ASHEBORO – It was a busy agenda for the Asheboro City Council at its Sept. 5 regular business meeting as the council held five hearings all dealing with zoning or land-use requests.
The first was for 0.9 acres of property located at 841 Cross St. to be zoned as an amended B2 (General Commercial) conditional zoning in order to construct a covered seating area, walk-in cooler and outdoor grill at an eating establishment (The Taco Loco).
“I’d love to see it go in there, but I personally think they need to show us a little more parking,” council member Joey Trogdon said.
The second was for a plot of property located at 308 Pineview St., 307-A and 307-B Quaker Dr. from R10 to R7.5.
“Essentially, the property owner is looking to recombine the property in a manner that should you approve an R7.5 district here, that both properties would have sufficient land area that would allow both single family or two-family or a duplex unit to be constructed,” said Trevor Nuttall, the community development director.
The third hearing was for 19.11 acres of property located at 343 NC Highway 42 North to an amended B2 conditional zoning for improvements to the YMCA.
“The YMCA is proposing to replace an existing ballfield with an indoor soccer building and also to add additional parking for the new amenities,” Nuttall said. “There is also a potential, future outdoor pool that is shown on this plan.”
Following the hearings, the board approved all three requests.
The fourth hearing was for 1.52-acres of property located at 801 and 817 Sunset Ave. from OA6 and M(CZ) to OA6(CZ) in order to construct a multi-family development.
“The site plan identifies one three-story building with a total of 52 units,” Nuttall said. “There are 14 one-bedroom units and 38 two-bedroom apartments proposed.”
However, the council brought up concerns over the density and parking disparity in comparison to the size of the property.
“There are 83 off-street parking spaces proposed to serve the 52 units,” Nuttall said. “The ordinance requirement for parking for a traditional multi-family development such as this, based on the number and composition of the units shown generally, would require 107 parking spaces.”
Mayor David Smith said: “The stumbling block all along has been the number of parking spots. … If there’s not enough parking, there’s not enough parking. What we strive to do is to make sure that what we end up with is the best it can be. That we don’t approve things that we know will be a problem or that we don’t invite problems unnecessarily.”
Despite those concerns however, the council voted to approve the request 4-3 with mayor pro tem Walker Moffitt, and council members Charles Swiers, Clark Bell and Eddie Burks voting in favor of the motion and council members Kelly Heath, Bill McCaskill and Trogdon voting in opposition.
The council then held a quasi-judicial hearing for a special use permit request for 16.51-acres of property located at 749 Pineview Road in order to authorize new land uses under a special intensity allocation within the Back Creek Lake Watershed.
Nuttall said those uses include manufacturing, processing and assembly with wholesale distribution and storage uses also permitted.
The property is a residual property left from a prior industrial use and the new tenant – Alternative Performance Technologies, which is a steel fabrication and erection company – doesn’t plan to make any changes to the property, the footprint or the parking lot according to the applicant.
The board approved the request following the hearing.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet Oct. 10.
