The second time turned out to be the charm for an annexation and zoning request on West Gate City Boulevard at the Tuesday, Sept. 19 meeting of the Greensboro City Council.
The request to annex and zone the property at 5909-5915 West Gate City Blvd., 5800 and 5900 Scotland Road and 5810 Marion Elsie Dr. by Renaissance Church Gate City Inc. had been defeated by an 8-1 vote at the June 20 City Council meeting.
That request was to annex and zone the 7.3 acre site to conditional district-public and institutional to facilitate building a church and an office building on the site.
The request by Renaissance Church at the Sept. 19 meeting was to annex and zone the property to conditional district-office, in order to build a church and office building on the site and that request passed by a 7-2 vote with Councilmembers Zack Matheny and Marikay Abuzuaiter voting against the motions.
While the plan to build a church and office building on the site remained, the zoning request and the presentation by the applicant were both considerably different.
In June, the pastor of Renaissance Church, Jason Goins, did most of the presentation and spoke a lot about his church and its growth and there were not many conditions in the zoning request.
At the Sept. 19 presentation, Tom Terrell of Fox Rothschild did the presentation, which focused on the zoning request and the long list of additional conditions that increased the buffers, made the tree preservation area a condition and dealt with traffic concerns. Terrell also spoke about the considerable outreach to the neighborhood and pointed out that having churches in residential neighborhoods was a common practice in Greensboro.
Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann said, “The revised plan is a huge improvement.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm said, “I believe this plan is far better than the original plan that came to us.”
Thurm also talked about all the other uses that could go on this property as it was currently zoned such as a hotel or a restaurant that would be far more intrusive for the neighborhood.
Thurm said, “This property is a piece of property that is going to be developed, period.”
She added, “I think this is a great compromise.”
So lemme understand. This is along the former High Point Road, which was upgraded several years ago and is already subject to heavy development. Mainly the Publix shopping center to the south. What was so different from June that it required the church to go out and hire a lawyer?
Go back and watch the city council meeting where Hoffman, Thurm, and others went after the preacher. It was ridiculous. All because Sedgefield (which I think is in the county, not city) objected to the possibility that the land could be developed beyond a church and office building. Goldie Wells was the only one who voted for the church at the time. They are going to provide low cost office space to entrepreneurs. It seems the zoning was changed to only allow church and office buildings. The Sedgefield people have power. Churches do not. The preacher did not go and kiss the ring before the zoning/city council meeting.
is this just a scam by ‘religious’ developers to change the zoning to what they need after this ‘congregation’ church shortly fails ? consider center city church @ smith n edgeworth – just another rarely occupied building owned by real estate speculating ‘evangelists’ ? one hour a week use ? their god must be LONESOME !