Planning commission recommends four rezonings; council reschedules key Rex Hospital hearing

Bynum Walter of the Planning & Development Department presented four cases the planning commission recommended for approval and suggested public hearings. The cases included Z-4625 on West Street (seeking to change allowed height from five to seven stories to legalize finishing a mezzanine at the Fairweather building); a roughly 61-acre rezoning at Blue Ridge Road and Lake Boone Trail for the Rex Hospital campus to a Campus Special District; a Litchford Road rezoning of roughly 20 acres to R-6 with conditions; and Z-1126 on Stratford Court (from R-2 to R-4), which would allow modest additional residential density.

Councilors asked planning staff for more detail on whether the Fairweather request was an isolated case or indicative of an encoding issue that could be solved by code changes rather than individual rezonings. "It's a mezzanine space, and so finishing it would count as a story, which would put them above the 5 stories," Walter explained; Councilor Lambert Melton asked staff to investigate whether the zoning code needs revision to avoid one-off rezoning expenses for property owners.

The applicant for the Rex campus requested a June 16 public hearing to keep the project on a faster schedule; the council approved moving that case to June 16 and agreed to group annexations and rezonings in a 1 p.m. slot on July 7 to help manage hearing workload.

Planning staff said each recommendation is consistent with the comprehensive plan and future land-use map and that the planning commission recommended approval for all four items. The council did not vote on or adopt any rezoning ordinances at this meeting; these items will return for public hearings and votes on the scheduled dates.