Burlington’s planning and zoning commission has unanimously endorsed a rezoning request that would extend commercial use to the entirety of a small lot at 1620 South Church Street, near the intersection with O’Neal Street, that’s presently split between a residential and a general business district.
The commission’s members gave this proposal their stamp of approval last Monday after they heard from the property’s elderly owner Max Fogleman about the request.
“I’ve had it for 42 years,” Fogleman said of this half-acre parcel during an online, or “virtual,” meeting that evening. “The front is a car lot…I would like to get it commercial in the back.”
Richard Parker, the chairman of Burlington’s planning commission, likened Fogleman’s request to another zoning change that the city had recently granted to a Biscuitville franchise across the street from the car lot. Parker noted that, in that previous case, the parcel had likewise been juxtaposed between two different zones prior to its consolidation as a single commercial district.
Parker and his colleagues went on to vote 7-to-0 in favor of the request after Conrad Olmedo, the city’s planning manager, bestowed a favorable recommendation on the proposed change in zoning. The commission’s endorsement has cleared the way for the request to go before Burlington’s city council for a final decision.
