During its meeting today at 6 p.m., the Village Council will hold public hearings on five rezoning requests affecting 262 acres.
Though no plans have been submitted, Mayor Giles Hopkins confirmed that each requested rezoning would be for a subdivision. All are in the village’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction.
In each instance, the developer is asking for the zoning to be changed from residential and agricultural to the less restrictive residential single family.
The zoning change would allow homes to be built on 20,000-square-foot lots. The current zoning allows a dwelling on 40,000-square-foot lots.
An acre is about 43,560 square feet. If all five are approved (which Hopkins stresses will not be done during tonight’s meeting), it would essentially mean that rather than being able to build one home per acre, the developers could have two. That would mean more than 500 new homes could be on the way.
Though these requests didn’t show up at the same time — Village Planning Director Gene Opdike said that one came in as long ago as August — they took a while to work through the Planning Board, and Hopkins wanted to hold the hearings for all five at the same meeting.
The first hearing is on an application submitted by James Wesley Caddell to rezone 78 acres south of Birdie Drive.
The second request is to rezone 53 acres south of Pine Ridge Drive, Arbutus Lane and north of Sullivan Drive submitted by David Upchurch. He is one of the owners of Hobbs, Upchurch and Associates in Southern Pines.
The third is for 60 acres located on both sides of Michael Road, with Foxcroft Road as the southern boundary. The applicants are New Heritage Realty and Development and Vantage Holding Group.
The fourth hearing is on a request by Jarrett Deerwester of Stover Homes, who is asking the council to rezone 62 acres south of Rays Bridge Road and east of N.C. 22.
The final hearing will be on a nine-acre tract south of Shadow Drive and Dewberry Drive. Lawrence Oliver asked for the zoning change.
Matthew Moriarty may be reached at 693-2479 or by e-mail at moriarty@thepilot.com.
