Council signs off on veterinarian’s relocation after détente with neighbors on Alamance Rd.

Burlington’s city council has given a clean bill of health to a rezoning request that will enable a local veterinarian to leave her current professional digs for new ones farther south along Alamance Road.

The council gave a unanimous nod on Tuesday to this request from Veterinarian Morgan Thomas and her husband, Aaron Clark, to accommodate the proposed relocation of the Plaza Veterinary Hospital from its longtime home within the I-85 Plaza shopping center to lot they’ve purchased at 2936 Alamance Road.

To facilitate this move, Thomas and Clark had sought a “limited” form of general business use for the 4.749-acre tract. This designation was proposed as an alternative to the combination of medium density residential and industrial zoning that the property previously bore.

In addition to a veterinary clinic and associated uses like animal daycare and pet grooming, this new designation includes 25 other activities ranging from multi-family housing and government offices to restaurants, warehousing, boat sales, and the sale of aircraft components. This roster nevertheless excludes nearly five dozen other uses that are normally permitted by right in a general business zone.

This request had originally come before the city council in the third week of July with an endorsement from the city’s planning staff as well as a 6-to-0 recommendation from Burlington’s planning and zoning commission. The council, however, hesitated to act on the couple’s proposal after it drew stiff opposition from several neighboring residents.

Many of these objections came from the Stables at Harris Farm, a townhome development that lies on the other side of Alamance Road from the clinic’s proposed site. The residents of this development were particularly concerned about the precarious traffic conditions along this stretch of Alamance Road, which city staff members emphasized is the sole province of the NCDOT. All the same, the council’s members were sufficiently perplexed to put off the matter until their next regularly-scheduled meeting on Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, the council heard a determined plea on behalf of the applicants from Ryan Moffitt, an attorney with the Vernon Law Firm who has represented the couple throughout their back-and-forth with the city.

“My clients are reasonable people. But we cannot have this request held up and imposed on with requirements that are unnecessary [such as the speed limit which is set by dot and over which they have no control or influence].”

– Ryan Moffitt

Moffitt observed that, as part of their request for limited uses, his clients have forfeited a whole raft of uses that had been permitted by right on the property’s industrially-zoned swath. He went on to tick off a list that included family care homes, adult daycare, auto repair and servicing, auto towing and storage, heavy equipment sales and repair, indoor and outdoor kennels, laundry and cleaning services, and self-service storage.

“All of the uses that I’ve listed are permitted on the property right now and they’re forgoing all of these uses,” he ultimately informed the council. “I would also add that this clinic is a permitted use on the industrial section of the land right now. But it’s divided by a creek, and so, the most reasonable thing to do is to rezone the whole property.

“There’s nothing unreasonable about it,” the attorney continued; “It is the lowest intensity use that’s allowed on this property.”

Moffitt added that he has spent the past several weeks discussing his client’s plans with neighboring residents and city staff members. He went on to note that his clients have worked with the city’s planning staff to ease the misgivings of neighbors, and he promised to even keep the neighborhood in the loop as the detailed plans for the clinic go before a staff-level technical review committee.

Moffitt assured the council that his clients are willing make all sorts of concessions to placate the neighbors – although he added that their patience isn’t unbounded.

“My clients are reasonable people,” the attorney said. “But we cannot have this request held up and imposed on with requirements that are unnecessary.”

The attorney noted, for instance, that his clients are in no position to address the traffic conditions along Alamance Road – given the NCDOT’s purview over this state-maintained highway.

Yet, this caveat didn’t discourage neighboring resident Patricia Byrd from sharing her concerns about this roadway with the council on Tuesday.

“There will be major traffic issues.”

– Patricia Byrd

During a public hearing that evening, Byrd speculated that the most likely location of the veterinary clinic’s new driveway will make the conditions along Alamance Road even more dicey.

“It is a major, major concern,” she added, “and there will be major traffic issues.”

The traffic pattern along this stretch of Alamance Road also felt like the proverbial “elephant in the room” to Bruce Harris, Jr., who has emerged as an ad hoc spokesman for the proposed clinic’s neighbors. Harris acknowledged that his neighborhood’s remonstrations have prompted two site visits from state transportation officials – both of which ended in their determination that there’s nothing really wrong with the road.

“We’re not opposed to this veterinary office. they’re good, honest people, and they’re trying to make a living. All we’re asking is to lower the speed limit from 45 to 35 [miles per hour] and possibly synchronize the traffic lights.”

– Bruce Harris, Jr.

Harris added that the NCDOT’s inertia hasn’t soured him on that plans that Thomas and Clark have proposed.

“When a problem arises and the people involved in the problem are honest and reasonable with each other, many times those problems can be resolved,” the resident insisted. “We’re not opposed to this veterinary office. They’re good, honest people, and they’re trying to make a living. All we’re asking is to lower the speed limit from 45 to 35 [miles per hour] and possibly synchronize the traffic lights.”

The council heard some additional objection from nearby homeowner Kim Sulecki, who feared that this zoning change would pave the way for her neighborhood’s transformation into the city’s next commercial district.

“This will set a precedent, and then we’ll have a business district in front of our house. . . We want to preserve our neighborhood…and we’re asking you as residents to please help us out.”

– Kim Sulecki

“This will set a precedent,” Sulecki told the council, “and then we’ll have a business district in front of our house. . . We want to preserve our neighborhood…and we’re asking you as residents to please help us out.”

This domino theory didn’t strike much of a chord with the council. Its members nevertheless offered to do what they can to intercede with the NCDOT about the traffic along Alamance Road.

“They’re more reactive than we are,” councilman Ian Baltutis went on to observe. “But the biggest thing that moves the needle is data, and we hope there will never be a crash in the area.”

In the end, the council agreed to approve the couple’s rezoning request, which passed by a margin of 5-to-0.

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