City finds cheap way to update 1976 plan


Henderson hopes to replace its ancient land-use plan in the next two years and save almost $100,000 in the process.

City Planning Director Grace Smith told the Planning Board at its monthly meeting Monday afternoon that the planning branch of the state Division of Community Assistance is prepared to take the lead in the creation of a new land-use plan. Henderson’s current plan was completed in 1976, when the city didn’t even have the Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction.

“It’s way outdated,” Smith said.

Two “very impressive gentlemen” from the planning branch in Raleigh visited Henderson on Thursday, Smith said, and they said they could do the job at no cost, as long as the city paid for their mileage to and from Henderson.

The estimated expense would be $5,000 to $10,000 over two years, Smith said. By comparison, it could cost the city $80,000 to $100,000 to hire a consultant to craft a comprehensive land-use plan.

Price is crucial. Smith, the planning director since 1998, and her predecessor sought funding for a land-use consultant in the past, but the request never survived the first cut in the budget process. Now that the city’s fund balance is critically low, such an appropriation is inconceivable.

The Division of Community Assistance team solves that problem, and Smith was giddy at the prospect Monday.

“I was excited about that. I don’t know how excited y’all are, but for me that was a big thing,” Smith said.

“I noticed that,” Planning Board Chairman Gray Faulkner joked.

In an interview after the meeting, Smith said the land-use plan is the city’s long-range vision of what it wants to be. The plan should look ahead at least five years; 10 to 20 years is better and what Smith has in mind for Henderson.

The plan projects where and how development will take place and sets the groundwork for redevelopment. The land-use plan could, for example, include comprehensive revitalization of neighborhoods such as Flint Hill and the area around Main Street in North Henderson.

Issues such as utilities and annexation could be part of the plan, which plays a practical role as guidance for decisions by the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The plan meshes with the zoning ordinance.

A land-use plan says that “this is what we want to see,” Smith said.

Smith told the Planning Board that the DCA also played a consulting role in creating the 1976 plan.

The state employees wouldn’t do all of the work, but they would play a crucial role, Smith said. “They would be in charge of facilitating the drafting and working through the public participation process.”

With the approval of the City Council, the state team could be working in Henderson by July. Smith said the timing is good: The state planning staff is finishing up several projects through June, and Henderson requested help before a lot of communities in the 18-county Central Region.

The state representatives would meet with a Henderson committee including Planning Board and City Council members, the Downtown Development Commission, and City Manager Eric Williams to find out what they want in the plan, then would lead the process of gathering public comments.

“I haven’t committed y’all to anything yet, I promise,” Smith said.

But she said this is the cheapest way to get a quality plan, rather than whatever she and zoning administrator Brownell Wright could manage to slap together in their nonexistent spare time.

“A comprehensive land-use plan should be more than what two people think,” Smith said.

Smith let the City Council know about the potential DCA involvement and received a positive, informal response Monday night.

In other action Monday, the Planning Board:

* Granted plat approval for a road extension sought by Northpark & Associates. The private road will extend for a hundred feet or so behind the new Social Security Administration building on Beckford Drive.

The extension will provide access to four tracts, each measuring just under an acre. Three of the parcels back up to Interstate 85. The board’s action dealt only with the road, not with any future subdivision or development of the property.

* Scheduled a board workshop for March 16 to grapple with the city’s proposed amortization ordinance, which would phase out nonconforming businesses that predate the zoning ordinance.

“This is the most difficult ordinance we’ve drafted,” Smith said.

The measure targets auto repair shops, junkyards and similar operations that involve the illegal outdoor storage of items. The Clean Up Henderson Committee spearheaded the push for amortization in response to the many junkyards in the city, and the City Council voted Nov. 22 to assign the task of drafting the ordinance to the Planning Board.

Once the Planning Board is comfortable with the draft ordinance, it will schedule a public hearing.

Smith said the Planning Department is trying to identify as many of the affected businesses as possible before the ordinance becomes law.

Smith will try to send letters to the owners and operators of every nonconforming business to notify them of the amortization plans and of the public hearing on the proposed ordinance. The Planning Board accepted a draft of the form letter.

“There will be a period of time established and each property owner shall comply or will be subject to action as set forth in the Zoning Ordinance,” the letter reads.

The City Council is eager to enact the ordinance, Smith said, but “we don’t want to rush into this.”