This is not a good time to oppose an annexation, zoning or rezoning request before the Greensboro City Council.
At the Monday, April 17 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved the three annexation and three original zoning requests and the two rezoning requests.
Two of the annexation and original zoning requests were for single lots that were completely surrounded by property in unincorporated Guilford County. In the past, there has been some discussion by the City Council about the cost of providing services to properties that were not adjacent to the city, but there was no such discussion at the April 17 meeting.
The request to rezone 5908 and 5912 Ballinger Road from Residential Single Family-3 (R-3) and Conditional District-Office (CD-O) to CD-O passed by a 9-0 vote of the City Council.
The discussion of the rezoning request was a case of déjà vu all over again. Two years ago, the City Council rezoned the lot at the corner of Ballinger Road, Fleming Road and New Garden Road from residential to CD-O, and this rezoning request was to add the adjacent lot at 5912 Ballinger Road to that property in order to provide more parking for the planned medical office building.
The main argument brought up by the opponents is that, before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781, a skirmish was fought in the area and there may be graves of the 24 soldiers killed in that skirmish on the site.
Marc Isaacson of Isaacson, of Isaacson Sheridan, representing the property owners BRC Ballinger LLC, said that, because of the concerns over possible graves on the site, an archeological firm had been hired to investigate. Isaacson said that a lengthy report from that firm had been included in the material presented to the City Council, but that the conclusion of the firm was that it was “unlikely” that there were any 18th century graves on the site.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan noted that while the discussion was important, despite all the development in the area there had been no discoveries of graves.
She said, “We can’t just stop because something might be there. We’ve had this discussion since 1995 on just about every piece of property that has come up.”
