Burlington’s city council has put the brakes on a rezoning request that would’ve allowed an immigrant business owner to expand his auto dealership to a long-dormant parcel along Rauhut Street.
The five-member council unanimously turned down this proposal on Tuesday, effectively barring Mohamed Shahin Kaled from setting up a sales lot at Rauhut’s juncture with Apple Street to augment an existing dealership that he and a partner run along North Church Street.
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Read earlier coverage of planning board consideration here: https://alamancenews.com/used-car-lot-given-planning-board-ok-for-rauhut-st-corner/
Once home to a service station that closed roughly decades ago, this .39-acre site has come to epitomize the decline of what had been a bustling retail district at the heart of this traditionally black neighborhood on the north side of town.
In his pitch to the council, Kaled said that would like to reverse this downward trend by taking over the service station’s old digs.
“The former gas station has sat vacant for over 30 years, and it is a visible eyesore at a key intersection,” he told the council before Tuesday’s vote. “This is exactly what the site has been missing for decades.”
The limit of ‘limited’ use
In order to capitalize on this vision, Kaled had sought a “limited” form of general business zoning to replace the mixture of neighborhood business and high-density residential uses that are currently allowed on the property.
The city’s planning department has generally encouraged these “limited use” requests to contain a laundry list of potential activities. Kaled nevertheless opted to limit himself to automobile rentals and sales – a move that drew no complaint from Burlington’s planning and zoning commission when it reviewed his proposal last month.
The commission’s members ultimately gave his request a unanimous endorsement over the protests of the city’s planning director Jamie Lawson. During Tuesday’s council meeting, Lawson reiterated her objection that Kaled had been overly narrow in his vision for this site.
“It may be what they’re interested in doing,” the city’s planning director conceded. “But providing for one use does not allow for any flexibility if the applicant decides he’s no longer interested and wants to sell the property…It’s just our opinion that it’s not the highest and best use for a neighborhood that could use other businesses and retail.”
Lawson’s concerns were later echoed by councilman Ian Baltutis, who argued against Kaled’s narrowly-tailored approach as a poor application of the land planner’s trade.
“As a small business owner and a planner, I appreciate what they’re trying to do to improve this corner,” insisted the councilman, who obtained a master’s in planning during a recent hiatus from municipal government. “But from a planning perspective…having one use creates a barrier to long-term prosperity.”
Kaled’s request also received some pushback from Ramona Allen, a Burlington resident who is currently a Democratic contender for the county’s board of commissioners.
“A car lot, I don’t think is a good idea,” Allen opined. “There’s homeless there, people are going through trashcans…We want to see people come in and grow the area. But this is like setting up a castle in the middle of the projects.”
In a last-ditch attempt to salvage his request, Kaled assured the council that there’s really no need for him to hedge his plans in the event that he sours on the proposed dealership.
“I’ve been here in Burlington for maybe seven or eight years, and I already have a dealership here,” the business owner, who is of Egyptian extraction, informed the council “I bought this property just to expand my business . . . We’re not planning to sell this property any time soon because we love Burlington.”
Yet, in the end Burlington – or at least its elected leaders – had no love for Kaled’s proposal, which was turned down in a 5-to-0 decision.
A broader approach to limited use
The council cast a more favorable eye on a more wide-ranging example of “limited use” at the Rock Creek Center – a corporate park that hugs the westbound lanes of I-85/40 in eastern Guilford County.
During their meeting on Tuesday, the council’s members signed off on a “limited” form of office and institutional use at 6910 Konica Drive, near the eastern perimeter of this sprawling industrial development.
The applicant, in this case, had packed the zoning request with 48 of the 56 uses that the city allows in an office and institutional zone. This rich array of possibilities was nevertheless belied by a confession before the city’s planning and zoning commission that the site’s would-be developer is “90 percent” confident he’ll use the land for multifamily residences.
Although multifamily housing is a permitted, if somewhat marginal, use within an office and institutional zone, this possibility raised the eyebrows of Sean Bir, the plant manager at a nearby Zink Imaging facility.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Bir told the council that he had no quibble with the zoning request as long as he believed it would foster a more conventional office or institutional activity.
“Then, we hear through the newspaper that this is going to be residential houses between industrial properties,” Bir went on to recall. “That has been an industrial area for ages…and I am very concerned about residential being [brought] in[to] that industrial area…We’re not opposing it, we’re just bringing our concerns to you.”
In spite of Bir’s misgivings, Lawson assured the council that the applicant has proposed a good mix of potential uses for 39-acre parcel that was up for rezoning.
“There was not a site-specific plan,” the city’s planning director explained, “and if it is rezoned under this scenario, any of these uses would be permitted.”
The council went on to vote 5-to-0 in favor of the rezoning request. Its members also agreed to annex the property into Burlington’s municipal limits.
In a separate decision, the council voted 5-to-0 to bring in 22-acres off Whitesell Drive that had been previously rezoned for multifamily housing. Darren Lucas, the Asheboro-based developer behind this request, has received the city’s permission to build 432 residential units on this property.
Proposed hotel cancels booking
The council never heard another, much more contentious, request that was initially slated to come up for consideration on Tuesday.
This particular proposal called for some tweaks to the zoning for a five-story hotel and office building that were initially approved nearly 16 years ago at the corner of Danbrook Road and Bonnar Bridge Parkway. This project, which has yet to come to fruition, initially set off quite the firestorm among parents who imagined that the proposed hotel would serve as the perfect perch for pedophiles to reconnoiter the grounds of nearby Highland Elementary School.
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Read earlier coverage of planning board consideration of the potential hotel: https://alamancenews.com/extended-stay-hotel-rezoning-denied-leaving-existing-hotel-plan-in-place/
The council’s then-members approved the hotel’s original zoning over the protests of these outraged residents. Since then, a new developer as reenvisioned the proposed five-story travelers’ lodge as a four-story “extended stay” hotel. As part of his plans, this new developer has abandoned the adjacent office building in favor of restaurants and shops that would require some adjustments to the site’s current zoning.
The developer’s request for these modifications was met with fierce opposition when it came before the city’s planning and zoning commission last month. In the end, the commission’s members voted 4-to-2 not to recommend the request to the city council.
Although initially scheduled to come up on Tuesday, this proposal had been withdrawn by the applicant before the council convened that evening.
