News & Record article

Loop brings first zoning fight
By Jason HardinStaff Writer
Friday, Feb. 1, 2008 3:00 am

Credit: Doug Cox/News & Record
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GREENSBORO — It didn't take long after the newest section of the city's Urban Loop opened for a zoning fight to spring up along the highway.The highway is changing the suburban edges of the city, opening areas for growth and intensifying interest in already developed sites.The fight involves land off Friendly Avenue about a quarter-mile inside the loop. For more than a half-century, the site was home to Friendly Road Inn, a fish camp that closed in 2006.Now, Mega Builders, a company co-founded by County Commissioner Mike Winstead, proposes an apartment complex on the 13-acre site.The city's long-term plan envisions the areas around loop intersections as places for high-density development.But some residents in the area aren't thrilled about this proposed project.They say that although they don't mind development there, the proposal is too much. It calls for 10 three-story buildings.Colin Kelly, who lives in a nearby neighborhood of single-family homes, said the buildings are too tall and the project will damage the area."We just simply think that this does not fit our neighborhood," he said.Kelly said he recognizes that the loop makes the area more convenient to the rest of the city. He said new development shouldn't overwhelm existing areas.He and his wife, both recently retired, have been living there for 37 years."Excuse my French, but I'm too damned old to buy another house," Kelly said.Derek Allen, an attorney representing Mega Builders, said the site is a natural location for apartments.He said the city's plan bears that out by designating it a location for high-density development."This is not one of the properties that's on the edge," he said. "This is right in the middle of it."The project isn't going in the middle of an area dominated by single-family housing. Kelly's neighborhood sits on one side, the rest of the property is mainly surrounded by multifamily housing and Guilford Primary School.Designers have tried to make the project fit in, he said, both in the location of the buildings and in proposing a larger buffer than required."I think we've done as much as we possibly could," he said.The project has ties to some Guilford County political leaders.Aside from Winstead's connection, the land's owners include County Commissioner Linda Shaw and her husband, former state Sen. Bob Shaw.Kelly said he believes politics in the area are tilted toward real estate interests."I have always heard the statement that developers and real estate people run Greensboro," he said. "It's an absolute fact."Do you think he's right? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.But the project hasn't necessarily been sailing smoothly through the city's approval process.The city's zoning commission voted to deny the request, which was appealed to the City Council.The council voted 4-3 at its last meeting to approve the project.Robbie Perkins was absent and Mike Barber recused himself from the vote.With Perkins back on Tuesday to vote on a second reading of the ordinance, the rezoning will need five votes to pass.Perkins declined this week to say which way he is leaning.He said the board could reopen a hearing on the proposal. The portion of the loop from Bryan Boulevard to Interstate 40 opened late last year.