ASHEBORO – The Asheboro City Council had a busy agenda at its regular business meeting this month, including a handful of land use hearings.
The first hearing the council held was a quasi-judicial hearing for the application of a special use permit for property located at 1730 South Fayetteville St. for the installation of a billboard.
The council also held four rezoning requests, including one for approximately 3.7 acres of property located east of Ridgewood Circle for an amended High-Density Residential Conditional Zoning district (RA6-CZ) for a 10-dwelling, townhouse-style, planned residential development.
The second rezoning request was for approximately one acre of property located at 467 and 471 East Dorsett Ave. to rezone into an amended General Commercial Conditional Zoning district (B2-CZ) for a manufacturing, processing and assembly light land use.
The applicant is proposing to construct a 4,800 square foot additional manufacturing and storage area, including a connecting structure to the already existing building.
Per the UDO, activities described in proposed land use are “conducted wholly within an enclosed structure and not employing more than 10 persons and utilizing no more than a total of 25 horsepower in power driven machines and material handling equipment.”
However, the applicant requested an amendment to allow for up to a maximum of 25 employees at one time.
The third rezoning request for approximately 0.5 acres of property located at 4512 US 220 Business North from B2 to Light Industrial Conditional Zoning district (I1-CZ) for the purpose of a vehicle towing operation including the storage and repair of motor vehicles.
Per the application, the hours of operation for the repair shop would be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Following all of those hearings, the council approved each request.
The only request to not be approved was a rezoning request for approximately 0.5 acres of property located at 131 and 137 North Randolph Ave. from Medium Density Residential (R7.5) to B2-CZ for an open storage land use in order to be used to park cars for a mechanic shop.
“The conditional use that is on there now is for the sale of vehicles, but that is not what Atlas Automotive does,” said Jenna McKenzie, who was representing the applicant. “They do oil changes, brakes and maintenance.”
The council pointed to the current cramped use, which is out-of-compliance and the complaints of neighbors for the denial.
“Sitting up here the last three years, I’ve learned a lot,” council member Kelly Heath said. “And one of the things I’ve learned is that sometimes something is just not the right thing for a space and I feel really strongly that this is not the right thing for the space.”
The council also approved the third amendment to the design-build contract for the Wolfspeed Water Main Extension project.
“This will get us to the final design,” said Michael Rhoney, water resources director. “The original contract was just to get us to 75%, so this will get us from 75% to 100%. It also provides for engineering construction services for the entire project so the engineers can do their field operations and their record drawings and all the stuff they need to do to complete the project. It also includes the construction of Section 3.”
The new GMP brings the total project cost to slightly more than $34.5 million, or a change of approximately $9.5 million from the previous total.
Finally, the council approved an approximate $150,000 amendment to the existing contract with CPL Architects to provide design services for a potential batting cage facility and a concessions building at McCrary Park.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet April 10.
