By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
Despite opposition from neighbors, Rowan County commissioners rezoned a 3-acre tract off Faith Road to allow for mini-storage warehouses.
The property is located at the intersection of Faith Road and N.C. 152. Although the county’s planning staff had recommended rezoning from rural agricultural (RA) to commercial business industrial (CBI), the Planning Board voted unanimously to deny it after hearing from nearly a dozen neighbors.
Cecil Perry, owner of the tract, told commissioners he plans a nice facility that will provide a service to the community. A resident of Rockwell for 11 years, he discounted concerns of some neighbors, who cited Internet reports of warehouses used for drug manufacturing.
Planner Andy Goodall said several existing businesses are near the Perry property, including Sifford Exxon, Sifford Propane, Yard Stuff, Perfect Tan and Rockwell Farms.
Neighbors said they would prefer almost anything on the property other than mini-warehouses. They also expressed concern that the proposed zoning would open up the site to many uses.
Pat Shive and her husband, Coyt, talked about the peaceful community where they have lived since 1959. “We don’t want it ruined by that business … We don’t want to walk out and look at a sight like that.”
Coyt Shive cited traffic in the area, including logging trucks, and said increased traffic will cause problems.
Jim Freeman said he doesn’t have any problems with the businesses that are already there. But Freeman said if the warehouses are built, that’s all he will see from the front of his house.
His wife, Peggy, told commissioners she would rather see apartments on the site and that nearby mobile homes don’t cause any problems.Responding to questions from commissioners, planners said Perry wanted a straight rezoning rather than a rezoning with a conditional use permit.
Planning Director Ed Muire said adding conditions to the rezoning would be contract zoning, which the courts have ruled illegal.
Commission Chairman Arnold Chamberlain said a conditional use permit for mini-warehouses wouldn’t help. “Mini-warehouses is what they don’t want.”
“I wouldn’t be crazy about sitting in my house looking at the warehouses,” said Chamberlain.
But, he said, the rezoning “makes perfect sense.”
Chamberlain said the rezoning is a property-rights issue and that Perry has a legal right to do what he wants with his property.
Commissioners unanimously approved the rezoning.