Auburn council rejects rezoning for proposed Donahue–Farmville commercial node after hourlong public hearing

Auburn Mayor Anders and the City Council voted down a request to rezone about 13.74 acres at the southeast corner of North Donahue Drive and West Farmville Road from rural to Comprehensive Development District (CDD) after an extended public hearing and sustained public opposition.

Planning Director Justice told the council the parcel’s future land use designation is mixed-use, medium intensity and that staff recommended CDD coupled with a PDD overlay to limit by-right uses: “With a plan development district overlay, every use is conditional. There are no uses permitted by right.”

The rezoning would have cleared the way for an automotive-anchored commercial node the developer described as including a 30,000-square-foot grocery and up to roughly 112,800 square feet of commercial building area across the site; the developer said an initial grocery-driven phase might be about 40,000–45,000 square feet. Tom Haley, the developer, told the council the project had been in planning for years and that the applicant had…