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Cabarrus County Residents Urge Local Officials to “Stop Rezoning Now”
Residents in the Odell and Coddle Creek communities of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, are asking the City of Kannapolis Planning and Zoning Board to zone a 75-acre property owned by the Wayne Brothers Concrete Company as I/O or Agricultural/Open Space. The Board will meet on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at 6:00 pm in the Kannapolis Train Station, to vote on the proposal. A Campus Development, or CD, zoning was proposed at the January meeting but was tabled by the board until this month’s meeting.
After the City of Kannapolis annexed a 75 acre parcel of land bordered by Davidson Road, Mooresville Road, Sudbury Road, and Odell School Road, thanks to special legislation pushed through the NC General Assembly by Senator Fletcher Hartsell, Jr., Rep. Linda Johnson and then Rep. Jeff Barnhart, they rezoned it for use as an industrial park. The citizens group, STOP REZONING NOW, filed suit in court over this zoning. After many years in court, the North Carolina Supreme Court handed down a decision in January of this year. The decision said that the Kannapolis zoning was declared invalid. At this point, Kannapolis should have started a new rezoning process for this parcel of land. They never did and thus let the property remain unzoned even though the city’s own ordinances state that all property is to have a zoning assigned to it.
Wayne Brothers Concrete Company has applied to Cabarrus County for a permit to construct an industrial building on this site. The City of Kannapolis has informed the county that since there is no zoning on the property, there is no problem with this industrial building being built. Since the county no longer has zoning control over this land, they will issue this permit.
If zoned CD, industrial, heavy commercial, warehousing, and big box retail development will be allowed in this rural area, which was annexed by the city of Kannapolis outside the legal boundaries. The zoning will not be compatible with the rest of the area.
The community has been fighting the rezoning for 7 years. The Cabarrus County Commission originally turned the project down several years ago due to overwhelming resistance from the community, which is why the
Cabarrus delegation to the NCGA pushed through the illegal annexation bill.
Residents are urged to attend the public hearing to speak out against zoning the property CD, and to contact City of Kannapolis, Cabarrus County Commission and NC state representatives to ensure proper zoning of I/O or Agricultural/Open Space.
Residents will continue to raise funds to pay the legal expenses to prevent this spot zoning for as long as the City of Kannapolis continues to illegally zone the property.
For more information, visit www.stoprezoningnow.com, or contact Doug Drake at dougdrak@aim.com.
This post was submitted by Doug Drake.
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Please do not contact Jason Burdette, please send e-mail to Kassie Watts at kwatts@benchmarkplanning.com.
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The property is privately owned as stated in the article. Therefore the owners should be able to do whatever they want to with it. If “the community” doesn’t like what the property owners plan to do with the land, then “the community” should pool their money and buy the property from the owners so “the community” can do whatever they want with it. If the property owners refuse the sell, no one is forcing anyone is “the community” to continue to live there. When one chooses to live in the vicinity of other human beings for the purpose of perceived benefits (jobs, infrastructure, schools, etc.) they ought not complain when some of those other human beings do things on their own property that those who voluntarily live there don’t like.
To use the threat of violence (and yes, all government action is enforceable only through violence) against a property owner to force them to do “the community’s” will is a blatant violation of liberty and willful destruction of private property rights.
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Kayser, Let me try and education you a bit on the situation here and try to respond your comments. First no one beyond the developer was given the chance to purchase the property, the community may have consider it if we had know what the outcome was going to be. The owners sold the property on the pretense that the developer Keith Wayne and only he would develop this property in accordance of county land use plan and zoning the county applied. That he wanted to build a simple office complex which would have been conducive to the surrounding communities and within the proper zoning which was already applied to property. What Mr. Wayne did was change is plans, get the city to annex the property and to sell off part of property to another large developer, his new plans where to have the office complex, and now a cement form factory and along with a cement truck staging and storage facility on this property.
To get the property annexed Mr. Wayne worked with city manager of Kannapolis Mike Legg, Rep. Jeff Barnhardt and Sen. Hartsell to introduce special legation to allow the city of Kannapolis to jump beyond the normal city allowable 3 mile limit to annex this property. This was done because the county had already denied Mr. Wayne request for special Industrial zoning on the property . The county would not allow this type development to be done for several reasons. This type of development was not in the county land use plan, the area was too rural, the county was not planning to improving the roads, providing water/sewage, or to put up lights and turn lanes, that this property was too close to the counties new water resource watershed. The owner took him at his word and they now have seller remorse.
