Randolph Savings and Loan building named historic landmark

ASHEBORO – The Asheboro City Council named the Randolph Savings and Loan building at 115 South Fayetteville St. as a local historic landmark.

“This is the dominant, iconic building in downtown Asheboro and it’s nominated for designation by the property owner,” said Ross Holt of the Randolph County Historic Landmark Preservation Commission. “The Randolph Savings and Loan Building was built in 1963 and designed by Alvis George for the firm of J. Hyatt Hammond.”

The building is mentioned as a contributing resource to the Downtown Asheboro Historic District, itself on the National Register of Historic Places.

“The Landmark Designation Report, by Heather Fernbach of Fernbach History Services, concludes that the building possesses the seven qualities of integrity,” Holt went on. “Location, setting, feeling, association, design, materials and workmanship from its period of significance necessary for historic landmark designation.”

The council encouraged private property owners with noteworthy buildings and sites to bring nominations before the city.

“We’ve gotten all the low-hanging fruit, all the public buildings and public sites, but there are a lot of places that need to be recognized that are on private property so we are really encouraging private property owners to come forward,” Holt said.

The council also approved a trio of rezoning requests.

The first concerned less than one acre of property, located at the western intersection of East Central Avenue and Willow Road, going from R-10 to R-7.5.

“There’s going to be three duplexes,” said Brian Lucas, the developer for the project. “I can already build two duplexes and a single-family home, so I just want to build three duplexes and that’s it. We’ll have two driveways on Willow and one on East Central.”

The second was to amend an existing OA-6 conditional zoning district (CZ) on approximately 5.5 acres of property located at 853 East Salisbury St. for a residential development with multiple family dwellings.

“There was a recent request to put the property in a conditional zoning district I believe probably last year,” said Community Development Director Trevor Nuttall. “The applicant in this request is different than you heard from last year, but the plan is very similar.”

According to Nuttall, the plan proposes two, three-story buildings with a similar design and location to what was previously proposed with the only major changes being the parking improvements moving further into the property due to the NC 42 widening project and that the new proposal is actually one unit less than previously authorized.

The third rezoning request, for property located on the east side of Clover Street and south of Plummer Street, would see the zone change from B-2 to I-1 (CZ) for a vehicle storage facility.

“Several years ago, this would have been permitted in the existing commercial zoning district, but several years ago, the city code was amended to require this type of use to be entirely within an industrial district versus a general commercial or retail district,” Nuttall said.

The council also approved the process for municipal infrastructure improvements in downtown.

“We’ve been working towards a solution to improve solid waste collection in the downtown area by establishing a new centralized area for disposal,” Nuttall said. “The first and an important step in this project is to move forward with the establishment of a public right-of-way that would provide the needed access to the new collection site from Fayetteville Street.”

The Asheboro City Council will next meet May 2.