City Council agrees to annex and allow large development near Gold Hill Road

ASHEBORO — The Asheboro City Council approved annexing and zoning to build nearly 200 homes. The request took up most of the council’s Oct. 9 meeting, as residents who border the development between Windsor Trail and Gold Hill Road questioned what this will do to traffic and their neighborhoods.

Mayor Pro Temp Walker Moffitt, presiding in place of Mayor David Smith, explained the “backwards” nature of the meeting. Due to state law requirements, council members held the public hearing on zoning first but could not vote until after they heard the annexation request, scheduled later in the meeting.

“We’re going to get a preview, then a little break, then we’re going to come back,” Moffitt said. “It won’t be over until it’s over.”

City Attorney Jeff Sugg said annexed land must be zoned within 60 days. “We don’t want to have a no man’s land for zoning if there’s a lapse,” he said. “As this [zoning] hearing goes forward, it’s the broadest where people can participate and express their concerns. Then we get later to the annexation.”

196 home proposal

Developer Phaneendra Koneru of Apex asked that the 75 acres of undeveloped county land be zoned for R10 (CZ): Residential Conditional Zoning. R10 allows for medium density of homes.

Community Development Director John Evans presented the plan for 196 single-family homes, roughly three homes per acre. It would be accessed by entrances from Gold Hill Road and Windsor Trail, with a recreational area in the southeast corner. Sumney Engineering and Associates drew up the layout.

Planning and Zoning recommended 23 conditions and three modifications to ordinance regulations:

■ A 25-foot buffer along all adjoining residential property lines, 100+ buffer to part of the eastern side, and a 20-foot buffer along Gold Hill Road.

■ Stormwater control measures.

■ Sidewalk limited to one side of streets throughout much of the development.

Before the vote, the council added a 24th condition on behalf of Jonathan and Stacey Dillion, who live next to the property. That ensures no new sidewalks will cross their front yard.

Questions from council

Moffitt brought up the land history and what he called the “elephant in the room,” a strip of road extending just past an easement for one home on Windsor Trail. He said they found no records of the easement conditions in the Register of Deeds, though the family living there, the Tathams, did share their own documentation.

Sugg said the planning board saw no need to raise an objection to the easement. “It appeared that was the ability to get to the road from the dwelling. They saw, on the face of it, no impairment or impediment to continuing to have access to the road based on the plan.”

Public hearing comments

Nine people spoke during the public hearing. The main concerns they raised was the density of the homes, traffic along Gold Hill Road, flooding, and how this might fit with the character of their neighborhoods.

“How many of you have driven along Windsor Trail and Gold Hill Road and looked at the land in question?” said John Cowan of Snowdon Court. “Looking at maps and images on a screen are not enough.”

Cowan said when he bought his house, he liked that the road ended and prevented thru traffic. If the road extends to access a new neighborhood, he said his own community might become less safe.

Josephus Honeycutt and his wife have lived near the dead end for 34 years. “The builder is asking to take his new section, tie it into ours, and disrupt our lives so he can make a dollar,” he said. 

“I understand that’s how we operate. We got to have the homes, there’s no doubt, especially if they get the new business they’re looking at coming. All I ask is you reconsider, maybe draw the line where Windsor Trail ends where it ends now.”

Barbara Ward of Snowdon Court said she talked to Lloyd Hamlet, who developed the subdivision and still lives in the area. “He has told residents Windsor Trail was never intended to go beyond his current endpoint,” she said.

Moffitt said, however, that records they found while researching the easement refer to the road extending beyond the neighborhood as far back as 1968.

The Dillions asked if it could be zoned for lower density. “This is just far too many homes,” Jonathan Dillion said. “R15, two houses per acre instead of more than three, would be far more appropriate.”

He said if the project disrupts drainage, flooding will move downhill to his back yard. “It threatens the livability of what isn’t just my property, but where my kids play, where there’s a swing set, a fire pit,” he said.

Tabatha Allen said she moved to Windsor Trail two years ago. “I look at a plot like that, and I don’t think people think, ‘That’s Asheboro,’ “ she said. “I think people come because they want that small town, that space. I think that’s something to hold on to.”

Gold Hill traffic

Lance Wilkie said he was “representing the opposite side” on Gold Hill Road. He called North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for information. If they predicted 1,400 more vehicles per day, divided between two entrances, he said that was still three more cars per minute. He felt the plan was moving forward without enough safety analysis.

“There are many places that are very dangerous for people to pull out on, let alone go to their mailbox,” Wilkie said.

Marlon Pome said he’s had to pull six people out of wrecks on his property in 10 years. He said, “I am very, very much concerned with cutting a new road to go on to Gold Hill. It’s just adding to the problem.”

Traci Key also lives along Gold Hill Road. “196 houses is crazy. Can we make it smaller? I would prefer a bigger road buffer around it.”

City Manager Donald Duncan briefly explained how an engineering review would look at safety, including fire and police response. “There will probably be close to 200 pages of engineering documents,” he said. “Once you’re complete, you’re free to see them.”

Moffitt said Koneru would be expected to make road improvements and follow required line-of-sight distances.

Duncan, Moffitt and council member Eddie Burks all said residents may want to petition NCDOT to lower the speed limit. “You, as an individual, actually has more authority when it comes to that than the city does,” Duncan said.

Council votes

At the end of the hearings, Council members Bill McCaskill and Kelly Heath voiced reservations. McCaskill said, “It should be a housing development. He has the right to use his land. I just think it’s too many houses.”

Heath also acknowledged that lower density zoning was not as easy a solution as neighbors might think. “The comment that was made about R15, I know we wouldn’t be able to have as much input on buffers, open space, sidewalks and all those things,” she said.

Sugg reminded them that if the approve the annexation but reject the zoning, then they will have to move quickly to apply zoning within 60 days.

Moffitt agreed. “If you look down our list of choices, it will most likely be residential.”

Sugg added, “But it will not be conditioned.”

Burks compared it to his own experience with new construction, and he called this proposal “significantly better” than the additions in his area. “Our codes today are stricter than what they put behind my house back then. I’d rather see this behind my house than what’s there right now,” he said.

The council voted for annexation with McCaskill voting no. They then approved the R10 (CZ) zoning with McCaskill and Heath dissenting.

“I’m sure this is like many items, where nobody is leaving 100 percent happy,” Moffitt said. “We will endeavor to make this as comfortable as possible as it goes forward.”