New office building proposed for Exit 30

A new mixed use commercial building proposal has popped up on the Town Planning site for the Exit 30 area along Gateway Drive.

Regular readers will remember the post about a new hotel proposal from back in May.  This new office building will be near that site and adjacent to the Davidson Clinic building as pictured below.

Limited information is available and documents are noted as preliminary.  The Town website  says:

The property owner proposes an individual 3-story building with rooftop event space (4-stories total). Proposed uses include a restaurant and office space. Total building square footage is +/- 40,157 square feet. This site is subject to the 1998 Southeast Quadrant Master Plan.

Link to the project page here.

BREAKING NEWS: Griffith Hotel ruling upheld by Appeals Court

After months of waiting the NC court of appeals posted it's opinion on the Griffith Street Hotel lawsuit Tuesday morning.

In a unanimous decision, the Court decided for the Plaintiffs that the rezoning allowing the Griffith Street Hotel was invalid!

"Because the pleadings show that the Town of Davidson failed to post notice of a public input session in conformity with its own planning ordinance, the trial court did not err in granting Plaintiffs judgment on the pleadings and declaring the rezoning void ab initio."

As reported previously, the Appeal was heard back in February by a three Judge panel including Judge Lucy Inman, Judge Allegra Collins, and Judge Chris Dillon.  Judge Collins wrote the opinion with Judge Inman concurring.  Judge Dillon wrote a separate concurrence that was even stronger than the main one. The main opinion upheld the ruling based on the signage not meeting the DPO requirements.  In the second opinion by Judge Dillon, he added that the order of the procedural steps with the Planning Board meeting being prior to the hearing was mandatory as well.

While this is certainly good news for the Plaintiffs fighting the hotel project, it is not quite over.  The Defendants could file a letter asking the NC Supreme Court to take up the case.  If the Court denies this request, or if a request doesn't happen, then the main part of the case would effectively be over.

To read the whole opinion, click here.  It is the first opinion under the "unpublished" opinion section of Tuesday's opinions.  According to the understanding here at aShortChronicle, the "unpublished" just means this opinion won't be part of the legal register of NC law.  That's likely because this decision did not break any new legal ground.

Lake Forest Church seeks rezoning for a permanent home in Davidson

On Tuesday, Davidson Commissioners (and citizens) will get a preliminary look at a proposal from Lake Forest Church to rezone a piece of South Main property for a new church facility.

From the agenda item...

"The applicant proposes a Conditional Planning Area Map Amendment for +/- 3.9 acres currently zoned Village Edge and Village Infill Planning Areas (Parcel IDs: 00324111, 00324107, & 00324170). The Davidson Planning Ordinance (DPO) allows the Conditional Planning Area as an option for developers/property owners to ask for exceptions from the ordinance in a manner that is mutually agreeable to the developer and the Town of Davidson. The purpose of tonight’s discussion is to determine if the Board of Commissioners would like to see this proposed conditional rezoning move through the formal Conditional Planning Area Map Amendment (i.e. rezoning) process."

So where are parcels 00324111, 00324107, & 00324170?  These are along South Main including the old Davidson Clinic site.

Lake Forest Church Davidson Proposal

Long-time readers will remember, this site has seen proposals before - including a 150 apartment unit high density proposal that came and went in 2017.  See story here about that.

From the documents provided with the current request from the church, the church is looking to assess the Board's appetite for exceptions to the following under conditional zoning.

1. Religious Institution Separation Requirement (DPO 3.2.31): ̵  Condition to allow a religious institution to locate within ¼ mile of another religious institution (Davidson United Methodist Church)
2. Religious Institution Use in Village Infill Planning Area: – Condition to allow the religious institution use in the Village Infill Planning Area
3. Religious Institution Use in a Detached House: ̵ Condition to allow church offices to located in the existing detached home at 496 South Main Street

The proposal includes a 30,000 square foot church facility, a three story 25,000 commercial and office building fronting Main Street, and re-use of the house onnthe property for church offices.  140 parking spaces will be included.

This proposal is at least the second site Lake Forest has saught for its permanent home in Davidson.  The church currently meets at Davidson elementary. The first attempt was an inquiry about a portion of the Beaty Street Property which ultimately kicked off the flawed Beaty Street RFP leading to the swirl of 2017 and the formation of Save Davidson.  Ironically, if the former Board had taken the church up on its original request, rather than using it to force the flawed Beaty Street RFP, those elected officials would likely still be in office.