About 30 neighbors met Monday night, Jan. 13, at the McNairy Library to discuss how best to oppose the rezoning request for the corner of Lake Jeanette Road and Lawndale Drive.

The rezoning request for the 2.3 acres from Kotis Properties is from Residential Single Family (R-5) to Conditional District-Commercial-Low (CD-C-L) with five conditions that eliminate some uses like cemeteries, require an opaque six-foot fence where it’s adjacent to residential property, require a minimum 25 foot setback from the Northern property line, and limit the buildings for 22,000 square feet and 30 feet in height.

Aaron Terranova, the president of the Lawndale Lake Jeanette Neighborhood Association, presided over the meeting and read the rezoning request and conditions.

Terranova said, “Once something gets zoned commercial, it stays commercial.” He said that they didn’t know what the developer had planned for the site, but only knew what he wasn’t going to build there. Terranova said that even if the original plan wasn’t bad, they had to be concerned about what could be built there in the future. He asked for ideas for talking points for his presentation to the Zoning Commission on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers.

He said, “This is a bad idea.”

People talked about the traffic and how just in the days the urban loop between Lawndale and Battleground Avenue has been open there has been a noticeable increase in traffic on Lawndale and an increase in the speed of the traffic. One man said that currently you can only go one way from Lawndale on the loop but next year it will be worse because the section between Lawndale and North Elm is scheduled to open.

People also talked about the Greensboro Science Center – how it was growing and attracting more people to the area.

Terranova talked about the domino effect and if this piece of property went commercial it would enhance the chance of other property on Lawndale going commercial and pretty soon Lawndale would become “Battleground East.”

He said that they would get beat if they go in and ask that the land remain like it is undeveloped. He said, “We have to understand that the land is going to be developed.”

There was some discussion about what type of development would be acceptable to the neighborhood, and recognition by some that with the increasing traffic on Lawndale it was not suitable for single-family homes. However, others insisted that it should stay zoned for single-family homes as it is.

District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling attended the meeting but wasn’t asked to speak.