Burlington’s city council has given itself a month-long reprieve from having to rule on a proposed zoning change that would enable an area veterinary clinic to move to a new home along Alamance Road.
This rezoning request from veterinarian Morgan Thomas would permit her to relocate the Plaza Veterinary Hospital from its current digs on the north side of the interstate interchange for Alamance Road to a 4.749-acre parcel near Alamance Road’s juncture with Grand Oaks Boulevard.
This proposed zoning change came to the council on Tuesday with the blessings of both Burlington’s planning staff as well as the city’s planning and zoning commission. Even so, pushback from residents with traffic-related concerns proved enough of a conundrum to compel the council to postpone its vote until the evening of August 18.
The issues at stake in this case seemed much less vexing to Ryan Moffitt, an attorney who has represented Thomas and her husband Aaron Clark in their dealings with the city of Burlington.
During a state-mandated public hearing on Tuesday, Moffitt informed the council that Thomas currently operates her clinic out of a leased building within I-85 Plaza, which dominates the northwest corner of the interstate interchange for Alamance Road. He added that his client would like to relocate to a roomier, 4.749-acre site that she and her husband already own at 2936 Alamance Road.
“They no longer want to lease their space; they want to own,” the attorney went on to observe during Tuesday’s hearing, “and they have identified this as the most convenient location to do that.”
In order to facilitate this proposed change of venue, Thomas has asked the city for a “limited” form of general business zoning to replace the mix of residential and industrial uses that presently crisscross the property she owns.
Aside from veterinary services, animal grooming, and other related uses, the veterinarian’s request would allow about two dozen additional activities that are permitted by right in a general business district. These ancillary uses range from multifamily and upper-story residences to child care centers, light manufacturing, and agricultural support services.
The veterinarian’s plans to transfer her shingle to this site south of the interstate have nevertheless hit a road bump with neighboring residents – several of whom were on hand to share their concerns with the council.
Among the proposal’s more vociferous critics was Wendy Hedrick, a resident of Stowe Street, which debouches into Alamance Road across from the clinic’s proposed site. Hedrick assured the city council that she and her neighbors would find themselves in an untenable position if a business was to set up shop at this already fraught intersection.
“It’s just that the road itself is a two-lane highway, which doesn’t support commercial businesses. I’m very concerned because there are about 40 to 50 houses [in her townhouse development], and we already have a great amount of trouble trying to get out. People come flying from both directions, and you have to say a prayer before you get out.”
– Wendy Hedrick
“It’s just that the road itself is a two-lane highway, which doesn’t support commercial businesses,” Hedrick told the council. “I’m very concerned because there are about 40 to 50 houses [in her townhouse development], and we already have a great amount of trouble trying to get out. People come flying from both directions, and you have to say a prayer before you get out.”
The council also heard some traffic-related objections from Bradley Sulecki, who lives directly across from the lot up for rezoning. These misgivings were later echoed by Terest Sims, Jr., who resides in the same townhouse development as Hedrick.
Bruce Harris, Jr., another property owner along this same stretch of Alamance Road, expressed many of the same concerns about this state highway’s troublesome intersection with Stowe Street. Harris nevertheless stopped short of opposing the rezoning request, which he said could be accommodated through a few, small adjustments to the neighborhood’s traffic patterns.
Harris went on to call for a reduction in the speed limit from 45 to 35 miles-an-hour; a flashing, caution light at the juncture with Stowe Street; and the synchronization of existing traffic lights where Alamance Road, which doubles as NC Highway 62, crosses Eric Lane and Grand Oaks Boulevard.
Bob Ward, Burlington’s mayor pro tem, suggested that the council should postpone its decision to allow the applicants to address some of the traffic-related concerns. Moffitt insisted that such a delay would serve no constructive purpose since the state’s transportation department has already rejected his overtures about potential traffic improvements.
“To the extent that there are traffic concerns along this portion of Highway 62, I’m not convinced that the impact of this particular business is going to appreciably, if at all, raise that risk,” he told the council. “Not to minimize the position of folks that have different opinions about this…but from a purely land use standpoint…I think this is something that would benefit the city.”
In the meantime, Mike Nunn, the city’s transportation director, conceded that the state’s transportation department has no immediate plans to revamp this stretch of roadway despite the concerns that residents have raised.
“They do not see any issues right now that they can improve or change,” Nunn added. “But they’re also committed to looking at this as development occurs.”
Nunn noted that even a reduction in the road’s speed limit is currently a non-starter with the NCDOT. He added, however, that a change in the timing of the aforementioned traffic lights is well within the city’s sphere of control.
Councilmember Dejuana Bigelow suggested that the city could do something to improve the conditions along Stowe Street, which is owned and maintained by the municipality. In the meantime, Burlington’s mayor Beth Kennett observed that the city’s staff-level technical review committee will address matters like parking and site access when it reviews the specific plans for the proposed veterinary clinic.
In the end, the council’s members accepted Ward’s recommendation to put off their final decision so that the applicants can continue to press for the traffic improvements which the NCDOT has declined to address. The council voted 4-to-0 to resume the public hearing on August 18 in the hope that its members will be ready to render a verdict by then.
Absent from the vote, as well as the council’s meeting on Tuesday, was councilman Ian Baltutis, who has reportedly been on a trip out of town.
