Montgomery: MLK
Burger King still
planning to rebuild
Photo by Todd Luck
Plans to rezone and rebuild this Burger King on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive are delayed as its owner!operator Carrots LLC is attempting to buy the property.
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
The City Council delayed
rezoning items for the Burger
King on Martin Luther King Jr.
Drive and a controversial cell
phone tower during its Monday,
Nov. 6, meeting.
The rezoning for the Burger
King involved changing its des
ignation from being a part of the
Martin Luther King Overlay dis
trict (HB MLKO) to just a
Highway Business (HB) desig
nation to allow for the franchisee
to rebuild the restaurant without
the restrictions the overlay puts
on new construction, such as
moving it closer to the road.
Recently, that Burger King
has closed and its sign has been
removed. East Ward City
Council Member Derwin
Montgomery, who is one of the
Chronicle’s owners, said that the
Carrols LLC, which owns and
operates the location, had already
Montgomery
planned to temporarily shut
down the location this month and
begin construction, but its effort
has been delayed as it’s still try
ing to acquire the property from
Burger King.
Carrols, which purchased the
Burger King locations in the
local market, told Montgomery
that it permanently closed down
a few locations because the com
pany was “balancing out their
portfolio,” but is committed to
that location and staying in the
MLK corridor.
Castro
“They have committed them
selves to being in the communi
ty,” said Montgomery.
The rezoning was resched
uled for the council’s Jan. 2
meeting.
Most of Monday’s meeting
was taken up with zoning to
place a 150 foot T-Mobile cell
tower on the property of Twin
City Bible Church. The “slick
stick” pole would have no visible
attachments. It would be located
away from streets, but would be
visible in the surrounding area.
Michael Berkowitz, a real estate
appraiser, spoke for the petitioner
saying that he did not believe it
would negatively impact proper
ty values in the nearby Ardmore
neighborhood, which has
approximately 5,000 homes.
The Ardmore Neighborhood
Association disagreed. Its board
voted unanimously against the
tower and several Ardmore resi
dents spoke in opposition.
Ardmore Association President
Daniel Castro said the tower was
“inappropriate, ill-suited” for the
“residential nature of our neigh
borhood.”
“I’ve heard more complaints
from my neighbors about this
project than about any other issue
that’s come before us during my
time as president,” he said.
Normally, when a community
stands in opposition to a zoning
issue, the City Council will vote
it down. But by state law, cell
phone towers receive quasi judi
cial hearings, where the council
hears sworn testimony and can
only base their vote on findings
of fact.
“We’re required to make a
decision on the law as it stands,
not as we wish it to be,” said
Southwest Ward City Council
Member Dan Besse.
Besse repeatedly asked
Assistant City Attorney Jerry
Kontos about ways he could rule
against the tower. He said he was
struggling with conflicting testi
mony between residents who
believe it would negatively
impact their property value and
the petitioners’ claim that it
won’t.
After lengthy testimony and a
rare closed-door meeting with
city legal counsel in mid-meet
ing, the City Council delayed the
vote until its Dec. 18 meeting,
when they plan to question more
witnesses on the tower’s impact
on adjoining property.
County seeks voting machine extension from General Assembly
D I 1UUU LU^
THE CHRONICLE
Forsyth County Board
of Elections is hoping the
General Assembly will
give counties an extension
on getting new voting
machines.
Currently the county is
under a state deadline to
switch to a paper-based
ballot system by next year.
The county had planned to
replace its current touch
screen voting machines
used for early voting with
new machines that will
produce paper ballots.
Plans to test the
machines and have them
ready by 2018, were side
lined by a legal battle over
proposed changes to the
makeup of election boards
in the state. As North
Carolina awaits a ruling,
the State BOE’s term
expired and the board is
currently vacant. Without a
state board, there is no one
to certify new voting
machines for use in the
state, so Forsyth can’t get
new machines and its cur
rent ones will no longer be
certified after year’s end.
We face the challenge
of this looming deadline,”
Forsyth BOE Director Tim
Tsujii told county commis
sioners at a briefing last
week,
This would result in
Forsyth voters using paper
ballots for early voting in
next year’s primary and
Forsyth BOE renting
machines for visually
impaired voters. The prob
lem is that last year there
were 80 ballot styles and
each early voting site
would have 1000s of each
to accommodate any voter
from any precinct that
might go there. Tsujii said
this would result in print
ing 200 percent of the
amount of ballots equal to
the registered voters in the
county.
“We’d have to print out
an extraordinary amount of
paper ballots,” said Tsujii.
Tsujii said this could
result in long lines and
confusion during early vot
ing.
There are eight other
counties facing the same
deadline because tney rely
on paper ballots on
Election Day. Counties that
don’t use paper ballots for
voting face a deadline of
September 2019. Tsujii
said that he met with repre
sentatives of the North
Carolina Association of
County Commissioners
(NCACC) and State BOE
staff, and they discussed
potential state legislation
that would give Forsyth
and those other eight coun
ties the September 2019
deadline for new
mat'iuu&s. liiv ivgioiauvii
would be drafted by State
BOE staff and the NCACC
will advocate for it.
County commissioners
voiced support for the
effort. Commissioner
Gloria Whisenhunt said
that the commissioners
should send letters to coun
ty lawmakers and the
NCACC in support of the
effort.
“Hopefully this will be
a no brainer,” said
Commissioner Don
Martin.
Corrections
The Chronicle apologizes for an error made in the Nov. 2 edition of The Chronicle in the Page A1
cutline with the article with the headline “Obamacare is still alive." The name of the protester pic
tured, Yasuko Railings, was misspelled in the photo's cutline.
The Chronicle regrets any misunderstanding that may have resulted from this error. The Editor
The Chronicle apologizes for an error made on Nov. 2 in the newspaper. The story, on page A1, had
the headline “Federal court: Special master to redraw GOP maps." the story should have said
Phillip Strach, the attorney representing Republican legislative leaders told the court Monday in a
motion that they oppose the appointment of special master Professor Nathaniel Persjly of Stanford
University in California.
The Chronicle regrets any misunderstanding that may have resulted from this error. The Editor
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