Shopping center OK’d near Northern

from Northwest Observer / Sept. 15-28, 2022

Crime/Incident Report

Shopping center approved

Planning Board recommended denying, but Guilford County commissioners unanimously voted to approve rezoning 31 acres at N.C. 150 and Spencer-Dixon Road for commercial use

by PATTI STOKES

NORTHERN GREENSBORO –Greensboro-based First Acres, LLC, got a thumbs-up from the Guilford County Commissioners last month, paving the way to develop a 31-acre tract on N.C. 150 and Spencer-Dixon Road, near Northern Guilford Middle and High schools, for a shopping center.

Prior to the commissioners’ meeting on Aug. 4, the county’s Planning Board had held a public hearing for the company’s rezoning request and voted to recommend denying it.

With the commissioners’ vote of approval, zoning on the property changes from AG, intended for agricultural operations and farm residences on large tracts of land, and RS-40, intended to accommodate single-family residential detached dwellings on minimum lot sizes of 40,000 square feet, to CZ-GB (conditional use – General Business).

The applicant placed several conditions on the CZ-GB zoning request, with several uses typically allowed in a GB zoning excluded. Still, a wide variety of commercial uses will be allowed according to terms of the new zoning, including general office, medical or professional office, a bank or finance company with a drive-through, retail, a garden center or nursery, bakery, restaurant, auto supply sales, auto rental or leasing and a car wash.

Attorney Amanda Hodierne of Greensboro represented First Acres at two Planning Board meetings earlier this year and at the commissioners’ meeting on Aug. 4. A traffic engineer hired by the developer also presented a traffic study for the area.

A handful of neighboring property owners spoke in opposition to the rezoning request, focusing their opposition on traffic they said was already a concern in this area because of Northern Middle and High Schools, which are adjacent to the land First Acres hopes to develop.

Nicole Martin, a resident of SpencerDixon Road, said there are already discussions about bringing in mobile units to accommodate more students at Northern High School, which will add to an already growing traffic problem. Additionally, she said there were ample commercial services within a few miles to accommodate the needs of residents in the area.

Another Spencer-Dixon resident who said he wanted to continue living in the country, not the city, echoed Martin’s statement that there were enough commercial conveniences within a 5-mile radius.

Prior to the commissioners holding a public hearing for the rezoning on Aug. 4, Martin circulated a petition in opposition to it that garnered over 700 signatures.

“We were so proud to see that over 700 families signed either this petition or the printed one for our voices to be heard,” Martin wrote on the online petition site the morning after the commissioners’ unanimous decision to approve the developer’s rezoning request. “It’s just a shame that the board decided in favor of supporting a local development firm vs. their constituents.”

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