Three out of four rezoning requests were approved by the Greensboro City Council at its regular monthly business meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The request for rezoning 13.3 acres at 321 Murraylane Road from Light Industrial (LI) to Conditional District Residential Single Family-7 (CD-R-7) had been denied by the Zoning Commission but was passed by the City Council on a 9-0 vote. The difference appeared to be the addition of a condition requiring a 50-foot undisturbed buffer between this property and the adjacent salvage yard zoned Heavy Industrial.

The city staff recommended approval despite the fact that the area was designated as industrial on the GSO 2040 comprehensive plan.

Murraylane Road is in District 1 represented by City Councilmember Sharon Hightower and she voiced a lot of objections to the rezoning request as she usually does with rezoning requests in her district. She said she would like to see larger lot sizes. She also expressed concern that the neighborhood would go downhill in a few years and that the street needed to be improved.

However, in the end Hightower did vote in favor of the rezoning request.

Hightower, however, voted against the request to annex and zone 43.7 acres at 1898 Cude Road and 8005 Leabourne Road Conditional District Residential Singlefamily-5 (CD-R-5) for a maximum of 150 homes.

The annexation and original zoning all passed on 8-1 votes with Hightower voting no. Hightower also voted no on the motion to close the public hearing, which is highly unusual. Hightower complained that a person who signed up to speak against the rezoning, but wasn’t able to sign on to the virtual meeting, was being silenced. The meeting had been held up for several minutes in an attempt to help the speaker join the virtual meeting, but those attempts were unsuccessful.

For a total of 10 acres adjacent to and owned by Calvary Christian Center property was both annexed and zoned and rezoned to Conditional District- Residential Multi-family -8 (CD-RM-8) for a townhome community.

This request had a number of people from the Northern Shores neighborhood adjacent to the property who were able to sign on to the meeting and object.

Marc Isaacson of Isaacson Sheridan represented the developer and said that they had solved the largest complaint, which was a fear of cut through traffic. What could have been an entrance to the townhome development had been converted to a pedestrian walkway. Isaacson said that fencing and buffering had also been added to make the multifamily community more compatible with the single-family neighborhood next door.

The council approved the project on 9-0 votes.

The one rezoning request that was denied by a 9-0 vote was for six acres at 3606-b to 3612 N. Church St. from Residential Single Family-5 (R-5) to Conditional District Commercial Medium (CD-C-M).

The one condition limited the uses to automobile sales and service, boat and motorcycle repair service, a laundromat and office uses.

The property owner Huin Rmah said that his plan was to put an auto repair and possibly and auto sales facility on the land along with an office or maybe a laundromat.

The adjacent neighbors opposed the rezoning request stating that that particular area of North Church Street was all single-family residential. They also objected to the variable plans for the use of the property and showed a photo of cars being stored on a portion of the property that Rmah had said would be used as a buffer.

Several councilmembers suggested that Rmah seek advice on the rezoning process if he planned to make another attempt at rezoning land in Greensboro.

 

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