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Votes at a glance: Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, April 24, 2025
Summary
Summary of formal actions taken at the April 24 meeting including rezoning, bond approvals, economic-development incentives, grant pass-throughs and administrative items. All items below were acted on by the Board at the meeting.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners took the following votes and formal actions during its April 24, 2025 regular meeting. Motions listed show the formal action text or a neutral summary when full motion text was lengthy; vote counts and key details are included where recorded in the meeting transcript.
1) Rezoning: F-16-55 (Kramer property, Everett Road) - Action: Approved a zoning map amendment F-16-55 to rezone 5.55 acres from RS-9 to GBS (general business, special use) to allow storage services and related retail uses. - Motion details: Motion found the rezoning consistent with the Legacy comprehensive plan and reasonable in the public interest, citing neighboring GBS zoning and site plan features. - Second: Vice Chair Wisenhunt. - Vote: Motion carried unanimously (recorded as unanimous in transcript).
2) Novant Health tax-exempt bonds (host hearing and in principle approval) - Action: Held the required public hearing and approved, in principle, the issuance of tax-exempt revenue and refunding bonds for the benefit of Novant Health, not to exceed $855,000,000. County staff and bond counsel noted this is a procedural federal-tax-code approval; bonds are not county debt. - Mover/Second: Motion made and seconded; vote recorded as unanimous.
3) Economic-development incentives and agreements - Polyblees (company name in transcript variants: Polyfiles/Polyblees/Polyblaze): The board approved a county incentive package as requested by staff to support a proposed $31,000,000 capital investment in Winston-Salem, with 28 new jobs reported and an incentive cap of $291,183 over five years (county portion; city also approved a package). Vote: unanimous. - GMAX Industries, Inc.: The board approved an incentive package to support a proposed $15,000,000 investment and 42 new jobs; county incentive not to exceed $143,165 over a five-year term. Vote: unanimous.
4) Zoning and economic-development: F-16-58 (Front Street Wahlberg LLC) - See separate article above. Action/Outcome: Approved zoning, site plan and CETA allocation for a 420,000-square-foot industrial building. Vote: unanimous.
5) Smith Reynolds Airport capital project amendment - Action: Approved an amendment to the FY2018 Smith Reynolds Airport Capital Projects Ordinance moving $165,700 from a landfill redevelopment project to a control-tower rehabilitation project. Vote: unanimous.
6) Building reuse grant: Frank L. Bloom Construction Company - Action: Approved amendment to a Department of Commerce building reuse grant agreement and reappropriation to extend the grant to 08/18/2025; county acts as pass-through fiscal agent. Vote: unanimous.
7) Grass America refund and budget amendment - Action: Accepted reimbursement of $139,130 from Grass America Inc. for a portion of building reuse funds and passed $121,739 through to the North Carolina Department of Commerce; variance of $17,391 refunded to Grass America per job-count calculation. Motion to amend FY25 budget ordinance to record refund and pass-through: approved unanimously.
8) Lease and contract approvals - Approved a $65,000 contract with BWNA Books Inc. to publish the county architectural history manuscript. Vote: unanimous. - Approved a three-year lease with Gas ETs LLC (operating as Softgolf) for county property in Tanglewood Park, with $5,250 annual rent and 15% of gross sales above $60,000; liquor-liability clause removed for this tenant. Vote: unanimous.
9) Tax refunds and financial reports - Approved tax-assessor refunds of $19,903.35 (item 17) and $24,323.18 (item 18). Vote: unanimous. - Accepted the March 2025 financial report. Vote: unanimous.
10) Health plan design changes / stop-loss - Action: Authorized changes to the county stop-loss, health plan design and coverage tiers for FY2026 with an effective date of 07/01/2025 to address projected losses. Commissioners discussed this as a cost-management measure; motion carried unanimously.
11) Historic Preservation and Public Health proclamations - The board adopted a resolution recognizing May 2025 as Historic Preservation Month and April 2025 as Public Health Month; both proclamations were approved unanimously and presentations were made by the Historic Resources Commission and Forsyth County Public Health staff. Public Health staff announced expanded MMR vaccination clinic hours and walk-ins planned to improve community access.
12) Other administrative items - Approved minutes, juvenile-justice fund revisions, and several routine budget and grant pass-throughs; carried by unanimous votes where recorded.
Why this matters: The meeting combined routine administrative business with major land-use and economic-development approvals. The Walkertown rezoning denial (F-16-56) highlighted neighborhood-safety and access tradeoffs in housing decisions; the industrial and incentive approvals reflect county efforts to attract jobs and private investment.
Sources: Forsyth County Board of Commissioners meeting transcript, April 24, 2025; staff presentations (Planning and Development Services, Economic Development, County Attorney/bond counsel).
