Rezoning U.S. 25N makes sense

It always sets off alarms when the Henderson County Board of Commissioners overrides the recommendation of the professional planners, and the alarm rings a bit louder when the board also rejects the recommendation of its Planning Board, which tends to be reliably pro-development anyway.

Such an override happened last week when commissioners voted 4-1 to rezone 130 acres on U.S. 25 North to a more permissive commercial designation than the county's new comp plan had put in place. Only Commissioner Chuck McGrady voted no. He had good reasons but in this case we side with commissioners who voted for the change.

The county planning staff had recommended that the county reject the rezoning request, which was made on behalf of 15 property owners. They requested the change from community commercial to regional commercial. The property extends 1.2 miles along U.S. 25 and is sparsely developed with a mix of uses like storage buildings, light industrial and a large cornfield. This Mountain Home stretch will no doubt develop as commercial, retail or maybe high density residential in the future, and either the existing zoning or the new zoning accommodates that. The closer one looks at the change, the less alarming it seems.

Community commercial zoning is meant "to foster orderly growth where the principle use of land is commercial," the comp plan says. Regional commercial, it turns out, is meant "to foster orderly growth where the principle use of land is commercial."

Both zones allow for residential development of 16 units an acre and maximum building heights of 50 feet. The biggest difference is that community commercial allows a maximum floor space of 80,000 square feet while regional commercial has no limit.

Overruling the planning staff — "running roughshod" over the planners was how McGrady put it — does raise an eyebrow but this seems like a logical concession to property owners. The rezoning request drew no opposition and does not fundamentally undercut the general comp plan guidance for commercial on this part of Asheville Highway.

This is a five-lane stretch of highway served by public water (though not sewer). Eleven of the 23 parcels included in the change are less than 2.3 acres (the Super Wal-Mart is a 7.6-acre building in a total development footprint of 29.5 acres). Seven parcels containing 87 acres have 73 percent of their surface in floodplain, reducing the developable size to 23 acres. In other words, this seems an unlikely location for the next Big Box bonanza. Besides, it's not close enough to an interstate interchange to make that plausible.

Commissioners no doubt will see many more requests like this when property owners realize that the new comp plan is much more restrictive than the old free rein zone known as Open Use zoning, and the leaders will need to hold their ground if they're serious about land-use planning with teeth.

The U.S. 25 change, incremental and justified, does little to no harm to sound planning principles.