Mebane, NC Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Mebane UDO Section 4-7.14(E)(2)(d) sets the 70-percent impervious-surface ceiling as one of the general standards applicable to all Highway Corridor Overlay districts, which the City Council designates along specific highway corridors under Section 3-1(C) to control appearance and traffic impacts on land developed, expanded or redeveloped along those roads. The cap covers every impervious surface on the lot: building rooftops, parking lots, driveways and walkways all count toward the 70 percent figure. A developer who wants to exceed that ceiling is not automatically blocked; the ordinance lets the extra runoff be offset with on-site detention or retention measures engineered to compensate for the additional volume, subject to the City Engineer's design standards and the city's Storm Sewer Design Manual.

The Highway Corridor Overlay standards apply to essentially all uses proposed within the overlay except single-family detached and two-family dwellings on their own separate lots, and they kick in once buildings, parking, loading areas or open land uses expand by more than 3,000 square feet of gross floor area after the ordinance takes effect. Site plans for this overlay development must go to the Zoning Administrator and then the City Council for approval, and every other requirement of the underlying zoning district still applies on top of these rules, with the stricter standard controlling whenever the two conflict.