The Henderson Planning Board tabled for further study a rezoning request that was close to home for one board member and echoed discussions in recent months about the proposed amortization ordinance that the board sent to the City Council this spring.
Charles Bowman, one of the vocal opponents of the amortization ordinance for junkyards and auto repair facilities, made the request to rezone about 3 acres at 36 St. Andrews Church Road from R-15M (a moderate-density residential district that allows mobile homes) to B-4 (neighborhood commercial). The property is in the Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction.
Bowman’s main contention was that the area at the intersection of St. Andrews Church Road and N.C. 39 was commercial before it was residential and should have been zoned that way when the ETJ was created in 1995. The businesses at that corner — a convenience store, an auto repair facility, a towing service — were safe despite the new zoning because of a grandfather clause.
But the issue of eliminating auto repair facilities and junkyards from residential areas under the proposed amortization ordinance shook the businesses’ sense of security. Under the proposal that the Planning Board send to the City Council and that the council tabled until July, the repair shop owned by Bowman and Dennis Williamson would have to close, as would Fogg’s Towing, because of the residential zoning.
Realtor Mike Garrett spoke on behalf of Bowman during the public hearing before the Planning Board. He said that corner has had a commercial character for decades, and the homeowners there knew they were moving next to businesses. They shouldn’t complain about depressed property values because the values already were lower when they bought the sites, Garrett said. In other words, the homeowners might have gotten a bargain when they bought, so they shouldn’t be able to demand a boost in price now.
“I think it would be wrong to try to change somebody’s property zoning and ruin somebody’s business,” Garrett said. That’s the issue that has dominated discussions of the amortization ordinance as well.
Bowman said he didn’t realize the zoning was residential, making his business nonconforming, until recently. He noted that the old landfill is across N.C. 39 from his property, so he didn’t think the area was likely to be residential.
He noted that there has been a repair shop there since 1970 and that he and Williamson opened B&W Auto in 1981. An expansion came in 1983, when no one objected to the project.
“If there was a problem, it should have been done then,” Williamson said. “It’s hard to close a place that’s employing a few people.”
Bowman said the one house in the neighborhood that predated the commercial development was sold in 1997, so the current owner knew about the nearby businesses.
“I feel that the residential properties were built around the commercial property,” Bowman said.
Velvet Satterwhite, who owns a rental house on St. Andrews Church Road, also testified in favor of the rezoning.
Fred Fogg, owner of Fogg’s Towing, which leases space from Bowman, took Monday’s public hearing in a more personal direction. He accused Planning Board member Cornell Manning of trying to rally the neighborhood against the rezoning application.
“How can somebody on the board call the people around me and urge people to vote against this?” Fogg asked the board.
Manning lives on St. Andrews Church Road. He said he and his wife bought property there in 1969 — seven years after a store opened at the corner but a year before the first auto repair facility started — began building a house in 1971 and moved into the house in 1972.
Manning acknowledged talking to one neighbor about the rezoning.
Manning’s wife, Carol, was the only speaker during the public hearing to oppose the rezoning. The city sent notices of the hearing to about a dozen neighboring property owners, said City Manager Eric Williams, who joined Assistant City Manager Mark Warren in staffing the meeting in place of former Planning Director Grace Smith.
“I do not think that businesses should be in an area of residences,” Carol Manning said.
She complained about the noise from big trucks coming onto the site day and night and said such activity has driven down the couple’s property value.
She said that when she and her husband were looking for a home site outside the city in the late 1960s, their options were limited because of racism.
Cornell Manning said race is still a factor. Because the area is basically a black neighborhood, he said, the residents are allowed to be victims.
“The lack of county zoning is victimizing us, victimizing the value of our property” and endangering the environment, Manning said.
“I, of course, will vote against it,” he said of the rezoning request.
Bowman said Manning should recuse himself from the vote because of his personal interest in the outcome, but board Vice Chairman Mike Inscoe, who had the gavel in place of absent Chairman Gray Faulkner, said it is up to each board member to decide whether he faces a conflict of interest. Manning said he would vote on the zoning application.
He didn’t get the chance Monday. On a motion by Roberta Douglas, seconded by Tommy Riddle, the Planning Board cast a unanimous voice vote to table the application and send it to a special committee for study.
Inscoe named a five-person committee: himself, Douglas, Riddle, Phil Walters and Linda Allen. They will meet and tour the area at a date to be determined, then bring their findings to the board’s July meeting.
In the only other issue before the board Monday, a subdivision proposal from Steven and Betty Dickerson involving 2.769 acres from a tract of about 10 acres on Industry Drive won unanimous support with almost no discussion.