Developer hopes to attract a small data center to 40-acre site
Burlington’s city council has given its unanimous nod to a request for medium industrial zoning on a 40-acre, lakeshore parcel in eastern Guilford County.
The council signed off on this zoning revision on Tuesday, clearing the way for some form of industrial activity to take root on this now-vacant tract along the northern shore of Lake Mackintosh.
Situated at 1316 NC 61 South, this parcel has been owned since time immemorial by the Burlington Shrine Club, which had kept the property in its primordial state despite the creep of industrial development from the northwest.
According to Burlington’s planning director Jamie Lawson, the property had traditionally been zoned for a combination of agricultural and institutional uses, although it lies in an area that the city has previously deemed ripe for corporate development.
“The Burlington city council has funded public water and sewer projects along the 61 corridor and adjacent areas,” Lawson went on to explain in a memo that was presented to the council on Tuesday along with a rezoning request for the property, “and [the property] is located in close proximity to other industrial uses, such as Ametek Aerospace, the Red Oak facility, Rock Creek Investments, Zink, and BGO Logistics.”
The city’s planning director added that with the north shore of Lake Mackintosh just beyond the property line, any development on this parcel will be subject to variety of watershed restrictions. The parcel is, moreover, located across NC 61 from Burlington’s Lake Mackintosh Park and Marina, which provides recreational access to the city-owned reservoir.
Burlington’s mayor pro tem Harold Owen observed that this property has untapped potential for industrial development in spite of its lakefront location.
“This is a favorable area for growth, and let’s be frank, a lot of jobs.”
– Burlington mayor pro tem Harold Owen
“This is a favorable area for growth,” he said, “and let’s be frank, a lot of jobs.”
The exact nature of this future project went on to attract some attention during a public hearing that preceded the council’s approval of the rezoning request.
During this state-mandated hearing, Keith Crosby of Greensboro asked the council point blank about the property’s intended use. Mayor Jim Butler conceded that the proposed designation merely calls for medium industrial use without specifying any particular option from among the activities in this category.
Meanwhile, Tim Lewis of Browns Summit expressed his dismay that the applicant hasn’t specified a particular use at this point in the game.
“You have an out-of-state developer that’s coming here, and it makes sense to me that if a developer wants to rezone 40 acres, they’d know exactly what they’re doing.”
– Tim Lewis, Browns Summit
“You have an out-of-state developer that’s coming here,” he added, “and it makes sense to me that if a developer wants to rezone 40 acres, they’d know exactly what they’re doing.”
Mayor Jim Butler insisted that the city has not been privy to these intentions – although the developer, Cameron Grogan, informed the city’s planning and zoning commission in April that he hopes to attract a data center.
The council went on to vote 5-to-0 in favor of the proposed zoning change before it approved the property’s annexation by the same margin.
