GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — People who live along West Friendly Avenue are fighting back on the latest rezoning proposal to build townhomes in their neighborhood.
“I don’t anticipate this being a short fight. We are willing to fight this out however long it takes,” said John Drinkard, who lives in the neighborhood.
Developer Glenn Drew with CZS will go in front of the planning and zoning commission next month with his proposal, and there will also be a public hearing on the request.
Right now, the land is zoned for single-family residential, but developer CZS wants to change it to build townhomes. The company says it withdrew its first request to address the concerns of neighbors regarding density, setbacks, building design and landscaping.
But neighbors say it’s not enough.
“It is not respecting any of the things that we suggested,” Drinkard said.
The new proposal for the development known as Hutchinson Court asks the city to approve the construction of up to 22 attached townhomes. The buildings would have two- and three-bedroom layouts and be one- or two-story floor plans. Building height is restricted to 35 feet. Each townhome will have an attached garage with its own driveway. The setback from Friendly Avenue is 35 feet.
“It’s still going to be multi-family housing. It is still going to be high-density. It’s still going to be setbacks that do not match what is in the surrounding area as well as more than likelihood of destroying the tree canopy, so I see this no different from what was originally proposed,” Drinkard said.
People don’t want their neighborhood to change, and that’s why they filed a neighborhood conservation overlay plan.
It sets standards that would overrule rezoning requests in the future.
“Greensboro has a rich history. This whole community has a rich history. I hate to see it destroyed. There is ways to preserve it and make it still retain historical character that we have in this zone, and people are willing to fight to keep that,” Drinkard said.
Even if the neighborhood conservation overlay plan is approved, it’s too late to prevent this zoning request on the 4000 block of West Friendly Avenue.
The public hearing at the Greensboro Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled for Nov. 20.
There are a couple of ways this plays out. If approved or denied, either side has time to appeal. If the decision is appealed, the rezoning request will go to the Greensboro City Council in December where they will make the final decision.
If the commission passes it with only five out of the nine votes, it automatically goes to the city council.