The proposed development would be located up against a subdivision with two community wells. This area is also in the watershed/headwater area of a creek that runs into the Rocky River basin. There is a tremendous amount possible sedimentation and possible run off pollution which could occur if the proposed development is allowed. Some of the properties nearby are in a water conservation area that is separate from the county reservoir watershed(Lake Howell). That the two community wells in the immediate proximity of the proposed development would be at risk if there were industrial mishap from the cement form facility or the truck repair facility. There is no Clean Water Act runoff plan for this development. And because there are so many other individual wells that would also be put at risk if the aquifer becomes polluted by industrial run off, this development would be unwise.
The city of Kannapolis has no near futures plans to provide the required infrastructure improvements to the area, such as water/sewer, to the road to handle Wayne Brother large cement trucks, or with the increase in traffic, that would require the need for stop lights and turn lanes. There no plans to widen the rural Hwy 3 in the near future, no mass transit going in/out of this area nor any plans for any. And no other industrial type businesses in any direct for many many miles from this rural community.
We ask the Kannapolis city manager if he would like this next to his neighborhood, he couldn’t give us an answer. Would you want this near you?
We don’t want to prevent anyone from doing what they would like on their property as long as its legal. The new zoning for this property if done as the developer wishes is not conducive the surrounding property of existing homes and current farm land, it would be illegal, against the state zoning laws. Thus we have had to fight the city on this zoning over the past 6 years, and we finally won in court. We are prepare to see them in court again if necessary. We have not threaten violence and you show your lack of understanding of due process if you believe if someone opposes a law, ruling or in this case a zoning is in anyway a violate threat. Have a nice day..
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So what you’re saying is that everyone and their brother got it all bungled up by trying to use the threat of government violence to do what they wanted. I don’t really care about the particulars because they don’t matter. People fight over land use for all sorts of reason all the time. The point is, IN A FREE SOCIETY we should be able to do what we damn well please with our land as long as we aren’t harming anyone else. Forcing people to do “what’s legal” with their own land short of them harming you is exactly the threat of violence I already mentioned. If the property owner damages you or your property, sue him in civil court and make him repay you for damages. Otherwise, buy it, move, or quit whining. Zoning laws are for wimps. That is all.
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I think the point here is, whether you like them or not, we do have laws. If you disagree with those laws, by all means seek to change them. I’m not the biggest fan of zoning restrictions myself, but they do have a place at some level. Agree to disagree.
The point here is, government has decided not to follow the rules…and I think that is even more frightening than having zoning restrictions to begin with.
In a Republic, we should follow the rule of law, not the rule of man. In this case, man won, and that has terrible repurcussions.
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We really only need one law but we don’t have the guts for it. That being, “Any person who causes harm to another person or property shall pay said party in full for such damages or hang if unable.” Even idiots could understand and follow that one. Simple, easy to interpret, allows the greatest liberty, supports private property rights and the Rule of Law to the fullest without a hint of wiggle room.
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Thanks for making my point, ” the harming” of our water supply through his unregulated pollution, the destroying of our roads with his trucks, roads which are rated to handle trucks under 6 tons, these are your own stated words and are our main concerns, these are the thing that will harm our way of life and put our health and our properties at risk…
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If you have proof of any damages then you should take him to court and seek to have him pay to fix any damages. Have you (and by that I mean YOU) had a lab prove his actions have polluted the water? Have you taken photos or video of his trucks causing damage to the roads? Etc. My point is not to defend him – I don’t know him or have a dog in the fight – but you use a lot of assumptions in what his actions could do, would do, etc. Are we not innocent until proven guilty?
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All 7 members of the Kannapolis Planning and Zoning Board voted to approve the zoning requested by Wayne Brothers. Martha Macon addressed the crowd: I feel for you people, you’ve spent so much money..I hope Mr. Wayne does what he says he will do.
She voted to approve what he wanted along with all the rest.
This community has no representation at the City of Kannapolis, yet the City has taken on the power to tell them what can be done with their land. Shameless.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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We need to start raising money to help with the forthcoming legal battle, please direct people who want to help to http://stoprezoningnow.com
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