Mebane’s city council will take up a rezoning request from the Orange County ABC Board on Monday night, with that board seeking to rezone the location of its existing ABC store at 7713 US 70.
The rezoning from B3 to B2 also encompasses an additional lot behind the existing ABC store, which the ABC Board has bought in order to have sufficient room to build a replacement store.
The plans, as outlined to the city’s planning board earlier this month, will be to build a new store behind the current one. A metal building behind the store (on the lot purchased by the ABC Board) will be torn down, according to plans outlined to the planning board.
Construction of the new building will take place while the existing building continues to serve customers.
George Retschle of Ballentine Associates in Chapel Hill told the planning board that the ABC Board wants to replace its “aging building with something very nice that will better serve its customer base.”
Retschle explained that the beverage control board “will be leaving the existing store operational while we build a new store behind it.”
Once the construction is complete, the current store will be torn down, with a parking lot in front of the new store to be put in its place.
The lot will have room for a 5-foot concrete sidewalk along US 70, plus saving room for a 14-foot area that will include a future 10-foot-wide multi-use path.
While the new store will have the same architect as a recently-completed store in Hillsborough, it will not be the same style.
The planning board was unanimous in its recommendation.
Planning board member Lori Oakley, who lives in the neighborhood behind the store, expressed approval of the new plans, calling the layout a “nicer, more aesthetically pleasing building.”
At the same time, planning board member Kurt Pearson expressed surprise that the plans had not drawn the ire of neighbors, particularly those seniors who live in the section immediately behind the new building. Oakley said that senior opposition, if there is to be any, may be voiced directly to the city council during a public hearing on the rezoning Monday night.
