If you’re considering having some property in Greensboro zoned for residential use, this appears to be a good time to do it.
Councilmembers have stated that they are well aware that Greensboro is facing a serious housing shortage, which could get much worse when the jobs associated with the major economic development projects underway start being filled.
The City Council has not reached the point of asking developers to build more dwelling units on each site, but it is spending far less time debating original zoning and rezoning requests before passing them by unanimous or near unananimous votes.
At the Tuesday, Dec. 20 meeting, the City Council considered three rezoning requests and five annexation and original zoning requests and passed them all with little discussion. Councilmember Sharon Hightower was the only councilmember to cast a no vote for any of the annexations, zoning or rezoning requests.
The rezoning request that had the most opposition was to rezone 5 acres at 4402 to 4412 N. Church St. near the Old Lake Jeanette Road intersection from Residential Single-family-5 (R-5) to Conditional District-Residential Multifamily-18 (CD-RM-18) for an apartment complex.
The property is adjacent to I-840 the Outer Loop and attorney Marc Isaacson, representing the developer, noted that the site adjacent to an interstate was simply not suitable for single-family homes.
Th opponents, mostly from the Henson Park town home development next door, complained about traffic and how bad the traffic currently was on Church Street and the lack of notice to everyone in the adjacent community.
As Councilmember Tammi Thurm explained, usually traffic lights or round-abouts are added to deal with a traffic problem, not built first in anticipation that there will be more traffic.
Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter, who is chair of the Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO) and considered by her fellow councilmembers to be the “traffic guru” on the City Council, noted that when the eastern portion of I-840 opens, it’s going to change the traffic patterns and it made sense to wait to make street improvements in that area.
The City Council passed the annexation and rezoning request 8-0. Councilmember Zack Matheny was absent.
Who is looking at the strain placed on utilities (water, wastewater, power grid, traffic, garbage collection, schools) for the expanded residential zoning? At what point does the next expansion trigger the need for a new utility that is paid by all but is benefitting the developer. Are the developers really paying their share?
No one, sooner than later, no.
The city, and county, only care about tax revenue, they don’t care about us. They want our tax money. They don’t care about how this affects us regarding loss of water, how it crowds our schools, whether it overwhelms the power grid or raises costs of trash or power or water. They don’t care if the traffic around that area becomes impossible to navigate or accidents increase or it takes another 5-10 years to redo the roads and people lose their homes and yards and privacy to the road construction. They don’t care. Period.
And the new road with no name will not take the pressure off Church St because the road with no name off Elm hasn’t taken the pressure off, it’s actually put more pressure on Church and Old Lake Jeanette, and people aren’t going all the way over to Yanceyville instead of down Church. They use Church or Elm to go into town, not to go around the city. The fools voting on this don’t understand how we use the roads out here to get around the city and county and have ruined our use of roads to get around without having to use major roads. They’ve ruined our beautiful fields and trees. They’ve ruined our beautiful farms. They’ve ruined our county all for tax money. I’m a naysayer and proud of it.