By Robert Sullivan

robert.sullivan@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — The Rowan County Planning Board recommended a rezoning on Monday that would allow for a racing business in western Rowan County to expand its footprint, continuing a recent spate of racing-related requests in the Mooresville area.

The request that came before the board during the January meeting was for the expansion of MBE Cylinder Heads & Manifold in the 1300 block of Deal Road, a business which builds custom engine parts for racecars. Owner Matt Bieneman, represented by the local Bogle Firm, requested the property be rezoned from its current Rural Agricultural to Commercial, Business and Industrial with a Conditional District.

The current 5,000-square-foot building on the property was built in 2000, however, it was a direct replacement of a similarly-sized building that was built in 1988 and so predates county-wide zoning, allowing it as a non-conforming use that does not fit the RA regulations. Senior Planner Shane Stewart said that changing it to the CBI with a CD would make the current building a conforming use while also allowing for an approximately 12,000-square-foot expansion.

Stewart said during his presentation, however, that he had looked into the request and found that the property would perfectly fit under the county’s Neighborhood Business zoning, which is aimed specifically at providing smaller business opportunities in rural areas. Moving into the NB zoning would better fit the county’s land use plan along with the surrounding areas, as well as removing the need for the conditional district, which would remove some of the added restrictions that would need to be reviewed by the planning board and Rowan County Board of Commissioners, including a detailed site plan.

The Bogle Firm’s Pete Bogle told the members of the planning board that either CBI-CD or NB rezoning would work for them.

Bieneman said that he wanted to expand his company’s footprint simply so that he could bring all of his machines into one building and utilize them all. Currently, he is already sitting on three machines that he could move in and begin usage on right away in an effort to improve the current operations.

One concern that the members of the planning board voiced was that going with NB may leave future property-owners with more freedom to go against the land-use plan. However, Stewart said that, with the building expansion, MBE would fall just over 200 square feet under the NB maximum, so the building could not be expanded legally in the future.

After the discussion, the members voted unanimously to recommend rezoning the property to NB instead of the requested CBI-CD. The request will be presented to the board of commissioners, who will have the final say on approval or denial.

At recent meetings, Rowan County has seen a relatively large amount of racing- and business-related requests in the western parts of the county. Two of the more prominent requests have included a 60-acre business park at the intersection Wilkinson Road and West N.C. Highway 152 and a request by Mooresville Motorsports Complex to implement rules allowing for racing complexes.

Planning board continuing work on updating land use plan

The planning board is continuing to work on updating the county’s land use plan. Currently, the county has seven land-use plans, which were implemented between 2009 and 2023.

The planning board, with assistance from Benchmark Planning, have been working on updating the plans for the future of Rowan County since early 2024, when a community survey was held to receive an initial round of public input.

Jason Epley, president of Benchmark, presented the timeline for the work that still remains on the project. He said that the planners will present the final materials for the plan to the members of the planning board in late February, at which point they will be asked to approve those materials for future meetings with the public.

Those public meetings should begin in late March and will allow county residents to provide input to the actual drafted plan. Rowan County Planning and Development Director Ed Muire said that the meetings would likely be held at high schools throughout the county to allow residents of different areas to attend meetings closer to their homes. Muire said that a final, central public meeting would be held at the Rowan Community Center, formerly the West End Plaza.

Epley said that after the public meetings, planning staff and planning board members would take the second round of public feedback and finalize the draft of the land-use plan. The finalized draft would then be showcased at a final public meeting before being officially recommended by the planning board and put to the Rowan County Board of Commissioners for approval.