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Planning briefing set for May 20 on rezoning for Hastings Road site; planning board recommended approval 5–1
Summary
County planning staff briefed commissioners on a rezoning request (case F‑1657) to rezone 27.89 acres on Hastings Road to RM5‑S for townhomes. The planning board recommended approval 5–1; neighbors raised traffic and density concerns. A public hearing is scheduled for the May 20 meeting.
The Forsyth County Planning staff provided a first briefing on a rezoning request (case F‑1657) for 27.89 acres on the east side of Hastings Road between Interstate 74 and High Point Road. Applicants Tanya and Leslie Hardy seek a special use district rezoning from agricultural (AG) to RM5‑S to allow multifamily townhomes with a maximum density of five units per acre. The item will come back to the Board of Commissioners for a public hearing on May 20, 2025.
Planner Chris Murphy described the site as largely agricultural and within Growth Management Area 3 but inside the utilities serviceable area because of a nearby sewer manhole installed with an adjacent Weatherstone development. Murphy said the applicant’s site plan showed two public streets, two entrances onto Hastings Road and a proposed total of 138 townhomes. He said the area plan (the Southeast Forsyth County area plan update, 2014) currently shows the property as large‑lot residential, a designation driven by the historic absence of sewer; the availability of gravity sewer access changed the utilities analysis for this parcel.
Murphy summarized the Planning Board public hearing on April 10, 2025: the board voted 5–1 to recommend approval. Murphy said opposition at the planning hearing centered on traffic at the Hastings/High Point Road area, increased density and inconsistency with the adopted area plan. He further noted that existing traffic counts for Hastings Road near the site were low compared with historical peaks — staff cited a count of about 400 trips per day on Hastings Road at the count location south of I‑74, down from a high near 1,200 trips in the last 20 years — and that an ordinary traffic impact analysis (TIA) was not triggered because the Unified Development Ordinance threshold (greater than 150 peak‑hour trips) and NCDOT threshold (greater than 1,500 trips per day) were not met.
Murphy said the project does not connect to other subdivisions and that proposed turn lanes would be limited to site entrances on Hastings Road rather than at the Hastings/High Point intersection. Commissioners asked for additional information, including the exact length of Hastings Road and whether signal warrants would be triggered; Murphy said staff would supply supplemental counts and answers ahead of the May 20 public hearing.
The planning board’s 5–1 recommendation and the noted neighborhood concerns mean the rezoning will be subject to public hearing and final decision by the Board of Commissioners at the May 20 meeting.
