The Greensboro City Council appears to be an impediment to development in East Greensboro, despite the fact that the same City Council constantly talks about the need to increase development in that area of the city.
A rezoning request that came before the City Council at the Tuesday, June 21 meeting is the latest example of the City Council slowing development in East Greensboro.
The request was for 4.5 acres to be rezoned from R-5 single family residential to RM-12 multi-family residential in order to build 21 townhomes on the property at 1007 Willard St.
Without the rezoning the property owner could build over 20 single family homes on the property.
However, two neighbors objected to the land being developed at all. They both said they didn’t want homes built behind the homes on Willard Street.
For once the City Council didn’t simply deny the rezoning request, but instead approved a 60-day continuance. The current City Council delays decisions as often as possible and this motion fit right in with that modus operandi.
Putting off the development for two months is going to make the development of that land more expensive, which will in turn make the townhomes, if the rezoning is ever approved, more expensive.
Compare that to the rezoning of property on Cone Boulevard by the Koury Corporation in 2020. In that case there were hundreds of neighbors opposed to the rezoning. They held rallies and protests. Signs opposing the rezoning were ubiquitous in the surrounding neighborhoods.
However, the City Council rezoned the property from residential single family (R-3 and R-5) to Conditional District Residential Multi-Family-26 (CD-RM-26).
In September 2021, a request in East Greensboro to rezone property at Vivian Lane and South Elm Eugene Street currently zoned for a trailer park to Planned Unit Development (PUD) in order to build apartments and a convenience store faced no neighborhood opposition.
However, City Councilmember Sharon Hightower opposed the rezoning, spoke against the rezoning at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting and found two people who lived in the general area to speak against the rezoning request at the City Council meeting.
Land that is currently an abandoned trailer park and an eyesore was going to be developed for market rate apartments and a convenience store in a part of town that according to the City Council is in desperate need of development. The City Council voted to deny the rezoning request 5-4. Both the city councilmembers from East Greensboro District 1 Councilmember Sharon Hightower and District 2 Councilmember Goldie Wells voted no. They were joined by At-large Councilmembers Yvonne Johnson and Hugh Holston and District 3 Councilmember Justin Outling.
The vote split along racial lines with all four white members of the City Council, Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Councilmembers Marikay Abuzuaiter, Tammi Thurm and Nancy Hoffmann, voting against denying the rezoning.
Hightower said that she didn’t want a convenience store at that location, she wanted a Fresh Market or a Whole Foods.
Wells said that people in the neighborhood “will be trotting to the convenience store getting food they don’t need, buying cigarettes and wine, then they get tanked up and then they start shooting each other and that increases crime.”
The City Council talks about the need for more development in East Greensboro but votes against or delays rezoning requests that would make that development possible.
Hightower really a Whole Foods or Fresh Market really just Who in those neighborhoods can afford either of those stores. I’m not poor or on social services but they aren’t places I shop. It’s great to dream big but you’re really a stupid a$$. Tell us how many times you have shopped there or the Over priced Harris store in the past year. If you weren’t on the citizens teat you would be going to Food Lion like the rest of us. GET A REAL Job.
Some chains have different pricing and inventory options at store level. Shopping at Food Lion in Forest Oaks is like going hunting; except that you are the one who is being hunted. Virtually everything is a trap. They priced my Mayo @$6, where I get it for $4.14 elsewhere. My bread was $6. Where I buy it is is $3.50. And many more examples. No, I can’t price everything; but I can price what I buy.
My sister lives in Julian. She can’t drive, so take her on her errands. She shopped there, but I now take her elsewhere.
Hightower has become the mouthpiece of east GBO and has no concept of economics 101, the law of supply and demand. She’s known for saying there’s disposable income in her district, but she’s really clueless from a business sense on the level of income that Whole Food needs to open a store . . . she just wants to pull the old adage that whites have those stores, and not her neighborhood. The same thing could be said about a high-end jewelry store selling Rolex watches, fine china, etc. Companies look at disposal income above certain levels as well as crime statistics, median incomes, traffic flow, and other things before making a decision to open a store. Until she removes her race-baiting thinking, she will never be a politician who could win city-wide elections.
Yet another issue with Hightower using the race card. My bet is the only way Whole Foods will build a store in east GBO is if the council gives them the land, lets them pay no taxes for 10 years, gives them a “grant” to pay for the construction, and other incentives which only props up the company for 10 years.
I would love to have a Fresh Market or a Whole Foods in East Greensboro. I would also love to have the money to shop in them. Our city leaders have got to be on drugs. You are fooling yourselves if you think that the highest priced grocery stores are going to build in the lowest income areas of our city. You sound like the Washington establishment. Just hop in your electric car and run down to the Fresh Market………..
This should be approved immediately!! There is absolutely no reason for East Greensboro not to have their share of development like the rest of Greensboro has had. The Council is full of Hippocrates!!
So much for Justin Outling running for Mayor on a campaign promise of bringing homes to Eastern Greensboro.
Of course if Goldie Wells is right the tenants/owners will just get tanked up and shoot each other!
Man , Wells is some kind of racists !! Guess nobody on the city council owns any land around there. Oh , wait, we just had voting and everybody made it thru so business as usual . Make promises, people believe the SAME DAMN PROMISES, and then never deliver. SMH
Wells isn’t racist she’s just speaking the truth just check the crime stats specifically race and location
Oh boy…..this will be fun to watch!
Tomorrow is a chance to THROW THE BUMS OUT!
It’s a good thing our “Betters” on the council are looking out for those they deem not
smart enough to do it for themselves…I guess I’ll just get tanked up and start shooting.
The comments by Wells and Hightower should be enough to convenience residents of their districts to vote them out. Will not happen. Wells comments are so condescending.
You could put Wells & Hightower’s brains in a gnat’s butt and it would fly backwards!
Not only backwards but upside down
Hey east side. Your representatives do not give a s$&! About you. They talk a lot with no action. My relatives live on the east side and go to Food Lion. They also live in a crime ridden drug infested neighborhood. Hightower and Wells do not care about your safety, your housing options, or anything else. They want to sit up high on the dais and tell you that all the east side does is smoke and drink 40s.