The Development Review Section and the Urban Design Section of the Durham City-County Planning Department review site plans and plats, and serve as case managers and as the central distribution point for plans going to each operational department in the City and/or the County.
Applicants are encouraged to meet with City and County departments prior to submittal to determine what is required for each project. Pre-submittal conferences are recommended but not required, except for Conservation Subdivisions, pursuant to Section 3.2.2B of the Unified Development Ordinance. Pre-submittal meetings can be scheduled by using the online Pre-submittal/Re-submittal Conference Registration Form.
Developers or their representatives submit site plans and subdivisions, drawn by registered professionals with proficiency in site or subdivision design, to the Planning staff per the Submittal Schedule. Submittals, except for administrative site plans and exempt plats, are made by appointment up to one week in advance, but no later than 48 hours in advance. Appointments are available weekly and submittals are batched at the end of the week and distributed to other departments for review.
All supporting information, including the latest appropriate application, applicable departmental checklists, landscape calculations, stormwater impact analyses (and required maps), traffic impact analyses, specimen tree surveys, tree coverage calculations, the correct number of folded plans, and all fees, must be included for the submittal to be considered complete. Additional submittals and fees may be required by other City or County departments, including, but not limited to, Stormwater, Fire Marshal, and Sedimentation and Erosion Control as part of the plan approval process. All submittals must be folded to fit in a standard legal folder (maximum 8.5 inches in width by 14 inches in length).
The only exceptions to this process are exempt subdivisions, as defined by Section 3.6.2 of the Durham Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and administrative site plans that require planning department review only. These may be accepted at any time and reviewed by Planning staff, usually within a week, unless unforeseen delays occur.
Status and comments on submittals may be found in the Land Development Office (LDO) website, which is searchable. The required login is 0000 and the password is 0000. Once logged in, click on Plans Review and then enter the application number.
Applicants should thoroughly address any comments and are encouraged to contact the person making the comment if there are questions. Corrected plans, with changes highlighted, and a written response to each of the comments, are resubmitted to the Planning staff every Thursday by 11 a.m. Re-submittals may be made at any time, but will be held until the next distribution cycle if the Thursday deadline is missed.
Re-submittals must also be made within 90 days after all the last comments are received, or plans will be considered administratively withdrawn. Extensions may be granted due to circumstances beyond the control of the applicant, at the discretion of the Planning Departmental staff. Requests for extensions should be made in writing to planning staff in advance of the re-submittal deadline.
Re-submittals made directly to other departments are not considered valid without routing through Planning first. Re-submittals must include a detailed response memo describing how and where each review comment was corrected. The Planning staff will then distribute the plans to the commenting departments for a two-week re-review period.
If additional corrections are needed, the staff will again compile comments and post them on the LDO website. If repeat comments are not addressed, or changes made by the applicants require a re-review beyond the 2nd review, a re-review fee will be charged plus any applicable surcharges. Re-review fees are due at the time of each re-submittal after initial review and first re-review unless the only comment is one that was missed by staff on previous reviews. Re-submittals will not be processed without this fee, the correct number of plans, and the detailed written responses. This process repeats until all comments have been addressed.
Often plans require additional approvals other than site plan or plat approval. Depending upon the request and/or location of the proposed development, additional applications may also require approval. The following are the most common additional applications, but applicants are encouraged to schedule pre-submittal conferences to determine what, if any, additional approvals would be necessary for a particular proposal:
Once a plan is determined consistent with all applicable ordinances, it may be approved by staff if it is an Administrative or Simplified Site Plan or Final Plat. Minor Site Plans and Preliminary Plats are approved by the Development Review Board (DRB), which also makes recommendations on Major Site Plans to the appropriate governing body. Major Site Plans require approval by the appropriate governing body (Durham City Council or the Durham County Board of Commissioners). Meetings of the DRB and each governing body are open to the public.
Multi-departmental Pre-submittal Schedule