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Planning board recommends rezoning two NC-14 parcels back to residential-agricultural
Summary
The board recommended that two parcels at 4250 and 4220 NC Highway 14 be rezoned from neighborhood commercial-conditional to residential-agricultural; staff said the change aligns with the Rockingham Vision Plan 2040 transect and the case will go to the county commission on Aug. 17.
The Rockingham County Planning Board voted July 14 to recommend approval of Zoning Map Amendment 2026-11, which would rezone two parcels at 4250 and 4220 NC Highway 14 in Wentworth Township from neighborhood commercial-conditional to residential-agricultural (RA).
Cameron Schultz, representing Generation Family Properties, said the company intends to create two roughly 15-acre single-family home lots pending percolation tests and survey work. "We are specialists in selling vacant land," Schultz said, adding that Generation Family Properties typically sells home sites to builders or individuals rather than constructing houses itself.
Neighbor Jerry Wilson, who lives directly across NC 14 from the parcels, said he and his family opposed the 2017 rezoning to commercial and asked whether the county’s corridor and economic-development objectives had changed. "When the county commissioners rezoned it, they were very vigorous in saying that that was why it was rezoned for those professional and or the smaller service type offices rather than retail space," Wilson said, describing concern that zoning could flip back and forth depending on future owners.
Staff noted the parcels sit within the county’s rural transect and that the Rockingham Vision Plan 2040 indicates the area is generally intended for RA uses; staff also flagged a small graveyard on the property to be preserved. Board members discussed consistency with the land-use plan and acknowledged the possibility a future purchaser could seek different uses, but agreed the current record and surrounding RA uses supported recommending rezoning.
A motion to recommend approval based on the consistency and reasonableness statements in the agenda packet carried with no opposition; staff confirmed the case will be presented to the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners on August 17 for a final decision and that notices will be reissued to affected parties.
Why it matters: Changing these parcels back to RA would limit higher-intensity commercial uses permitted by neighborhood commercial zoning and aligns the parcels with the county’s current land-use guidance for that transect. Neighbors expressed concern about future land-use changes if lots are sold.
