The council issued a statement Friday responding to a letter read during its meeting Wednesday that is critical of recent actions and policies that business people say endanger their livelihoods.
More than 60 business people and leaders signed the letter, including former Mayor Mike Fields, former Councilwoman Marquita Daniels, Bill Smith, George Little, Susan Clift Brown, Jamie Boles and Bill Saunders.
The letter says the Town Council is “micromanaging” architectural plan reviews for new commercial business developments, setting unreasonable standards by requiring exterior walls to be brick. It also disputes spending money to hire consultants to study commercial development issues. The letter asks the town to give business people a voice in the process.
The council said in its written statement that “in a time of difficult decisions, it is important that all voices are heard and individual positions given consideration.”
“It is certainly not the intent of this council or overall organization to be adversarial or unwelcoming to either new or existing businesses within the community,” the statement said. “To the contrary, the town has released building permits for five new commercial structures since July 1 of this year in addition to having reviewed and approved all architectural plans for a number of others.
“Furthermore, the council has worked with a number of existing building and business owners in the refurbishing of their current structures. While the process could be argued at times to be somewhat tedious due to the lack of precedence and past practice, the outcomes have been very positive in every instance.”
Moving on to the status of architectural standards for new commercial and business development, the council said the “forthcoming review of architectural standards is an effort to ensure the maintenance of the character and charm of Southern Pines that we all recognize the importance and value of.”
The council always planned to invite “a number of stakeholders to the table for this important process,” referring to its intent to include business people.
One of the problems with the current architectural plan review process is that the existing code was written to rely “heavily on the subjective determination of a structure’s ‘harmonious’ fit into the existing surroundings,” the council said.
The town’s outside consultant is reviewing it and is to recommend improvements in the code to “better define what makes a structure ‘in harmony’ throughout various areas of the town, thus clarifying community expectations.
Developers will probably spend less money on doing preliminary designs and making fewer changes because the code will have a “clearer initial direction” written into it, the council statement says.
“We would consider this approach a positive one for business retention, expansion, and attraction,” it says.
‘Cumbersome’
Business people say many of the town’s procedures make things more difficult for them.
“The input I pick up from the commercial property owners in dealing with the town is that they can’t get answers from the staff because the council has usurped their authority,” said George Little, a Southern Pines insurance broker who signed the letter. “The staff has to refer people who need answers about the regulations and what they can do, to the council. This is cumbersome and causes delays, these business people tell me.”
Former Councilwoman Marquita Daniels said the architectural plan review process is the most irksome thing for a business person. Daniels owns the Daniels Co., a building contractor.
“Chris (Smithson) has said to me the council’s handling the architectural reviews is only temporary, but it’s been going on for a long time,” she said. “I don’t know. They keep saying that when the architectural code is fixed that they’ll turn it over to the staff, but when?”
Daniels said that since former Town Manager Kyle Sonnenberg resigned his position with Southern Pines, the council has been handling review of architectural plans as a body instead of having the staff do it.
“They’re trying to put their taste into the regulations,” she said, “and just because it might be one of the councilmen’s taste, why should everyone else have to follow it?”
Many business people have been critical of a new requirement that exterior walls of commercial buildings be brick.
Daniels also mentioned the moratorium the council imposed on apartment complexes to give the town time to develop new zoning standards intended to prevent more large-scale complexes from being built. The new regulations require that new apartments be several hundred feet apart.
Several business people who own and manage rental property, such as Greg Zywocinski and Gregg Allen, were upset initially because it appeared that they would be unable to rebuild units if they were damaged by fire or had to be replaced because they didn’t meet the new requirements. Both signed the letter. The council did amend the ordinance to ease that problem.
Some business people viewed that as another example of the town not being sensitive to their needs.
Antique shop owner Mary Mc-Keithen said she had no problems when she and her husband, Jere, went through the council architectural review process in getting renovations adding a second story approved for their existing building on Broad Street.
Disagrees With Letter
Southern Pines business woman Bonnie McPeake called The Pilot to issue a statement disagreeing with the business letter.
McPeake agrees with the need for an architectural code, except for a detail here or there. McPeake praised the town for “at least having a vision for the future and trying to set some standards, that protect the property owners who invest in Southern Pines.
“Without a vision or a plan for the future there is no way of knowing where we will end up in 10, 20, or 30 years,” she said.
McPeake added it’s “probably impossible to please everyone and if they were pleasing everyone they most likely would not be fulfilling their responsibility to the community.”
McPeake’s family business, McPeake Hotels Inc., does have large investments in The Belvedere, one of the largest commercial buildings in Southern Pines, three commercial buildings rented to shops along West Pennsylvania and the South Bonnet Street block and The Hampton Inn on U.S. 1.
She said she has spent a lot on renovating her new properties, requiring her to deal with town planning and zoning staffers, whose work she said is professional and helpful to her.
“I was personally asked to sign the letter,” she said in a telephone interview. “I would not sign it because I didn’t agree with it.”
She also voiced agreement with the council’s decision to rezone the Leith property. That was a difficult decision, she said, because council took the position “against the money and stood for the little people, who represent the majority of the population.”
Sara Lindau can be reached at 693-2473 or by e-mail at slindau@thepilot.com.
