Planning board backs rezoning at 703 West McKinley to allow three single-family lots

The Mebane City Planning Board on April 13 voted 5-0 to recommend rezoning approximately 0.69 acres at 703 West McKinley Street from R-20 to R-8, a change staff said would allow the site to be developed as three single-family lots consistent with an early 20th-century plat. The board’s recommendation will be forwarded to City Council for a May hearing.

Planning staff explained that the parcel had originally been three 50-by-200-foot lots; the current request was presented as one tax parcel that the applicant seeks to reconfigure back to the original platted lots. Staff said utilities are available and that the existing structure is uninhabitable and under an active condemnation case. “This site is classified in the Mebane 2045 comprehensive plan as suburban neighborhood, which as mentioned in the previous presentation, does support single-family home development,” a planning staff member said.

Applicant Jenny Witt of Witt Real Estate Investments told the board she is local and that the purchase contract is signed though the sale has not closed. When a resident asked whether the project would result in single-family houses or larger apartment-style buildings, staff responded that the rezoning request is a general rezoning and that all allowable uses must be considered; however, on a lot of this size “significant multifamily would not be permitted” under the ordinance. The planner added a duplex could be allowed, but substantial multifamily development would be limited by density rules.

A resident recalled an earlier proposal years ago that had sought multiunit housing at this site; the planner said the current application would most likely result in three single-family homes but noted that a future owner could file for different allowable uses if they met the ordinance requirements. The planning staff also clarified that the rezoning action does not itself create a three-lot subdivision; subdivision review would be administrative and handled by staff if and when a subdivision plat is submitted.

Committee member moved to approve the rezoning and to find the application consistent with the comprehensive plan; the board voted 5-0. The board chair said the recommendation will be placed on the City Council agenda for its May meeting.