The Kings Mountain Herald
September 27, 2007
West Mountain residents protest possible rezoning
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
The quiet, beautiful houses
that line Mountain Street have
been stirring with rumors of a
big chain moving into their
neighborhood.
A major chain pharmacy is
purportedly looking at purchas-
ing property at the end block
where Mountain and King
streets meet Phifer Road. The
alleged plans are for the front of
the store to face King Street, with
the rear of the building backing
Mountain Street. Land surveys
are being conducted, perhaps in
preparation for a rezoning
request to make sure all of the
properties, including a day care
center, two houses on King Street
and two on Mountain Street, will
be rezoned for general business.
The two houses facing King
Street are unoccupied and are
currently for sale. The two hous-
es on W. Mountain Street are cur-
rently owned and occupied. The
purchase of the properties is still
pending.
But it has been said that repre-
sentatives of the major pharmacy
have visited Mountain Street res-
idents to “test the waters” for
their arrival. Some citizens are
up in arms over the news.
Greg Martin, of West
Mountain Street, said that he
actually likes this specific drug
store chain the best of all of the
other chains. “I'm not opposed to
the store itself,” he said. But he
has pictured the store where it
wants to locate and adds, “I just
think it would look awful.”
Martin's sentiments are shared
by Allan Propst, co-owner of
Mountain Street Pharmacy. “It’s
not so much the competition
we're concerned about as the
change to the landscape,” Propst
said. “The biggest concern I
would have, personally, is it
would severely change the west-
ern end of Mountain Street.”
“One by one we are losing
Mountain Street and the small
feel of our town,” Martin said.
Both Martin and Propst suggest-
ed that the major chain drug
store look at building where the
old Winn-Dixie stands, just 100
yards away. “Why build in a res-
idential area when you can build
100 yards away in a commercial
area,” Martin said.
The Kings Mountain Historic
Landmark Commission is
attempting to have Mountain
Street registered a historic dis-
trict, in an effort to preserve the
semi-residential street. Several
houses line the street, many with
the charm and elegance of days
gone by. But similar to its parallel
neighbor, King Street, planted in
between some of the houses are
doctors’ offices, a bank, an ele-
mentary school, a church and a
neighborhood pharmacy. The
only difference may be that
Mountain Street still has many of
its houses and has yet to experi-
ence King’s explosive growth.
According to a zoning map of the
city, West Mountain Street is
zoned mostly residential, where-
as King Street is zoned mostly for
business.
City Planning Director Steve
Killian said that the property in
question is currently zoned as
Residential R-8. For a drug store
to move onto the property it
would either need to be zoned
General Business, Office, or
Central Business, he said. ;
A public hearing was held on
Tuesday night for another unre-
lated rezoning request by Mark
Beach on property located in the
400 block of W. Mountain Street,
between Cansler and Tracy
streets. Beach requested that the
property be rezoned from
Residential RS-8 to General
Business. Killian said that he
doesn’t know any of the plans
Beach has for the property. “It
could be any one of general busi-
ness uses,” he added. The rezon-
ing request “is not tied to any set
of plans or uses.”
If passed, the rezoning would
reflect another possible commer-
cial change to the neighborhood.
A petition protesting the rezon-
ing was signed by two nearby
residents. A few other communi-
ty members spoke against the
change at the Planning and
Zoning Board's recent meeting.
With four independently
owned pharmacies and two
chains serving the community,
some people have said that they
have enough drug stores to
choose from.
Church Street residents support ‘start’ in protecting property
ELIZABETH
Herald Correspondent
Church Street residents turned
out at City Hall Tuesday night to
support their rezoning request
they called “a start” in protecting
properties on Grace and Church
Streets north of their intersec-
tions with Linwood Road.
Council unanimously approved
the rezoning.
During a public hearing Denise
Miller, spokesman for the group,
said rezoning to Residential RS-
6 and RS-8 would help preserve
the community as a residential
single-family neighborhood
STEWART
Elders Jim
Smith and Scott
Crawford of
Family Worship
Center in KM
hand out treats
to children at
the Cathedral of
Praise Church
of God in
Lusaka, Zambia.
Smith and
Crawford were
part of a 10 day
missions trip to
Zambia along
with their
Pastor, Roger
Woodard, and
fellow Elder Jeff
Vernon.
rather than a community of
multi-family dwellings. “We care
about our community,” she said.
Chief of Police Melvin Proctor
also supported the rezoning as a
“positive move,” noting that in
2006 the police responded to 76
calls for service and in 2007 that
number jumped to 196 in the
area from various problems with
tenants and landlords. “This is a
step in the right direction,” he
told council.
In another zoning matter,
developer Mark Beach, in a letter
to city council, withdrew his
application for rezoning of a 30
foot strip between Mountain and
King Streets to allow modifica-
tions and addition of more infor-
mation at a later date.
A protest petition was present-
ed by property owners of the
area within 100 feet of Beach
property.
Since the Planning Board split
7-2 on the rezoning of the prop-
erty, action by the city council
would have required six votes in
favor from the seven member
city council.
Planning Director Steve Killian
said that Beach owns property
already zoned General Business
on King Street and the Planning
Board in its consideration of the
request looked at the city’s land
development plan and the
degree of intrusion into the resi-
dential area of Mountain Street
and the promise of the developer
to not have a driveway or busi-
ness uses ever on the remainder
of his lot that faces Mountain
Street and remaining R-10.
Killian said the land develop-
ment plan supports commercial
use on the entire lot that fronts
Mountain Street. He said that the
perception of area property own-
ers was that residentially zoned
property would remain residen-
tially zoned in order to protect
the Gold Street and Mountain
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Street neighborhoods. He said
Beach was addressing neighbor-
hood complaints.
Additionally, after public hear-
ing, Council amended the
Industrial Incentive Program
Grant for Parker Hannifin
Corporation for $36,000 annually
over a five year period beginning
as early as Feb. 2008 if their pro-
jected investment on Canterbury
Road becomes fully taxable and
taxes verified as paid.
After a public hearing, Council
applied for a Community
Development Block Grant for
funds to construct a 12 inch
See Property, Page 8
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