After a recent audit of the County’s erosion control program by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), Pitt County staff were made aware that all portions of the NCG01 Program were not being enforced. Per NCDEQ, as of October 6, 2025, all development within a “common plan of development” requires the submittal of an erosion control plan. A common plan of development is defined as “a site where multiple separate and distinct development activities may be taking place at different times on different schedules but governed by a single development plan regardless of ownership of the parcels. Information that may be used to determine a "common plan of development" include plats, blueprints, marketing plans, contracts, building permits, public notices or hearings, zoning requests, and infrastructure development plans.” This includes all new residential and commercial construction within a common plan of development, even if multiple builders are working within the same development. This also includes subdivisions or plats that are not installing a new shared road. This only applies for areas covered under the Pitt County Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance (Ayden, Falkland, Grimesland, Simpson, and Unincorporated Pitt County).
The erosion control plan will be required in order to obtain a building permit, and the site must be stabilized with groundcover before the Certificate of Occupancy can be issued. Further information and fees can be found https://www.pittcountync.gov/1260/Residential-Lot-Erosion-and-Sediment-Con. For any questions related to this new change, please contact Thomas Shrader with the Pitt County Planning Department at thomas.shrader@pittcountync.gov or at 252-902-3258.