Mission Statement

To enhance the overall quality of life in Cass County through proactive growth management.

Planning Commission Meeting Dates
January	January 25, 2024
February	February 22, 2024
March	March 28, 2024
April	April 25, 2024
May	May 23, 2024
June	June 27, 2024
July	July 25, 2024
August	August 22, 2024
September	September 26, 2024
October	October 24, 2024
Nov-December	December 12, 2024

The Cass County Board of Commissioners adopted the Cass County Subdivision Ordinance on March 6, 2006 to implement the goals, objectives, and policies of the Cass County Comprehensive Plan pursuant to the authority granted by the Home Rule Charter of Cass County and Chapter 11-09.1 of the North Dakota Century Code. 

The Subdivision Ordinance encourages well-planned, efficient, and safe development of land and can further be defined into two classifications:

Minor Subdivision: A division of land into lots, tracts, or parcels not exceeding four (4) buildable lots. Minor subdivisions require a public hearing before the Planning Commission and final approval by the County Commission.

Major Subdivision: A division of land into lots, tracts, or parcels exceeding four (4) buildable lots. Major subdivisions require a preliminary and final public hearing before the Planning Commission and final approval by the County Commission.

Subdivision Application

Contact the Planning Office prior to splitting rural property as the Cass County Subdivision Ordinance regulations may apply.

Purpose

In 2006, the Board of County Commissioners adopted the Subdivision Ordinance to protect and provide for the public health, safety, morals, public convenience, general prosperity, and public welfare of Cass County. This includes providing adequate spaces for traffic, utilities, access of emergency vehicles, and for the avoidance of undue congestion of population. The County values its land and therefore adopted the Subdivision Ordinance to prohibit land subdivision of such character where the land cannot be used safely for building purposes. The standards were established to insure proper legal descriptions of the land, and to implement the goals and objectives established by the Cass County Comprehensive Plan (2005).

Applicability

Any person, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company who or which, being the owner or agent of the owner of any lot, tract, or parcel of land, shall lay out, construct, open, or dedicate any street, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water main, or other improvements for public use, travel, or other purposes or for the common use of occupants of buildings abutting thereon, or who or which sells, transfers, or agrees or enters into an agreement to sell or transfer any land in a subdivision or engages in the subdivision of land or erects any buildings thereon shall be subject to the Subdivision Ordinance.

Definitions

Auditor’s Lot

An Auditor’s Lot is a plat of an irregularly shaped parcel and is for taxation purposes for convenience of tax officials in describing property on tax rolls and does not confer rights in or transfer title to land. An Auditor’s Lot is not approved by the County for sale or development.

Certificate of Survey

A Certificate of Survey is a drawing that depicts the property surveyed. It includes field location and mapping of the property corners, occupation lines (lines of use, eg. fences, field lines), and buildings. It will show the dimensions of the property, the property description, and the area in acres or square feet. A certificate of survey does not prompt a split of land.

Plat

A Plat is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Further refinement often splits blocks into individual lots for the purpose of selling the described lots, which is known as a subdivision.

Subdivision

A subdivision is the division of a lot, tract, or parcel of land, creating one or more lots, tracts, or parcels for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale or of building development, and any plat or plan which includes the creation of any part of one or more streets, public easements, or other rights of way, whether public or private, for access to or from any such lot, tract, or parcel, and the creation of new or enlarged parks, playgrounds, plazas, or open spaces.

Cass County follows the "Burkle Addressing System" which divides North Dakota into a four quadrant grid.  All north to south section lines are designated avenues, and all east to west section lines are designated streets.  Cass County is in the southeast quadrant of the North Dakota Burkle System, therefore all rural streets and addresses are given the "SE" directional designation after "ST" or "AVE".

Cities have jurisdiction to address properties within their city limits and typically follow their own addressing scheme.  A list of cities in Cass County can be found here. Contact information for each city is available. 

Proper rural addressing is essential to providing quick response in emergency situations.  Emergency responders such as fire, ambulance, and Sheriffs are trained to be able to easily locate properties based on this system.  Individual street names are highly discouraged and considered detrimental to the safety of the residents of Cass County. 

If you require a new address, if you feel that your property is incorrectly addressed, or if it was assigned by anyone other than the County Planning Office please contact the County Planner immediately.

