Planning & Zoning Board opposes rezoning request on South Sterling

The residents who decried the possibility of a new Dollar General on South Sterling Street can rest easy, at least for now.

In a 6-3 vote, the City of Morganton Planning and Zoning Board on May 8 declined to support Teramore Development’s request to rezone the property to a high-intensity district. The rezoning would be a necessary first step toward Teramore building an 11,000-square-foot multi-bay retail space. Officials connected to the project said the parcel was set to become the location of a new Dollar General. Teramore would close its Dollar General at N.C. 18 South.

The City Council could affirm or reject the board’s denial recommendation during the council’s June 2 meeting.

Attorney Amanda Hodierne represented Teramore Development LLC at the May 8 meeting for the rezoning request. The proposal raised questions from the board members about spot zoning, long-term vision, and development feasibility.

Hodierne highlighted Teramore’s portfolio and referred to the City’s IMAGINE Morganton 2040 plan.

“I saw that Enola Road was designated as one of your walkable connectivity corridors, so if that’s the goal and people walk up Enola to South Sterling, then what? Then where do they go? I think it makes sense to have places along South Sterling for them to go to. That’s how walkability makes sense. You have to have places to walk to, so we want to put places in those locations,” Hodierne said. “We have to place goods and services where people can get to them.”

The original submission included five parcels (13 acres), but Hodierne clarified that despite correspondence originally shared with the public, the request is for a smaller portion (2.38 acres) of the total land area, less than half of what was advertised.

“We wanted to keep it narrow. This is a narrowly tailored request to try and capture that goal and objective of your comprehensive plan that says, ‘hey, put goods and services where people live. Put them on the major corridors where people are traveling and protect them by using our corridor overlay requirements,’” Hodierne said.

The miscommunication about the size of the area involved led board members to discuss the proposal being identified as spot zoning.

After a debate between board members, Wendy Smith, director of Development and Design Services, disagreed with Hodierne’s assertion that the zoning change aligned with the City’s IMAGINE Morganton 2040 plan, adopted in September.

“I think the choice that you guys have to make is, is this consistent with the comprehensive land and the future land use map that you’ve just developed to create this on the nose, or just create swaths of potential 10- to 13,000-square-feet retail or manufacturing, or anything of that sort there?” Smith questioned.

“If you do choose to rezone this, it is not going to be consistent with the comprehensive plan that was adopted in September of last year,” she added.

Pete Wallace, vice chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, made a motion in favor of rezoning the property from a medium-intensity to a high-intensity district. He emphasized that Sterling Street is a key gateway into the city and highlighted the importance of making it visually and economically appealing through the corridor overlay.

“If I come off the interstate and I just see a residential area, I turn around,” Wallace started. “I head back out and look for some place where I want to see some businesses and something that’s going to drive me in there.”

Wallace drew attention to the need for forward-thinking development. He argued that maintaining outdated restrictions limits growth and discourages new investment. He rejected the idea that the rezoning constituted spot planning, noting similar exceptions already exist along Sterling Street.

“So what we’re literally saying is, are we gonna keep looking backwards and seeing here’s what we had, here’s the way we’ve done it, and we don’t get any development, or are we going to look forward and say we want development?” Wallace asked. “We want to develop Sterling Street; we want to make it look attractive. So, if we’re going to develop Sterling Street as a corridor into the city, then I think you have to go with this.”

The ultimate decision now rests with the Morganton City Council.