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The Richmond County Board of Commissioners meet virtually to vote on the rezoning of 129 tracts of land near the high school Thursday morning. Commissioners Tavares Bostic, Toni Maples and Rick Watkins joined the meeting via WebEx, and Commissioner Andy Grooms was listening in over the phone but could not communicate with the other members for an unknown reason, except with Chairman Jeff Smart via text to state his vote.
Commissioners unanimously support change
ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the rezoning of 160 acres of land near Richmond Senior High School from County Residential to Rural Residential thus allowing mobile homes to be built there. This corrects a consequence of the City of Rockingham relinquishing control of this area at the start of 2020.
This land, which includes 129 parcels and between 40 and 50 which meet the minimum requirements to build on, is now able to be used for 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 under the new zoning designation.
Board held a public hearing on the rezoning on Tuesday, at which point there had been no opposition to the proposed change. The county sent 214 letters to people in the area who would be affected by the rezoning who had a chance to respond between Jan. 15 and Feb. 3, 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.
There was one new comment opposing the rezoning received by the Thursday vote which was read aloud to the commissioners, but the commissioners approved it without further discussion. The letter was written by someone who lived adjacent to the area being considered for rezoning. This individual expressed concern that by allowing this rezoning, the commissioners would create the potential for the property values to be reduced by the presence of new manufactured homes and that someone could exploit a loophole in the zoning requirements and fit multiple homes in close proximity, though Planning Director Tracy Parrish disputed the latter point.
“Other housing options will be less desirable to investors as more manufactured homes are added to the area. Manufactured homes are less expensive than site built and modular homes and decrease in value like a vehicle,” read the letter. “Manufactured homes are not always structurally sound since structural inspections are not required and this may cause a neg impact on future home values. The zoning requirement in the packet includes minimum lot size but doesn’t prevent them being put in close proximity.”
Parrish said she had a long conversation with the writer of the letter and said she explained to them that only one use of land is allowed per tract.
This rezoning was triggered by Terkingness Covington requesting that the Planning Board consider rezoning her two-acre tract on Ellen Road in November to allow her to put in a new manufactured home. She couldn’t because the land had been automatically zoned County Residential when the City of Rockingham gave up control, and this zoning barred mobile homes.
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.
