By Steve Huffman
salisburypost.com
SPENCER ó By a split vote, members of the Spencer Board of Aldermen agreed Tuesday to rezone a building from neighborhood business to highway business use.
Allen and Barbara Welter, the owners of the building, located at the corner of Ninth Street and Salisbury Avenue, asked aldermen to rezone the property so they might be able to rent it.
“We have a $300,000 building sitting empty, so I’m willing to do anything,” Barbara Welter told board members.
The rezoning was approved by board members by a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Jody Everhart casting the deciding vote. The mayor casts a vote only in the event of a tie vote among board members.
Board members Nick Bishop, Ken Womble and Scott Benfield voted in favor of the rezoning. Opposing the change were Jeff Morris, C.E. Spear and Donnie Hinson.
The Welters told aldermen they’d invested a significant amount of money in the property. They said its zoning for neighborhood business use restricted significantly its business uses.
Barbara Welter told aldermen they’d considered converting the business to a day care, but a required $100,000 sprinkler system kept them from doing so.
“To add to that building is not feasible,” she said of the sprinkler system.
Allen Welter told aldermen he was investing $40,000 a year in the building and his return was next to nothing.
“I spend $40,000 a year on it, and I can’t get anything out of it,” he said.
Later, Welter told aldermen, “I have eat that thing forever,” he said, referring to the building’s purchase.
Welter told aldermen those interested in renting portions of his building could go down the street to lease similar property where they didn’t have to wait for rezoning.
“I feel for you,” said Alderman Benfield. “I’d hate to have a building where I couldn’t get anything in it.”
A couple of aldermen noted that similar businesses just “10 feet away” were zoned highway business.
Board members agreed that using the property for uses such as an auto parts and supply store were allowable under highway business zoning. But to use it for such uses under a neighborhood business zoning would require a conditional use permit.
In other matters handled at Tuesday’s meeting, board members:
– Heard from Police Chief Robert Bennett, who said former Fire Chief Howard Everhart came up with a good suggestion as to how to go about dealing with parking problems on Newton Street.
Everhart suggested, Bennett said, restricting parking to two hours along the street from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
– Heard Bennett praise Alderman Bishop’s suggestion for getting rid of bicycles police officers picked up. Bishop suggested giving the bikes to a charity whereby they will be distributed to underprivileged children, Bennett said.
“It’s a win-win situation,” he said.
– Appointed Alderman Womble to the Transportation Advisory Committee and appointed Mayor Everhart as his alternate.
– Moved the date of the next meeting of board members to Nov. 18. Usually, that meeting would be held on Nov. 11, but the date was bumped back a week because Nov. 11 is Veteran’s Day.