By Dave Vieser

At their Monday Jan. 5 meeting, Cornelius commissioners unanimously approved a change in the town’s definition of minor subdivisions. Effective immediately, only subdivisions containing four or fewer lots will be considered minor sub divisions, rather than the previous level of 10 lots.

“The minor subdivision review process is totally administrative in that it requires only staff review and approval, as long as the standards outlined in the code are met,” said Planning Director Wayne Herron. “There is no public notification and there are no public meetings conducted.”

Herron noted that the town’s research indicated that neighboring municipalities set their limits between four and ten lots “so our current limit of ten is not out of line. However, the state does not recommend any specific limits and based on the concerns we’ve heard from some neighborhoods we think this changes makes sense for Cornelius.”

Both the town’s Land Development Code Advisory Board and Planning Board also approved changing the cut-off to four lots or less. Going forward, all proposed subdivisions containing more than four lots will be classified as major projects, subject to conditional zoning, conditional district zoning or quasi-judicial review as prescribed by the town code.

In other action:

• Mayor Chuck Travis and the town board officially adopted a proclamation in support of the American Cancer Society’s 2015 Relay for Life. The proclamation carries the program theme “Paint the Towns Purple” in support of joint funding raising efforts between Cornelius and Huntersville. The event. which features 24 hours of activities will take place on Friday May 1st at the Bailey Road Park, beginning at 7pm.

• The commissioners reappointed Carol Livingston and Rob McCloskey to the PARC Commission, while also appointing Bud Simmons to a term ending in January 2016. They also appointed Karen Tovar as Chair and Katie Robinson as Vice-Chair of the commission.