"Our minimum lot size is an acre now. We wouldn't mind if it's five acres." Davie County Commissioner Mark Jones said that during the board's September 8, 2026 meeting. In the same breath he explained why the county can't make that change: the legislature has stepped in, and the board has been told it cannot go back and change lot sizes.
If you own acreage in unincorporated Advance, that quote affects your land's value. The one-acre minimum is staying. What changed is everything around it. On September 8 the county adopted rules that control how wide each lot must be, where the house can sit, and how much money a developer must put up before building. Those rules shape what a builder can afford to offer you.
In Davie County, three lots is already a major subdivision
The trouble starts at a low number. In Davie County's subdivision code, a major subdivision is any subdivision with three or more lots. A minor subdivision is anything smaller. So an owner who carves three building lots for sale out of a tract off Cornatzer Road is in the same category as a developer platting dozens of homes, unless one of the code's listed exemptions applies.
That threshold almost became much more expensive. On February 5, 2026, commissioners passed a change requiring every subdivision plan with three or more lots to come before the board. The Davie County Enterprise Record reported that the move followed the 161-lot Myers Landing proposal. At a March 17 work session, Development Services Director Johnny Easter told the board that the downzoning provisions in Chapter 160D of state law meant the February change to the zoning code would have to be rescinded. Any revisions would have to go into the Chapter 154 subdivision ordinance instead. By June, staff had recommended rescission. Jones argued for passing it again anyway. We found no record of a final rescission vote or of the rule being passed again. Ask the county where it stands before you plan any split.
Those exemptions matter for anyone selling land. Among others, the code exempts dividing land among relatives within the third degree of lineal kinship, as long as the new lots meet county standards. It also exempts parcels larger than five acres when a right-of-way agreement of at least 50 feet, covering road construction and maintenance, is recorded with the deed. The family exemption has a catch for future sales. The plat must carry a certificate saying those lots won't be used for sale or building development except by those family members, and that more county approvals may be needed before any later sale. If you divide land among family now and someone sells a lot later, that later sale may face the major subdivision rules. The online version of the code is current only through an ordinance passed in February 2025, so confirm every definition against the rules adopted in September 2026.
What the legislature took off the table
The constraint the commissioners keep pointing to is Session Law 2024-57. It amended N.C.G.S. § 160D-601(d) so that a local government cannot start, adopt, or enforce a downzoning without written consent from every affected property owner. Under the amended definition, downzoning includes reducing the development density allowed on a property. The UNC School of Government's summary says the change took effect December 11, 2024.
For a seller, this means the number of homes your land can legally hold under its current zoning is protected. The county can't reduce it on its own. The School of Government also says the statute's text is focused on zoning, and that it's unclear how far the limit reaches into other development regulations. Davie County is now working in that unclear space.
Myers Landing showed how little room the county has
The case that shaped this year started on about 226 acres fronting US 64 West and Fred Lanier Road, near Lake Myers. That's on the Mocksville side of the county, not in Advance, but it set the pattern for the whole county. Braxton Real Estate of Clemmons first proposed a single 161-home subdivision and asked the county to waive its curb-and-gutter requirement. When approval looked doubtful, the developer refiled the project as three subdivisions: Fieldstone with 40 homes, and The Enclave and Waters Edge with 60 homes each. Those smaller subdivisions fell into lower categories under the ordinance and did not carry the same curb-and-gutter requirement.
Commissioners refused the plans in May. In June they approved them 4-1 on the consent agenda after being told they could be personally liable in a lawsuit and that the county was likely to lose. County Attorney Ed Vogler had told the board the only question was whether the plans met the ordinance, not whether a residential development should be allowed. Vice-Chair Brent Shoaf described the legal advice this way:
"I did consult with a lot of legal experts from across the state and I was pretty much told that we didn't have a legal leg to stand on and if we did get sued, we would lose, the development would go forward and then we would be subject to damages possible being paid out too."
For a landowner, the takeaway is that a plan meeting the written ordinance gets approved in Davie County. The board's say comes from what goes into the ordinance, not from case-by-case approvals. That's why the September rules matter so much.
