
Mr. Zenger’s bill also prohibits municipalities from requiring safety design standards that exceed those of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The problem here is that, with few exceptions, the NCDOT doesn’t build or maintain neighborhood streets.
When it comes to street design municipalities have had the option to augment the minimum NCDOT standards to protect the safety of their residents. Mr. Zenger’s bill eliminates that option.
The question is why does Mr. Zenger, a developer himself, want to take away a local municipality’s ability to have street design requirements to protect the safety of its residents? Should that not be the municipality’s choice?
This bill has passed Mr. Zenger’s committee in the House and the House itself. It is now pending in the Senate.
General Assembly of North Carolina Session 2025
House Bill 661- Limit design methodology and construction standards for certain municipal streets.
SECTION 1.2.(a) Article 15 of Chapter 160D
Ҥ 160D-1502. Limit street design methodology and construction standards for certain municipal streets. Notwithstanding G.S. 136-66.4, municipalities shall not implement design methodology and construction standards for new streets and highways to be accepted by a municipality, utilizing funds that are not wholly municipal funds, that are more stringent than design methodology and construction standards utilized by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
LINKS
H661 https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/H661
Mr. Zenger’s Campaign Contributors
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