Kannapolis City Council delays rezoning request decision until next month

Published 12:07 am Wednesday, March 15, 2023

KANNAPOLIS — The Kannapolis City Council once again chose to postpone the final decision on whether or not to approve the conditional rezoning request from petitioner Jack McKinley regarding a neighborhood development at Trinity Church and Stirewalt roads. The discussion will continue on April 10.

The reason for the delay was because council still needed additional information concerning the alternative septic system proposed by the developer. The new one that was suggested is a block panel septic system, an effective but expensive network that looks like cinder blocks with the septic going from a pipe into the section of sealed blocks that are put together.

McKinley said he would prefer to have the city’s sewer system, but is presenting the block system as a backup if he could not get sewer capacity within a reasonable amount of time. The soil at the proposed site has not been tested yet to see if the block system is a viable option, but there have been discussions to confirm. The site would be ready for water and sewer within 9-12 months.

Since McKinley was not in attendance for this meeting, Mayor Darrell Hinnant decided it would be best to see if he would be interested in connecting to water and sewer if sewer capacity would be available within two years.

“Our staff is going to be working with the petitioner to see what his response is to those questions about if you had capacity, would you commit to just water and sewer only?” Hinnant said. “Would he eliminate these other more expensive options that may not be as environmentally acceptable?”