Morgan County wants to dissolve buffer zones. Municipalities aren't ready to give them up.

MARTINSVILLE — Morgan County is looking to dissolve the four buffer zones around Martinsville, Mooresville, Monrovia and Morgantown in an effort to take back control of development that happens in the two-mile radius outside those municipalities' incorporated limits.

While the municipalities have come to rely on buffer zones as a means to control development, some county officials believe the zones have outlived their useful life.

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During the Nov. 8 meeting of the Morgan County Plan Commission, Morgan County Plan Director Laura Parker told members of the commission that she felt it was time to dissolve the zones.

But some local officials have indicated they might not be willing to give them up.

Gary Oakes, director of planning and engineering for the city of Martinsville, said there are pros and cons to both approaches but it will ultimately be up to city council to decide if it wants to try and keep the zones.

Tom Warthen, president of Mooresville Town Council, said he believes the zones allow municipalities to better plan for the future and give property owners the right to remonstrate against development they believe would be detrimental to their property value.

"I would hate very much to see any type of buffer zone go away," Warthen said.

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At its most recent meeting, Monrovia Town Council discussed drafting a letter to the county voicing its opposition to removing the zones but decided not to move forward after learning that councilmembers were split on the issue.

A brief history of buffer zones

Lines in dark red indicate the extent of buffer zones of Martinsville, Monrovia, Mooresville and Morgantown.
Lines in dark red indicate the extent of buffer zones of Martinsville, Monrovia, Mooresville and Morgantown.

From 1997 until 2001, there were no planning and zoning restrictions in Morgan County, which turned the area into something of a wild west for development. Concerned by how this would affect development near their borders, municipalities passed ordinances establishing extra-territorial jurisdictions, also known as buffer zones, to give them more control over what happens on the fringes of their incorporated limits.

"If I were one of those municipalities, I would have jumped on that, too," Parker said.

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In late 2001, Morgan County reinstated its planning and zoning department, but not before buffer zones became commonplace.

"Theoretically, that would have been the time to revoke the buffer zones," Parker said.

Instead, the zones remained in place until July 2015, when Morgan County Board of Commissioners voted to eliminate the 2-mile buffer zones of Martinsville, Mooresville, Monrovia and Morgantown.

In response, the Martinsville Plan Commission threatened legal action and Martinsville City Council passed an ordinance reaffirming the city's right to the territory, calling the county's decision "unlawful." The ordinance cited a state Court of Appeals ruling which stated that the consent of a county board of commissioners was not required for a city to exercise fringe jurisdiction if the population of the county is less than 84,000. Morgan County's population is 71,780 as of 2020.

Facing the threat of legal action, the county decided not to enforce the law, and the zones have remained in place in the county's four largest municipalities.

The case against buffer zones

One of the biggest complaints against buffer zones is that they enable taxation without representation.

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Residents who live in any of the county's buffer zones don't get to vote in municipal elections, effectively robbing them of the chance to vote for municipal officials who have control over their land use.

"Not having representation kind of goes against everything we do in this country, as far as I'm concerned," said Jason Maxwell, a Morgan County councilman and a member of the county plan commission who supports dissolving buffer zones.

Meanwhile, residents often don't realize they live in a buffer zone, Parker said, which can cause confusion and delays when it comes time to file for permit applications.

With its own planning and zoning staff, the county is better suited than municipalities to take on the buffer zones, she said.

Next steps

Some county officials believe the timing is right to dissolve the buffer zones.

Morgan County is in the process of developing a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that will combine its existing zoning and subdivision ordinances into one document.

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The intent of the new ordinance, Parker says, is to promote "orderly development" and reduce redundancies in the permitting process. County commissioners will discuss the ordinance at their Dec. 20 meeting.

Ultimately, state statute gives counties the authority to do away with buffer zones, Parker says.

At the Nov. 8 Morgan County Plan Commission meeting, Terry Brock, who chairs the county plan commission, said he was planning to send a letter to the Morgan County Board of Commissioners asking them to consider dropping the zones, but the plan commission ultimately held off on sending the letter because five of its nine members were not present at the meeting.

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The next meeting of the Morgan County Plan Commission is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 13, at the Morgan County Administration Building, 180 S. Main St., Martinsville.

If the plan commission decides to send the letter, it would then be up to the three county commissioners to decide whether or not to take action to dissolve the buffer zones.

Contact reporter Peter Blanchard at 765-346-2942 or pblanchard@reporter-times.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterlblanchard.

This article originally appeared on The Reporter Times: Morgan County wants to take back control of unincorporated buffer zones