“We’re going to try to see what we can do,” said Troy Williams, who has attended both planning board meetings on the matter and attended the council meeting. “If they put it behind their houses, they wouldn’t have done it.”
Jessica Dickens, another opponent of the proposal, which passed on a 3-2 vote, said, “Our council let us down.”
Approval of the rezoning, however, does not mean The Woda Group can immediately move forward with the project, its senior vice president, Denis Blackburne, said afterward. “We have to be awarded an allotment of North Carolina Financing Agency tax credits.”
The agency will announce the awards in August, he said. If the company is not awarded the tax credits in August it will try again the following year.
Should the tax credits be approved, construction would likely start next January or February. Construction will take around a year. “The community will not be disappointed,” Blackburne said.
Approval of the rezoning from B-4 to B-3 came after lengthy discussion on the matter during a public hearing and went against a recommendation made by the planning board last week to reject it.
The statement of consistency passed on a motion by Councilman Wayne Smith with a second by Ernest Bobbitt. Councilwoman Suetta Scarbrough sided with Smith and Bobbitt. Carl Ferebee and Carol Cowen voted against the statement.
Smith made the motion to approve the rezoning with a second from Scarbrough, Bobbitt voting with them.
“I represent right many people in that area,” Cowen said early in the discussion as she explained why she was against the proposal. “They don’t feel like they are getting the right representation.”
Ferebee said he voted against the matter because he didn’t believe it was consistent with the area.
Blackburne told council the company chose the area because it is within walking distance to commercial businesses and is nestled between single family housing. “We feel like it’s a good transition between commercial and residential. We will have staff, maintenance and property managers. We pay property taxes and bring jobs.”
He said the company repositioned the drawings of the facility to address privacy concerns registered by opponents to the project. He said there will be setbacks and screening to further address privacy issues.
Lee Bone, who has a contract to sell the land, located next to El Tenampa, to The Woda Group, told council, “This town needs people, needs business, needs money. I request for the benefit of this town that you grant the business this rezoning.”
Opponents of the proposal were not swayed by the presentation of Blackburne.
“We feel like it’s undermining the rights of adjacent property owners,” said Becky Spragins.
George Parrish told council, “You can’t possibly know the negative affects it will have in the future. There’s not going to be any positive for the area. This property will do nothing to increase property values. It’s not going to win any architectural awards. It will not increase the value of residential property.”