Commissioners to vote on rezoning 160 acres Thursday

ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners will accept comments from the public before voting Thursday morning on whether to rezone a 160 acres near the high school to Rural Residential following a request by someone seeking to put a manufactured home in the area.

The county assumed control over this area — which includes Patterson Road, Ellen Road, Hummingbird Drive, Brewington Avenue, Charann Lane and Hawkins Lane, among others off of U.S. 1 just west of the high school — on Jan. 1, 2020 when the City of Rockingham reduced their extra-territorial jurisdiction. Doing this caused these properties to be zoned County Residential, which prohibits manufactured homes, duplexes and triplexes within its borders, even though the area already contained similar properties.

Anyone interested in commenting on the rezoning or asking questions can email County Clerk Dena Cook at [email protected]. Comments and questions will be accepted until Feb. 3 by email or in writing and dropped off at the Richmond County Administrative Building’s drive-thru window located at 1401 Fayetteville Rd. in Rockingham.

The board will meet remotely at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021 to deliberate on the rezoning and vote. For more information call Planning and Zoning at 910-417-4904.

Terkingness Covington requested the Planning Board consider rezoning her two-acre tract on Ellen Road in November to put in a new manufactured home but couldn’t because of this consequence of the land changing from city to county control. County staff and the Planning Board realized that multiple properties were affected by this and so decided to propose the rezoning themselves in order to avoid “spot rezoning” of just Covington’s property and correct the issue for the affected properties, according to documents provided by the county.

The Planning Board unanimously recommended the rezoning to Rural Residential zoning designation after finding that it was consistent with the land use plans because it “creates an environment which allow for a wide range of appropriate housing opportunities, encouraging cluster development patterns as set forth in the land use plan.”

The uses allowed for properties zoned Rural Residential include the following: site built and modular homes, manufactured homes, duplexes and triplexes, apartments and condominiums, campgrounds and RV parks, manufactured home parks, family care homes, bed and breakfast inns, kennels, open air markets, scrap materials, salvage yards and junkyards, churches and a landfill.

There would be 129 parcels affected if this 160-acre area were to be rezoned to Rural Residential. Between 40 and 50 parcels meet the minimum lot size requirements to build on, which Planning Director Tracy Parrish said is a “pretty big amount.”

The county sent 214 letters to people in the area who would be affected by the change, and none of them opposed. Two letters were returned in support, and others only asked questions about the process. One of the letters in support came from a real estate agent, Paulette Wall, who lives in the area, which is known as the Philadelphia community.

“As a member of the community and a licensed real estate agent this rezoning could allow the citizens to improve the overall appearance of the community,” Wall wrote.