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Bear Creek Fabrication seeks to rezone adjacent parcel to heavy industrial; neighbors cite traffic and noise concerns
Summary
Lockley Holdings (doing business as Bear Creek Fabrication) asked to rezone a 10.04-acre parcel on Campbell Road from R-1 to heavy industrial to allow expansion of an existing fabrication business. Commissioners heard neighbor objections and referred the general-use rezoning to the planning board for further study.
Lockley Holdings LLC, which operates Bear Creek Fabrication, asked the Chatham County Board of Commissioners for a general-use rezoning of a 10.04-acre parcel on Campbell Road from R-1 residential to heavy industrial. The applicant's attorney told commissioners the expansion is intended to support a family-owned metal fabrication business that currently employs about 24 local workers and which the owner said could add 10 to 15 full-time jobs within 12 to 24 months if it obtains the additional land.
Attorney Nick Robinson described the requested rezoning as an extension of an existing heavy-industrial use: the company's current property nearby was rezoned heavy industrial during a 2018 commissioner-initiated rezoning that regularized nonconforming businesses after the county's 2016 countywide zoning adoption. The applicant said no new public water or sewer would be required and that most fabrication occurs indoors at the current facility; the adjacent tract would provide additional gravel laydown and storage areas and potentially, over a longer timeline, additional structures.
Neighborhood concerns: Eight neighbors spoke at the hearing and opposed the rezoning. Residents described frequent heavy trucks and semi-tractor trailers on the narrow rural roads, regular loud steel-banging and forklift noise audible in homes, safety issues where the private drive and Campbell Road intersect, and accelerated damage to local roadways and bridges. Several speakers who live on Campbell Road said the existing business's laydown areas and employee traffic already affect their daily lives; one speaker flagged a recent emergency-response incident that had blocked the road.
Planning board referral and next steps: The board closed the hearing and referred the general-use rezoning request to the county planning board for further review. Planning staff said the item will go to the planning board for discussion, that the board's next meeting is Oct. 7, and that the planning board may hold additional outreach and study before the commission takes a final decision. The applicant and staff also noted that some heavy-industrial uses listed in the county's use table would still require a special-use permit or further special study.
Why it matters: A general-use heavy-industrial zoning would permit the parcel for the full set of heavy-industrial uses allowed in the county unless specific uses require a special permit; rezoning therefore changes long-term development options for the site. Neighbors urged commissioners to weigh the trade-offs between job growth and impacts on rural residential character, road safety and noise.
Clarifying details: The applicant said the existing facility is set roughly 700 feet from Campbell Road and that the requested parcel would initially be used for laydown and storage; any future building would be a longer-term possibility. Several residents said tractor-trailers use the road frequently and sometimes fail to stop at the stop sign where Campbell Road meets Bernie Phillips Road. Planning staff confirmed the next planning board public meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7 in the county's Old Agricultural Building; residents were told file materials and any exhibits will be posted and available prior to that meeting.