Click here to request a rural address. 

Floodplain Management is the administration of a community program utilizing strategies and tools to prevent problems and protect people and development from flooding. The goal is to reduce the risk of current and future flooding, resulting in a more resilient community. Communities that guide development following the standards of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have seen positive results. Communities that choose to participate in the NFIP are required to adopt and administer floodplain ordinances that manage development in the floodplain. Cass County is a participant along with many other communities within the County. County jurisdiction consists of those areas outside a township or municipality that already participates.

Am I in a Flood Plain?

Knowing if a property is in the floodplain is critical to keeping you and your property safe. To determine if a property is in a floodplain, Flood Insurance Rate Maps or FIRMs are typically available from your community to review to determine a property's relation to the adopted floodplain. Contact your community or the County Planner for further information.

Developing in a Flood Plain

If it is determined that your property is located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) you will likely be required to obtain an Elevation Certificate in order to build. The Elevation Certificate is prepared and may be kept on file by the registered engineer, land surveyor, or architect. If it is determined that your structure is above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) or above the "100 year floodplain", you may consider requesting FEMA to remove your structure from the SFHA through a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) or Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA).  

The Cass County Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance  authorizes the County Engineer and his designees to grant and deny development permit applications in accordance with its provisions. Before building, contact the County Planner to inquire about obtaining a development permit. If the property to be developed is within city limits or the extraterritorial boundary of a city you should contact that city directly. If the property to be developed is within a participating township you should contact that township directly

Participating Cities

• City Floodplain Administrators
• Amenia
• Argusville
• Briarwood
• Casselton
• Fargo
• Frontier
• Gardner
• Harwood
• Horace
• Hunter
• Kindred
• Mapleton
• North River
• Oxbow
• Prairie Rose
• Reilies Acres
• West Fargo

Participating Townships

• Amenia
• Barnes
• Berlin
• Davenport
• Durbin
• Empire
• Gardner
• Harwood
• Mapleton
• Noble
• Normanna
• Pleasant
• Raymond
• Reed
• Stanley
• Walburg
• Warren
• Wiser

Your mortgage company will likely inform you if you are required to purchase flood insurance and your insurance agent is trained to provide you with information you need to know about flood insurance coverage. It is recommended that you contact your insurance agent for more information on flood insurance regardless of where your property lies in Cass County. The following links provide additional information about the NFIP, FIRMs, Elevation Certificates, and LOMRs/LOMAs.

• National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
• Elevation Certificate and Instructions
• Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs)
• Flood Map Amendments or Revisions

For information on preparing for and coping with flooding in Cass County visit our Flood Risk Reduction Site.

Background

Soils near the Red River of the North and its tributaries are inherently weak and natural forces are always moving the river channels.  These soils display weak engineering properties and when exposed to the slopes of the riverbanks and valley walls their high plasticity frequently and naturally leads to foundation shifting and pavement failure.

Despite the vulnerability, these areas have in recent years undergone extensive urbanization, leading to an artificial acceleration of riverbank slumping and instability.  This natural process is often accelerated by the following homeowner activities:

House Placement

Houses are often built too close to the riverbank where the soils are most susceptible to bank instability.  The weight of the structure places pressure on the riverbank and increases soil hydration because of increased storm water runoff.  When the riverbank begins to actively slump, the placement of the home close to the river often provides homeowners little options except to move the house off the property.

Water

Irrigation systems and septic drain fields add extra weight and excessive water, both reducing the soils structural strength. The saturating of the soil decreases the strength of these already weak soils and is one of the biggest contributors to increased and accelerated slumping.

Weight

Adding additional weight to the riverbank with houses, structures, retaining walls, riprap, soil and fill, and extensive landscaping places greater pressures on the riverbank and can increase and accelerate riverbank slumping.

Vegetation

Replacing deep-rooted, native vegetation with shallow-rooted vegetation, which further weakens the soils.  The shallow roots of turf grass provides little soil strength and the absence of trees diminishes water removal from the soils.

