Land Use Board backs conditional rezoning for Four Rivers self‑storage on Allen Black Road

Union County Land Use Board members voted to recommend approval of conditional rezoning petition CZ2024‑0104 that would rezone roughly 4.55 acres in Vance Township from R‑20 to B‑4 with conditions to allow a climate‑controlled indoor self‑storage facility.

Planning staffer Bjorn Hansen presented the case as a conditional rezoning for “a storage facility, approximately 80,000 square feet,” and said the petition seeks five‑year vesting of development rights and clarified that a small strip across Allen Black Road initially included in the acreage is not intended to be rezoned. "There is a portion of the parcels actually across Allen Black Road that was included in the initial acreage of the application, but it's not intended to be a part of the rezoning," Hansen said.

The recommendation matters because the Board of Commissioners is the final decisionmaker; the Board scheduled the item for the July 14 commission meeting. Union County staff recommended approval, saying the site is adjacent to a neighborhood center node on the county land‑use map and near the I‑485 interchange, and that public water and sewer serve the area.

In discussion, staff and the applicant described the project layout and community outreach. Applicant attorney Britney Linz said the proposal is for "a type 1 self storage" — indoor, climate‑controlled units with screening and landscaping — and that the development team conducted outreach with nearby residents and the age‑restricted community in Stallings. Linz said the design will include a dense landscape buffer and that the project is a low traffic generator: "people don't go visit their storage units every day, so it's an extremely low traffic generator." Hunter Dawkins of 4 Rivers and the project's designer Bowman were present with the applicant team.

Board members repeatedly noted that the Town of Stallings had expressed opposition and would have preferred annexation so the town could control the parcel, but staff said Stallings lacks extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) over the site and that the county must render its own decision. Hansen told the board that Stallings "felt that they did not support the use for this parcel, wanted the development to instead be annexed into the town where they could control development that would occur on their border." Board members discussed that rezoning on municipal borders can create development pressure and that the land‑use map is the appropriate venue to consider broader map changes.

The board voted to recommend approval and to adopt an advisory consistency and reasonableness statement. The motion carried with the board's affirmative votes; the case will be considered by the Union County Board of Commissioners on July 14.

Background details the board recorded: the application addresses about 4.55 acres (with a clarifying half‑acre strip excluded from the rezoning), a proposed roughly 80,000‑square‑foot indoor, climate‑controlled storage facility, a minimum 10‑foot buffer on the plan, parking to the rear, and a manmade pond on the property. Staff noted traffic counts in the area (about 17,000 vehicles per day on Moyers Road and roughly 1,300 on Allen Black Road) and that the county's Unified Development Ordinance standards would apply at the date of approval.

Next steps: the Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing and make the final decision on July 14.