The September rules change the cost and shape of each lot
On September 8, commissioners unanimously approved these subdivision standards:
| New standard | What it changes on a parcel |
|---|---|
| 100-foot minimum lot width | Caps how many lots fit along a given stretch of land, regardless of acreage |
| 50-foot front setback | Pushes houses deeper into each lot |
| 20-foot side setbacks | Limits how wide a house can be on a narrow lot |
| Required new tree planting | Adds a site cost to every lot |
| Cluster mailbox and bus stop rules | Adds shared infrastructure the developer must plan and build |
| Performance guarantee of 125% of total infrastructure cost | Requires the developer to post money up front |
The last row deserves the closest look. Easter explained that developers will have to post a security bond, a letter of credit, or equivalent security equal to 125% of the subdivision's total infrastructure cost. The county returns it in portions as the developer meets set milestones. He also said this is something "we don't see a whole heck of a lot in the counties."
Here's how that reaches your sale price. A builder sets a land offer by working backward from what the finished lots will sell for, minus every cost and the cost of carrying money. The county can't reduce how many homes your land is zoned for. These rules work on the other parts of that calculation instead. A 100-foot width minimum means a long, narrow parcel may yield fewer lots than its acreage suggests. A 125% bond ties up capital before the first house is framed, and builders pay for capital. Two Advance tracts with the same acreage could now draw very different offers, depending on their shape and how much road and utility work they need.
Sewer is a separate hurdle. In the Town of Bermuda Run, Canvas Residential Partners and Kelley Properties announced Wellstead at Kinderton Farms on September 28, 2026. It's a planned 141-home build-to-rent community with 128 townhomes and 13 detached homes. The partners said the project spent about three years on entitlements and sewer capacity, and they projected first homes in spring 2028. That timeline comes from the developers' announcement, but it shows how long a dense project can take even before county subdivision rules come into play.
What the county hasn't settled yet
Several open questions make Advance acreage harder to value this fall:
- Stormwater. At the September hearing, resident Jody Everett said the new ordinance had "nothing that deals with water." Commissioner Richard Poindexter said the board still had "a lot of work to do." A future stormwater rule could add another cost to each lot.
- Curb and gutter. In March, the draft standards proposed curb and gutter on all streets in all major subdivisions. The September coverage doesn't say whether that made it into the final rules.
- Effective date and pending applications. We didn't find a published effective date. State law doesn't automatically protect every plan already filed. Under N.C.G.S. § 160D-108(b), when a development rule changes after an application is submitted, the applicant generally gets to choose which version applies. Statutory vesting covers only certain approvals that have already been issued.
Eastern Davie projects are in the middle of all this. A spring commissioners' agenda listed a Ridgeland Subdivision on Cornatzer Road in Advance as a consent item, with no lot count or developer named in the document. If a builder is weighing your parcel against a project like that, the rules each one falls under can make a real difference.
Before you accept a builder's number on Advance acreage
- Find out whether the buyer's plan creates three or more lots. If it does, the major subdivision standards apply.
- Ask the buyer how many lots they expect at 100-foot widths and how they got that count.
- Ask whether the offer accounts for the 125% performance guarantee or assumes it won't apply.
- For a family split, ask Davie County Development Services whether the family exemption fits your plan and what it means if a lot is sold later.
- If an application is already filed on land near yours, ask the county which version of the rules it's being reviewed under.
None of this is legal or tax advice. Questions about a specific parcel belong with Davie County Development Services and a real estate attorney. For pricing context, our guide to selling land in Advance and our look at why Advance's median price measures three different markets are useful companions. If you're thinking about keeping the land and building on it, see building a custom home on land in Advance.
Quick questions
Can Davie County raise the one-acre minimum on my land? Not without written consent from every affected owner, under the 2024 change to G.S. 160D-601(d). Commissioners have said publicly that they can't change lot sizes.
Do the September rules apply inside Bermuda Run? The September ordinance is Davie County's. Land inside the Town of Bermuda Run's limits goes through the town, so confirm with whichever government has jurisdiction over your parcel.
Does the 125% guarantee come out of the seller's pocket? The developer posts it. It can still affect what a developer is willing to pay for land, because the money is tied up until the county releases it.
If you own acreage in Advance and a builder has made an offer, or you think one might, Karen Swicegood can look at your parcel's shape, the likely lot count, and the timing of these county rules with you before you sign anything. Schedule your free consultation, or start with a home valuation.
