Graham’s city council voted 5-0 Tuesday night to delay consideration of a request to rezone 6.27 acres at the corner of Ivey Road and East Gilbreath Street to allow for the construction of 29 townhouses.
The council will resume its discussion of the request to rezone the property from R-18 (low-density residential) to C-R (conditional residential) on April 8, based on the motion that the council passed unanimously Tuesday night.
Assistant city manager Aaron Holland said Tuesday night that the developer, Jawkaw Properties of Hickory, had asked for its rezoning request to be delayed until the April meeting in order to “work in some of the changes” that the council had requested at its meeting on January 14.
Graham mayor Jennifer Talley led the initial discussion last month, warning of the potential for double-parking that she’d observed within Riley’s Meadow, another townhouse subdivision, where double-parking prevents pedestrians from accessing certain portions of the sidewalks through the development.
The developer of the Ivey Road townhouse subdivision had originally planned to build sidewalks on both sides of the street but agreed, at the council’s suggestion, to bring back a revised site plan that would have sidewalks along one side of the roadway.
Talley and other council members also worried during the earlier discussion that the number of townhouses, 29, was too dense for the 6.27-acre site, which they speculated would eventually create problems with parking. Jawkaw Properties offered to widen the parking pads at the front of the townhouses to 16 feet, rather than 12, in order to minimize the possibility that vehicles would encroach on the sidewalk.
The developer also agreed to add more parking spaces to the site plan and to install berms on two sides of the property to shield adjacent property owners and the public.
The single in/out driveway for the townhouse subdivision was also widened from 26 feet to 31 feet.
But the one entrance/exit along Ivey Road drew concerns about traffic last month, from both council members and several residents. There are two lots; one is very long, which tapers off at the back; most of the construction is centered on the two-lot portion closest to the intersection of Ivey Road and East Gilbreath Street.
A representative for the developer has agreed to incorporate those concerns into a revised site plan that is now currently scheduled to be presented to Graham’s city council in April.
Meanwhile, a second rezoning request that the council had been scheduled to discuss this week has been withdrawn. Graham mayor pro tem Ricky Hall told The Alamance News prior to the meeting Tuesday night that the petitioner had asked to withdraw the request to rezone a .18-acre lot on Chase Street from R-18 (low-density residential) to R-7 (high-density residential) to construct a home after finding another way to build the house that doesn’t require rezoning.
