Burlington’s city council has signed off on a rezoning request that will allow local property owner Thomas Perdue to build five townhouses at 310 Cleveland Avenue.
Perdue had previously informed the city’s planning and zoning commission that he intends to preserve an existing single-family home on this property in addition to developing the proposed townhouses on the .67-acre lot.
Framed as a “limited-use” rezoning request, Perdue’s proposal seeks a customized form of high-density residential zoning that explicitly permits single-family homes. Jamie Lawson, the city’s planning director, pointed out that this self-imposed limitation extends to duplexes and townhouses but doesn’t apply to anything else that a high-density residential district ordinarily allows.
“What he is seeking,” Lawson informed the council, “is a rezoning to allow only single-family attached and single-family detached [residences] on the property.”
Before the council rendered its verdict, neighboring resident Shannon Dowd shared some complaints about crime and other nuisances at nearby rental properties. Dowd went on to seek some assurance that Perdue’s proposed townhouses wouldn’t cause similar problems.
In response, Lawson emphasized that multi-family housing isn’t among the approved uses in the rezoning application.
Meanwhile, Ranferi Mendoza spoke up on behalf of the applicant’s non-English speaking neighbors, who he said have been worried and confused about the request’s implications.
The council went on to vote 4-to-0 in favor of the request; councilman Bob Ward was absent due to illness, it was stated at the meeting.
