SALISBURY — During a meeting that lasted past midnight, lawyers, engineers, developers and Rowan County residents all spoke about two projects that would have taken place on Ketner Farm Road. One of the projects, a rezoning application, was denied by the Rowan County Board of Commissioners while the other, a temporary-use permit, had its hearing recessed to allow more time for consideration.

At least 60 residents of Ketner Farm Road and the surrounding areas showed up in opposition of both of the projects.

Rezoning request for commercial and fire department buildings

The rezoning was applied for by Dynamic Developers and would have rezoned a property at the intersection of Ketner Farm Road and Old Beatty Ford Road from Rural Agricultural to Commercial, Business, Industrial with a Conditional District. The rezoning would have allowed the company to build a 12,768-square-foot commercial building and an 11,000-foot-fire department on an approximately 10-acre lot. The Rowan County Planning Board recommended denying the application during its November meeting.

The main issue that residents voiced about the proposal was the location of the driveway on Ketner Farm Road for the commercial building. The road is a short, dead-end residential road that residents said did not have the capacity to accommodate the increased traffic that the building would bring.

“It’s the kind of road that when two cars meet, both have to slow down and figure out who’s going to pull off the side to make room to get through. We have concerns about the traffic the store generates. It’s forecasted to be more than 700 trips in and out each day on a road where currently 60 trips is the norm,” said Tyler Wiethorn, who lives on Ketner Farm Road.

Amanda Hodierne, the lawyer who submitted the request for Dynamic Developers, said that the North Carolina Department of Transportation had been presented with all the relevant traffic figures and would only grant the driveway permit for Ketner Farm Road.

“NCDOT is the absolute and final order on what happens on these roads. They get to tell us and we don’t get to negotiate. We don’t get to say ‘yes, but’ or ‘what if,’ we have to say ‘yes, thank you,’ or ‘no, thank you.’ Those are the only two options,” Hodierne said.

Commissioners Mike Caskey and Greg Edds said that they both drove out to the intersection and inspected the site themselves. Both said that the area was clearly not able to support the increased traffic and the safety concerns that adding the commercial area would bring.

Wiethorn also spoke on the proposed fire department that Dynamic Developers would build for Bostian Heights Fire Department, which he said the company was pushing forward as an “unholy union” in order to make the application more appealing. Wiethorn pointed to the county’s ordinances and the fact that the developer is planning on building more houses in the area. He noted that if the developer follows through on the construction of the houses, the county ordinance would require that a new approved water source in the area, which could be fulfilled by a pond, water tank or a new fire station.

“The developer’s application suggests that this is all or nothing, that in denying this rezoning the county might lose a terrific location for a needed firehouse. But I don’t believe that’s the case. The planning office says the fire station can go here, no rezoning required. We all agree with that and nothing is stopping the developer from moving forward with the fire station right now,” said Wiethorn.

Caskey said that he had been concerned about killing the development of the fire station by denying the rezoning, but after hearing the argument and inspecting the area, his concerns were answered. Commissioner Jim Greene said that he had concerns about the issues the area already had with water drainage and how a new retail business could contribute to worsening the flooding issues. Commissioners Judy Klusman said that the local community knows what works and what is needed in its own area, and Commissioner Craig Pierce echoed the sentiment that the residents are the ultimate expert in this discussion.

“I would like to see the fire department built, absolutely, but another store, give me a break. It’s really not something that’s going to be beneficial to these citizens and there’s too many detriments to overcome to make this help the community. I appreciate people coming out and voicing your opinions because it’s something we don’t get a lot of times and we don’t know what you want. But you tell us what you want and show us your objections, then we can make a more informed decision,” Pierce said.

At the end of the hearing, the commissioners voted unanimously to deny the rezoning request.

Proposed laydown yard for pipeline construction

The temporary-use permit was applied for by Dominion Energy in order to build a laydown yard on a 36-acre property owned by Dynamic Developers on Ketner Farm Road. If approved, the permit would allow Dominion to use the property, which is located on both sides of the road, as their base of operations for a pipeline project for the next two years.

The project is a 24-mile natural gas pipeline expansion that runs from North Enochville Avenue, north of Landis and then to the south of Concord. Ketner Farm Road was chosen as the preferred site of the laydown yard due to it being close to the halfway-point of the pipeline project, said Chad Jacobs, who is managing the project.

