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Orange County, North Carolina – Unified Development Ordinance Page 8-1 ARTICLE 8: NONCONFORMITIES SECTION 8.1: INTENT 8.1.1 Generally Non-conforming uses shall not be enlarged, expanded, intensified, or altered, except in conformance with this Ordinance. It is further the intent of this Ordinance that non-conformity shall not be used as grounds for adding other prohibited uses or structures, nor the enlarging by means of extension or expansion, except as specifically provided by this Ordinance. In the case of requirements related to external factors, such as distance requirements from other specified uses or landscaping requirements dependent upon adjacent property use, the subject parcel shall be considered conforming so long as its continuous use was established first.2 SECTION 8.2: CLASSIFICATION Non-conformities are classified as: (A) Lots (see Section 8.7); (B) Uses of land without structures or minor structures (see Section 8.8); (C) Uses of major structures and premises (see Section 8.9); (D) Structures (see Section 8.10); and/or (E) Characteristics of uses (see Section 8.11) which were lawful but would be prohibited, regulated, or restricted by the enactment of this Ordinance or a subsequent amendment thereto. SECTION 8.3: COMPLETION OF NON-CONFORMING PROJECTS 8.3.1 Valid Permit Issued All non-conforming projects on which construction was begun at least 180 days before the effective date of this Ordinance, or any modification thereto, as well as all non-conforming projects that are at least 25% completed in terms of the total expected cost of the project on the effective date of this Ordinance, or any modification thereto, may be completed in accordance with the terms of their permits, so long as these permits were validly issued and remain unrevoked and unexpired. If a development is designed to be completed in stages, this subsection shall only apply to the particular phase under construction. (A) Except as provided this Section, all work on any non-conforming project shall cease on the effective date of this Ordinance, or any modification thereto, and all permits previously issued for work on non-conforming projects shall be revoked as of that date. Thereafter, work on non-conforming projects may begin or may be continued only pursuant to a zoning or special use permit issued in accordance with this Ordinance by the Planning Director or board authorized to issue permits for the type of development proposed. The county shall issue such a permit if it finds that the applicant has in good faith made substantial expenditures or incurred substantial binding obligations in some substantial way in reasonable reliance on conditions as they existed before the effective date of this Ordinance, or any modification thereto, and thereby would be unreasonably prejudiced if not allowed to complete the project as proposed. In considering whether these findings may be made, the Planning Director or appropriate board shall be guided by the following: 2 Language added to address situations where legal land uses are made nonconforming by external forces. By adding the language the land use will still be considered a legal, conforming, use of property. 57