Rewriting our Rules: LUMO Update
The Town of Chapel Hill has released a draft of its updated Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO), a comprehensive rewrite of the regulations that guide how and where growth happens in Chapel Hill. Community members are encouraged to review the draft, ask questions, and provide feedback ahead of the Town Council’s formal consideration later this year.
Background & Context
The current LUMO is more than twenty years old, first adopted in 2003. Since then, the Town Council has made occasional amendments and adopted strategic plans about transportation, affordable housing, climate action, and more. The new draft LUMO reflects those plans, as well as modern best practices for smart growth and land use planning.
What’s happening now?
We’re sharing a full draft LUMO that’s based on several years of policy direction from Council, community engagement, stakeholder input, and staff collaboration with experts. This draft LUMO implements the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and Complete Community strategy.
How to review and comment
You can easily review and comment on the draft LUMO using the module below!
First, the draft is more than 700 pages, so we’ve created resources you can use to help understand the document:
This High-Level Summary provides an overview of how our draft LUMO will help achieve Council and community goals.
This Reference Guide is a detailed – but not exhaustive – guide to the changes in the draft LUMO.
When you leave a comment on the draft, you’ll have the option to tag it as either a “suggestion” or a “question.” Staff will monitor incoming questions and update the FAQs section of this website as needed. We’ll also review all suggestions and share them with the Town Council and Planning Commission.
Please note that this draft is still a work in progress. Some additional edits and refinement are expected before the Town Council and Planning Commission begin their official deliberations later this year.