Solutions

Because riverbank slumping is a natural process and often inevitable, attempts to stop it
have not typically proven successful.  Attempted bank stabilization techniques including lime stabilization and homeowner constructed retaining walls are not always successful. Many homeowners also confuse riverbank slumping with erosion and place riprap, concrete, or other material on the slope in an attempt to stop the erosion; the added weight of these materials on the riverbank often accelerates the slumping.

Even professionally engineered techniques such as riprap or sheet piling for single sites are not always enough and typically require application to large stretches of the riverbank to be successful.  The costly design and construction associated with these techniques is most often cost prohibitive to the average homeowner

The best solution to this natural process is not building too close to the riverbank in the areas most susceptible to bank instability.  Landowners are also highly encouraged to reduce their activities that accelerate this natural process by limiting the artificial introduction of water on their property, limiting the amount of weight on the riverbank, and maintaining or planting deep-rooted vegetation.

Bank Stability

Living With the River

Setback Brochure

Please CLICK HERE to report illegal dumping in storm drains if you see any of the following pollutants being put in the storm drain: motor oil, oil filters, antifreeze, transmission fluids, pet waste, yard waste, dirt or gravel, trash, construction debris, paint, solvent/degreaser, cooking grease, detergent, home improvement waste, pesticides, or fertilizers. 

 

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In response to the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act (CWA), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the National Pollutants Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) storm water program.  The initial phase targeted the medium and large municipal storm water systems and in December of 1999, Phase II was established requiring small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) to create stormwater management programs.

Compliance with Phase II is required for all municipal separate storm sewer systems located within and Urbanized Area.  Several miles of Cass County's stormwater system fall within this urbanized area, requiring the County to comply with the federal stormwater regulations.

The stormwater management program was designed to address the increased rate and volume of runoff from the impervious surfaces often found in urbanized areas and the corresponding concentration of pollutants as result of the land use changes.  These changes impact an areas hydrology and water quality in a variety of ways:

Habitat modification and loss Increased flooding Decreased aquatic biological diversity Increased sedimentation and erosion

Operators of the regulated municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) are required to design programs to reduce the discharge of pollutants to the "maximum extent practicable" to protect water quality and satisfy the appropriate water quality requirements of the Clean Water Act.

Implementation of the program requires the development of Best Management Practices (BMPs) and the achievement of measurable goals to satisfy each of the six Minimum Control Measures.

Phase II Minimum Control Measures

Under the stormwater program, MS4s are required to develop and implement a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (SWPPP). The SWPPP must cover six minimum control measures:

The MS4 must identify best management practices (BMP) and measurable goals associated with each minimum control measure. An annual report on the implementation of the SWPPP must be submitted each year.

 

To report an illicit discharge, please email the Stormwater Staff.

Click here to review Stormwater Management Educational Materials

Resources

City of Fargo (HHW) Household Hazardous Waste Recycling

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) - Stormwater Program

North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality

North Dakota Department of Transportation Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook

RiverKeepers Resources - "Promoting a renewed vision for the Red River of the North"

International Water Institute

Zoning Ordinances are adopted by each township to promote the health, safety, morals, or general welfare, or to secure the orderly development of approaches to municipalities. The following resources are to assist townships process the various applications they may receive.

Uses

Zoning Map Amendments officially change the zoning district of a property, allowing different land uses (residential, commercial, etc.) and density (number of dwelling units or size of buildings) requirements on the property.

Conditional Use Permits grant an official exception which allows the property owner use of their land in a way not otherwise permitted within the particular zoning district.

Appeals allow an applicant to appeal an official decision regarding land use.

Housing Moving Permits authorize an applicant to move a building or structure across or over any roadway.

Variances allow a deviation from the rules of the local ordinances or regulations.

Building Permits give approval for any new construction, addition, remodeling project, or structural alteration, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing projects.

Resources

Zoning Map Amendment/Conditional Use Permit/Appeal Application

House Moving Permit Application

Variance Application

Residential Building Permit Application

Commercial Building Permit Application

Application Checklists

Temporary Workforce Housing Zoning Ordinance Example

On-Site Sewage Treatment Systems Information Guide

To register your Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation zoning language, please email a signed ordinance to mharolds@nd.gov.

Blueprints

Blueprints are documents developed by the Cass Clay Food Commission to assist local governments interested in addressing food system issues through policy and interventions.