The permit would allow the company to operate between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday through Saturday. Approximately 250 employees would park at the site. Twenty daily transfer trucks would make trips to stock the yard for the first month and three daily trips would be made afterwards, according to the planning staff report. Dominion would need to stockpile soil at the site and create containment ponds and diversion ditches for water runoff. The state also would require the company to maintain the road and restore it to its current condition at the end as well as return the property to its current condition at the end.

Under questioning by attorney Katherine Ross, Jacobs presented the project to the commissioners, pointing out the steps that Dominion has already agreed to take to mitigate the negative impacts on the local residents. He said that the company plans to have traffic control personnel at all hours of operation as well as queuing for traffic on the property to prevent issues on Ketner Farm Road. Any mobile lights used during dusk and dawn hours would be downcast to prevent light nuisance. The company plans to take steps to prevent runoff, such as the containment ponds, sediment basins and silt fencing. The state also requires that the company take out a bond to ensure that they follow through on restoring both the road and property to current condition.

Dominion also asked a real estate appraiser to review similar situations in surrounding areas and report on how property values were affected. Richard Kirkland said that he looked at situations in surrounding counties and found that property values were unaffected by temporary usages such as the laydown yard.

Many of the same issues with the rezoning request were raised during the hearing for the temporary-use permit, especially the potential for the increased traffic to raise safety concerns. The end of the road is currently used as a bus stop for children that live on the road, which includes Tyler and Hannah Wiethorn’s children.

“I will park my car with my children to wait on the bus, and then I will do a three-point turn in the road and turn around and go home, even if there are trucks, because what else am I going to do?” said Hannah Wiethorn.

Several of the residents also raised concerns about the water storage and the potential for fuel from the trucks and runoff to contaminate their water source. Jean Hohweisner said that she worried about how any dust and noise from the yard could affect her husband, who has Parkinson’s Disease.

“I’m also concerned with the catch basins and containment pond for muddy and contaminated water that is sure to stagnate and cause a mosquito problem. Mosquitoes in our part of North Carolina are known to carry West Nile virus, La Crosse Encephalitis and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. I have three horses on my pasture and the fenced-in property is very close to the proposed site of the pond,” said Robert Query, who also said that he worried about his two grandsons who use the bus stop at the end of the road.

After both sides offered initial testimony, Ross took some time to review the materials and testimony that had been offered into evidence by the residents. During that period, the commissioners took the opportunity to save some time and complete a few public hearings that were still on the agenda, as the meeting had been ongoing for almost five hours at that point.

Ross returned to the room after reviewing the testimony and provided a rebuttal by questioning Dominion’s experts. Eric Hartwick, a project engineer that specializes in environmental services for geotechnical engineering firm S&ME, testified about the environmental control measures that Dominion is undertaking. Hartwick noted that the company has created larger sediment basin designs and added throttles to the ditches to work on water run-off.

“We know that there’s concerns, and we’ve over-designed these to account for that,” Hartwick said.

When asked by Ross if the run-off will increase, Hartwick responded with a confident “no.” Hartwick also testified that the yard had been the subject of all relevant state testing, such as cultural resources testing. Brandon Aycock, a project manager for Dominion Energy, answered concerns the commissioners had voiced about the company’s experiences with laydown yards in similar locations. Aycock said that he had previously worked with a laydown yard that operated directly next door to a school in Asheville and across the road from a residential neighborhood, so he had experience with almost this exact situation.

“Some of the measures Dominion Energy will take include having clear signage, traffic control and maintaining state-approved erosion control measures. After Dominion Energy’s work is finished, both the laydown yard and road will be restored to their original condition. We appreciate the thoughtful feedback from surrounding property owners and will engage with them further to help address their concerns,” Persida Montanez, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy, said in an email the next day.

At the end of the testimony, Edds addressed the crowd and said that as it stood now, the commissioners could not make a decision. The commissioners agreed that they needed more time to review evidence provided during the meeting, and voted to recess the hearing until the Feb. 19 meeting.

Edds also spoke about the pitfalls of the quasi-judicial hearing format, which requires the commissioners to act as if the boardroom is a courtroom and only considered evidentiary information and not “hearsay” testimony. Edds said that one of the problems was that the commissioners were not allowed to use the residents’ “opinions” due to the hearsay element, but that the company’s experts provided acceptable opinions. Edds also said that he has never heard a real estate agent testify before the board that property values will decrease.