A Letter to the Editor from Rhino Times Reader Alan Marshall
The County Board of Commissioners, minus two, has decided that putting a big truck park on Sheraton Park Rd. just outside the town limits of Pleasant Garden is a good idea.
They don’t care that the increased heavy truck traffic will have severe adverse effects on the town, creating serious traffic and safety problems. One particular intersection, that being Pleasant Garden Rd and Neely Rd. has businesses and an elementary school surrounding it. The roads and the intersection are not equipped to handle large trucks without causing potential traffic accidents and almost constant property damage to the businesses and school. A tractor trailer literally could not make a right turn onto Neely Rd if there is traffic at that intersection. The same applies to trucks trying to turn left onto PG Rd. It would have to intrude into the parking lot of the business that sits there. The same applies to the intersection of PG Rd. and Sheraton Park Rd.
Add in the parents that pick up and drop off their children at the elementary school along with the school bus traffic and the two churches that hold services and you have a real mess.
Neely Rd. has many blind spots along it where feeder roads are coming out of housing developments and given the speed the few trucks currently using it drive, the potential for serious accidents or even a death will grow exponentially.
What priority will PG have with the NCDOT when it comes to road repairs in this area? And BTW, widening these roads is not an option without doing away with the businesses at the intersection.
Quite frankly, this whole deal comes as close to passing a smell test as living next to a pig farm. It’s obvious the Commissioners did not even bother to look at anything before giving Roy Carroll what he wanted. And it’s also obvious that with the exception of two of the Board, they don’t care about PG.
If this goes through, I want to encourage citizens of PG to get out on Sheraton Park Rd., PG Rd., and Neely Rd and simply drive the posted speed limit, be it 35 or 40 MPH. Come to a full stop and make sure you check real good before proceeding and keep in mind that rapid acceleration is not good for gas consumption and is dangerous. And report tailgaters.
Carpe Diem
Alan Marshall
This is one where I have to agree with Alan. That location is too far off the highway and too deep into residential areas. Heck, not far from where I used to live. Guess another reason I am glad I moved on.
Hope it doesn’t happen. Best of luck fighting it.
And I thought we might, for once, get a Letter without hearing Chris’s opinion on it….
Silly me!
Thank you, Chris, for your words of support.
In April of 2024, a subsidiary of The Carroll Companies requested a 48-acre parcel of land at 209 E. Sheraton Park Road, Greensboro, be rezoned from agricultural to light industrial use. Currently, the land is wooded. Rezoning would allow a trailer storage facility to be built on the site. At that time, wisdom prevailed, and the Guilford County Planning Board unanimously denied the rezoning request. The planning board’s decision was appealed and the rezoning issue was brought before the Guilford County Commissioners at their meeting on May 15, 2025. In an astounding display of poor judgement, total disregard for the planning board’s decision, and complete lack of concern for the residents of Pleasant Garden and surrounding communities, the Guilford County Commissioners voted 7 to 2 to approve the rezoning. Only two commissioners, Alan Perdue and Pat Tillman, had the good sense to recognize that a trailer storage facility at 209 E. Sheraton Park Road was a bad idea. They supported the area residents, and courageously voted “no.” The Shameful Seven who voted for rezoning are: Melvin “Skip” Alston, Carlvena Foster, Kay Cashion, Carly Cooke, Frankie T. Jones, Jr., Mary Beth Murphy, and Brandon Gray-Hill. None of these seven ever deserve another vote from the people of Guilford County. The areas surrounding 209 E. Sheraton Park Road are residential. Many of the roads are hilly, with sharp curves, and clearly were not built to accommodate heavy truck traffic. It is estimated that about 100 trucks a day will bring trailers to park at the storage facility, some may be tandem trailers. What type of cargo the trailers contain is also questionable. Supposedly, nothing hazardous will be in the trailers. Who will monitor and confirm that? If a fire or other emergency should occur, how will our first responders safely handle it? Safety issues alone should have been adequate for the commissioners to deny the request, but apparently they were of little concern. There is also a large lake nearby and a creek that feeds into Randleman Lake, so environmental concerns are significant to most reasonable people, but of no interest to seven of the Guilford County Commissioners. Trailer storage facilities, such as the one proposed by The Carroll Companies, belong beside interstate highways, not in residential neighborhoods. The Shameful Seven did not represent the people of Southeast Guilford County. Please remember who they are at the next election.
Thank you AT for the detailed information and support. The problem we’re dealing with is a classic case of the ‘good ole’ boy” system at work.
There is no way any member of the County Commissioners outside of those two have been out here in a blue moon. And if they have, it’s obvious they DON’T CARE about anybody out here. It’s also a personal observation that they are voting based on another reason other then having seen the situation. Maybe a bug in their ear or a dropped suggestion?
AT, the only problem with your last sentence is the Shameful Seven can’t be voted out by those of us in SE Guilford. They answer to the their areas and one other person.
Like I had said earlier, if this fiasco comes into being, we in SE Guilford, in Pleasant Garden. need to do the passive resistance thing while playing by the rules of the road…literally.