Mount Airy council delays South Main rezoning after residents object; Wattersville parcel tabled pending boundary review

Mount Airy officials on May 14 decided not to move forward immediately with a set of rezonings recommended in the town's draft master plan after residents pressed the council in a packed joint work session to reconsider changes along South Main Street. Council members also tabled consideration of 302 Wattersville Road until the town clarifies property and municipal boundary lines.

The council president said council members were not comfortable voting on the South Main extended parcel recommendations as presented and instructed staff to omit those contested properties from the forthcoming rezoning ordinance; the group also agreed by consensus to include other items (Twin Arch Business Park parcel, an East Ridgeville Boulevard parcel and four South Main parcels) in the ordinance as drafted. The council directed staff to verify the town boundary for 302 Wattersville Road before any rezoning action on that parcel.

Why it matters: the rezonings are part of a 10-year master-plan update that the planning commission tied to economic goals including space for medical services, small businesses and other commercial growth. Residents argued the proposed changes would convert long-standing homes to commercial zoning, reduce property values and change neighborhood character; planning commissioners said the prescriptions were intended to create transitional commercial areas and add capacity the town lacks.

Council action and next steps

- Council members agreed not to include the contested South Main Street extended parcels in the next rezoning ordinance and to revisit the issue later, according to repeated statements during the meeting. That decision reflects a desire by multiple council members to review the set of requests together rather than proceed with the draft as published.

- The parcel listed as 302 Wattersville Road (parcel 1485 in the planning materials) was "tabled" for further staff work after town staff and the town attorney said the town needs to clarify whether the property lies fully inside town limits. As Town Attorney Tom said, the town "can only control the zoning to that portion of that property that is within the town limits," and staff recommended clarifying the boundary before rezoning.

- The council did signal consensus to include several other recommended rezonings in the upcoming ordinance: the Twin Arch Business Park parcel, the East Ridgeville Boulevard parcel, and four parcels on South Main (as identified in the draft master-plan packet). Council members stressed they were not casting final votes that night.

Public concerns

Dozens of residents spoke during an extended public-comment period. Several owners and long-term residents of South Main Street criticized the proposals to change residential and neighborhood-professional (NP) parcels to limited commercial (LC) or community commercial (CC).

Emily Benikaze, a South Main property owner, said she and neighbors were told by members of the planning commission that a majority of residents supported rezoning. Benikaze said that is incorrect and charged commissioners with misleading the council: "Some on the planning commission have been plainly dishonest and acted in bad faith in making this recommendation," she said.

Olivia Lewis, who identified herself as the recent buyer of the Keith property on South Main, told the council she and her husband had planned to raise a child there and were unaware of the rezoning efforts when they bought the house. "Buying the house, we weren't aware of this process," she said.

Other residents raised concerns about traffic, light and noise, and the potential loss of long-standing single-family homes. Bill Hoffman, who spoke about 302 Wattersville Road, told the council that county records and the town's maps disagree about the municipal boundary: "We've never gone through an annexation process, never legally were annexed. It's baffling to me," he said, urging the town to resolve boundary questions before acting.

Planning commission rationale and inventory

Planning Commission Chair Ralph Kent and other commissioners explained their recommendation to reclassify parts of South Main Street and the South Main extension as LC or CC. Kent said the commission's deliberations were driven by the master plan's economic-development goal (goal D) and by a town-wide inventory of existing commercial parcels.

The commission reported that available community-commercial (CC) parcels totaled roughly 5 acres of disconnected infill and that several nonactive commercial parcels add about 1.9 acres; for limited commercial (LC), commissioners identified a fraction-of-an-acre infill site and a second parcel just over 1 acre. Kent summarized the commission's assessment: "The conclusion was, no, it's not enough," meaning the present inventory did not, in the commission's view, provide sufficient capacity for the kinds of medical and civic facilities the plan envisions.

Commissioners also described their intent to use LC as a transitional district, placed adjacent to more intensive CC, to limit higher-intensity uses from abutting single-family neighborhoods.

Regulatory and process issues raised

Speakers and council members discussed several legal and process constraints that the council must consider before rezoning:

- Wellhead protections: Council members noted the town code's wellhead-protection rules and asked whether conditional uses permitted in CC (for example, service stations or dry cleaners in some circumstances) could be allowed near drinking-water infrastructure. The town attorney and staff advised that the wellhead rules require additional site-level analysis if certain conditional uses are proposed.

- Annexation and boundary clarification: Town staff said county map corrections made during master-plan drafting had left some parcel boundary questions unresolved; staff recommended resolving the municipal-boundary issue for affected parcels before rezoning.

- Limits of zoning alone: Planning commissioners and staff repeatedly told the council that rezoning is only the first step. Any new development would still require site plans, adequacy-of-facilities review and design review; allowed uses in a zoning district do not guarantee a particular business will be approved without meeting code requirements.

What residents asked for

Several speakers urged the council to preserve the character of South Main Street and to keep certain parcels residential. Residents asked that the council exclude South Main Street from rezoning consideration, preserve existing "NP" (neighborhood professional) buffers where they exist, and make any changes only after door-to-door outreach and clear notice to current owners.

What's next

Council members said they will not vote on the contested South Main extended rezonings at the upcoming ordinance vote and directed staff to remove those parcels from the immediate ordinance. The Wattersville/Watersville Road parcel (302 Wattersville Road) will be held until staff clarifies the town boundary and any annexation history.

The town will bring an ordinance forward for other parcels the council signaled it was comfortable including; additional public hearings and the formal vote will follow the statutory notice periods required by state law and the town code.

Speakers (selected)

Paul Burkett, resident/property owner (spoke about 301 Wattersville Road) Emily Benikaze, resident/property owner (1904 South Main Street) Olivia Lewis, resident/property owner (1906 South Main Street) Kurt Voslow, property owner (extended South Main parcel) Bill Hoffman, resident/property owner (302 Wattersville Road) Bora Ransahoff, resident (South Main Street) Jim Archer, resident (1710 South Main Street) Joe Consul, resident (1708 South Main Street) Kelly Miller, representative for prospective purchasers (address 1801 South Main) Ralph Kent, Planning Commission chair John Breeding, Town staff (planning) Town Attorney (Tom), town attorney Council President (unnamed), Town Council Councilman Washbaugh, Town Council Councilman Demoter, Town Council Councilman Evans, Town Council Councilman Munger, Town Council Councilman Robbins, Town Council

Ending

The council's choice to omit the contested South Main extended parcels from the immediate ordinance and to pause the Wattersville Road parcel reflects a cautious approach after extended public comment and technical questions from staff about maps and water protections. The council and planning commission said rezoning remains possible later, but tonight's outcome keeps the most contested items off the immediate legislative track while staff completes boundary and regulatory checks.