Durham is in the middle of rewriting the rules that shape how the city grows.
Those rules are called the Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO. The new version is now being referred to as the Land Development Code, or LDC. Whichever acronym you use, it is the same thing: the zoning code that decides what can be built, where it can be built, and what kinds of neighborhoods Durham makes possible.
Most people never read a zoning code. But everyone lives inside the decisions it makes. Zoning quietly determines whether a neighborhood can add new homes, whether a corner store can open, whether a church can build housing, or whether an apartment building is allowed. As such, zoning directly shapes housing affordability, neighborhood change, and who is able to live in a growing city.
Durham’s current UDO was adopted in 2006 to implement the city’s 2005 Comprehensive Plan. The city that code was written for is not the Durham we live…