The county’s top planner said Monday night that decisions on the future of nearly
2,700 tracts of land in the Interstate 85 corridor will determine the financial fate of
Rowan County.County Planner
Marion Lytle led the Planning Board through a mass of data and a how-to session on setting
development plans for the corridor between Salisbury and China Grove.
Last month county commissioners
called for an immediate look at the I-85-U.S. 29 corridor with an eye to preserving
potential industrial sites through zoning.
County officials including County
Manager Tim Russell have said repeatedly they want to avoid residential sprawl taking over
the interstate corridor.
They want to protect areas
suitable for high-dollar industry that can expand the tax base and, thereby, reduce the
burden on homeowners.
County officials have endorsed a
more aggressive industrial recruiting effort, hoping to bring more jobs and lower the tax
rate.
Lytle predicted that the county
won’t have to wait long to see what will happen along I-85.
“The next five years will
tell the tale of how the county will go. The I-85 corridor will have a huge impact on the
county’s solvency for years to come,” he said.
Planning Board members listened as
Lytle used a high-tech presentation to show parcels of land, roads, streams, ridge lines
and current land use. The presentation used county tax data, allowing Lytle to show
color-coded parcels according to current size and use.
The plan is focusing on an area
bounded by Grants Creek on the west, Old Concord Road on the east, the city of Salisbury
on the north, the town of China Grove and N.C. 152 on the south.
After the presentation, planning
board members asked what they’re supposed to do. Lytle said he needs to collect more
data and commissioners must make some key decisions.
Possibly most important, Lytle
said, is how to provide sewer and water service for development along the corridor. He
pointed out that while water and sewer can be extended, ridge lines on either side of I-85
make sewer more expensive, requiring pump stations to clear the ridge lines.
The Grants Creek ridge line
parallels I-85 to the west and the Town Creek ridge line runs to the east.
Lytle referred to the county study
completed more than a year ago which offered several options to providing water and sewer
for commercial and industrial development. Those options involve partnerships with various
towns, each with million-dollar price tags.
Lytle said county officials must
decide whether they want to include all of the 10 square miles currently in the study area
or take out areas that won’t likely be served by sewer and water for many years.
Planning Board member Worley King
suggested stopping the corridor at the ridge lines. “Don’t include people that
we are not going to serve” with water and sewer, he said.
Chairman John Linker urged
planners to consider some type of transitional zoning and to provide some type of
buffering requirements.
Board member Joe Teeter urged
planners and the board to listen to property owners in developing the plan. “We wield
a great amount of power over residents,” said Teeter.
Lytle acknowledged that some
property owners will welcome the plan and others will fight it.
The county planner noted that the
current I-85 corridor plan doesn’t include areas north of Spencer and areas south of
China Grove that are in the county’s jurisdictions. He indicated county officials
expect to include those areas in Phase 2 of the I-85 development plan. The county also
could add U.S. 70 to Phase 2 or a third development phase.
Lytle said planners will hold a
workshop-type public hearing to get input from property owners, developers and other
interested parties. But that meeting has not been scheduled.
The next step comes Dec. 6, when
Lytle presents basic data and a schedule for development of the corridor plan to county
commissioners. The goal is to have a plan ready for adoption in early spring.
Lytle said he will bring the
Planning Board more information at its January meeting.
County commissioners Arnold
Chamberlain, Dave Rowland and Frank Tadlock attended Monday’s planning session.
Tadlock asked planners to include
information on soils, including how much of the land won’t perk, or sustain a septic
tank system. |
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