By Andie Foley
andie.foley@salisburypost.com

After approving $6.5 million in incentives for three projects during their Oct. 1 meeting, commissioners will consider an additional request for $100,000 on Monday.

The funds, requested by the Rowan Economic Development Commission on behalf of “Project Kodiak,” would be used toward trade-specific equipment or fixtures, or for tenant upfits for a yet-to-be identified e-commerce warehouse and distribution operation.

Commissioners approved a Level 2 economic development grant for the project during their first October meeting, which totaled nearly $1.4 million.

The grant, an 80 percent return on property taxes paid over five years, was offered to NorthPoint Development as it constructs the 700,000-square-foot facility at the intersection of Interstate 85 and Long Ferry Road intersection for a “particular user.”

NorthPoint general counsel Ian McDonald has said that the user is a company NorthPoint has worked with before, and it has been well received in other communities.

NorthPoint has worked with industrial clients including Amazon, BNSF Railway, General Motors, UPS and Tradebot — though commissioners Chairman Greg Edds said the county “has never for one second thought this was Amazon.”

Monday’s requested $100,000 would be structured as a loan, which would be forgiven if the company met and maintained certain job creation goals.

It is projected that the company will bring 600 jobs to the county by the end of 2022, alongside its $55 million investment through the construction of new property and placement of new equipment.

In other business from Monday’s agenda:

• Commissioners will hold a public hearing regarding the Fiscal Year 2020 Community Transportation Program grant application.

The grant will be requested from the North Carolina Public Transportation Division for administrative, operating and capital funding to “support the coordination of community transportation strategies and to acquire the necessary equipment to provide transit services in Rowan County,” according to the agenda.

The application is for $236,672 in administrative funds requiring a 15 percent local match, $192,500 in capital funds requiring a 10 percent match and $160,000 in operating funds, requiring a 50 percent match.

• Commissioners will hold a public hearing to consider text amendments to the animal control ordinance.

The changes will update acceptable leash lengths to 6 feet in public areas such as sidewalks. In more open public spaces such as fields and parks, leash lengths of up to 16 feet will be acceptable.

• Commissioners will hold a public hearing to adopt updated flood plain mapping issued to Cabarrus County with areas extending to Rowan County through Kannapolis.

The map contains one change: the widening of a flood plain boundary near 4747 Rainbow Drive in Kannapolis. Remaining map updates for the county should be issued in 2019.

• Commissioners will hold a public hearing to consider two changes to the zoning ordinance.

The first change would create a 3-percent allowance for storage facilities on vacant lots in rural agricultural, rural residential, rural suburban and commercial, business and industrial districts, based on lot size.

This would permit a sizable 1,306 square-foot building on a one-acre lot, though the proposal would retain the option to apply for a conditional use permit should a request not meet the lot percentage standard.

The second change would include “business services” as a permitted by right use in the industrial district.