BY STACIE LETT CAIN
The Statesville City Council on Monday gave final approval to a rezoning request to allow construction of the Briarwood development between Gilbert Road and Westminster Drive along Interstate 40.
Despite pushback from residents, the council approved the request to change the zoning of the 200-acre site for the development from City of Statesville and Iredell County R20 to R8–CZ The new zoning allows for high-density, single-family residential development.
Prestige Development is planning to build 500 units on the site.
The rezoning passed for the second time with five council members in favor and three opposed. Steve Johnson, C.O. Johnson and Amy Lawton voted against the rezoning in both the first and second readings.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business:
♦ The Council also voted against a Planning Board recommendation and passed the first reading of a rezoning request for property located at 3419 Taylorsville Highway.
The property, built in the 1950s, has always been maintained as a single-family residence, but when the current owners, Zoom Properties LLC, bought and renovated the property, local banks told them they would not lend money for the purchase of the property because of the B-5 business zoning attached to the property.
“When I was trying to decide what we needed to do because of the planning board decision against rezoning this property, I took a drive out to look at it for myself,” Council member Kim Wasson explained. “That area is a hodgepodge. There are businesses there and homes that look like they have been there 40 or 50 years. You have the Monticello School there too. I think it would be a disservice to the landowner to not honor the use of the property as a single-family home.”
The rezoning request passed 7 to 1 with only C.O. Johnson opposed.
♦ The Council appointed John Furlow to the Design Review Committee, Gurney Wike and George Simon were confirmed again for their positions with the Board of Adjustment and Kenneth “Trey” Robertson was appointed as an alternate and Joel Mashburn as a regular member of the Planning Board.
NEXT MEETING
The next Council meeting will be July 15 at 6 p.m., with the Pre-Agenda meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 11, at 4 p.m.
Steve Johnson and C.O. Johnson are the only two councilmen worth a damn. I’ll keep my comments to myself about the others. I would like to know what changed the minds of the other council members after they voted to deny the request the first time.
Amazing how a 7-1 against vote goes to a 5-3 For vote with literally no debate among the council members over what changed in a public forum… looks like Statesville Coty has its own “Squad.” Should be interesting to see which ward ends up with grant help or investment on a pet project from McNeely, Stameys or Origin Foods. Hopefully, the council holds to task the Developers on the mandated changes to Infrastructure that NCDOT published in the Traffic Impact Analysis, but I’m doubtful of that too.
Your first sentence says it all!
I’m hopeful the developer will pass on the cost of upgrading infrastructure in the cost of the homes. The developer should be responsible for upgrading infrastructure.