Valdese council unanimously rejects rezoning for proposed apartment complex after resident outcry

 

It was a rare occurrence at the Valdese Town Council meeting, if recent history is any judge.

But not before Councilman Glenn Harvey peppered a speaker with questions, repeatedly asking for a “Yes” or “No” answer. The speaker appeared to hedge. Glenn persisted.

Perhaps nothing unusual so far.

And not before a crowd of concerned residents strained seating capacity in the council chamber and spoke one after another from the podium, all but one taking a unified stance on the matter. Applause greeted each speaker.

Nothing new here, either. The council had seen it before, most recently with discussions and decisions on the town swimming pool cover and sidewalk renovation projects. Those events usually ended in a split council vote that went against the grain of the speakers.

After nearly an hour and a dozen speakers on Monday, it appeared that Harvey had all the information he needed. And this is where the council pattern took a turn. With his voice booming over the PA system, Harvey made a crystal-clear motion to deny recommended rezoning of a 15.8-acre tract off of Griffith Ave. NW from manufacturing to a class of residential development that would allow construction of 48 apartments, “housing for the working class within the region,” according to the rezoning application.

The rezoning application had previously been reviewed and unanimously approved by Valdese’s Planning Committee/Board of Adjustment.

The motion eventually was seconded and unanimously approved by the council.

And therein lies the rare occurrence: Harvey siding with all of the protesting speakers, echoing their sentiments, urging the council to listen to residents, making a motion on a controversial topic and garnering unanimous agreement.

At issue is a project titled Centennial Trace, proposed by High Point, N.C.-based developer MC Morgan & Associates. The property is located at 0 Griffith Ave. NW, close to the Old Rock School, and owned by Haynes Hens Farms, Inc.

The proposed complex would consist of two, three-story apartment buildings with 48 units of one-, two-, and three-bedroom options, according to Ashley Young, acting Valdese Planner contracted through the Western Piedmont Council of Governments.

Residents would access the complex from Dixie Avenue NW.

Young made the presentation at the council meeting Monday night.

After Young’s presentation the council got an earful Monday night (comments slightly edited for brevity):

Tracey Wakefield: “Dixie is not set up for that extra traffic. It would be a complete nightmare to have all of the traffic going through, not to mention those of us that reside in the neighborhood, children, having that many cars going back and forth and back and forth. These roads do not have lines going down the center of them.

Without having additional police presence, and you know, I really just appreciate your due diligence, and ask that you please consider, please consider all the options that are available, and please take what we have to say to heart.”

Gina Walker: “There is a plethora of studies that will show that low-income housing brings crime. It also shows that property values decrease. … We’ve seen the low-income housing down at the end of Church Street. If you can tell me 10 things good that have come out of that. If you can tell me that there has not been drug overdoses, increased traffic, and everything else … If you can say that there is something that has brought value besides just apartments, then please do. But otherwise, low income coming to Valdese does nothing to boost properties. It does nothing to bring higher-end manufacturing, higher-end businesses, because those people can’t afford to shop at these things.

“We have a town full of thrift stores, and the area that we have for manufacturing, we’re going to take up with apartments? Bring diversity in our businesses and in manufacturing and have people that are going to be able to work at these manufacturers that can afford the diverse housing of $175,000 that would be great. … Unless you have a budget to pay for increased policing, keep (the low-income housing) the heck out of here and keep our streets safe. You can’t even keep the water clean for God’s sake. How are you going to handle supplying it to another development?”

Blinda Icard: “I can speak from experience of living near low-income home housing. … Please (go) over there and look at all the neighbors who have had to put a privacy fence in to try to keep people off of their property. I was at my house last Friday … and there were people in my yard stealing stuff out of my yard. I had to call the police. … Low-income housing is not the answer.”

Rose Meuller: “I do want to know if the town council has ever gone to see this site. Does anybody who makes these huge decisions for the people of Valdese ever look at what is coming down the pipe? We’re not newbies. We love our town, and it’s time to be serious about dealing with the people who pay the taxes, who pay your bills, who pay your salaries. It’s time to start listening to the people inside this town, because that’s where your base of money comes from. And I think it’s really time to start hearing, listening.”

Jennifer Hudson: “I understand the value of housing and the need for housing in our county and in our town. When you think about that, you have to be strategic about what kind of housing that is. We are headed into some really scary territory here, and I understand when you see the beautiful buildings and the modern looks that you can get very starry-eyed by that, and it looks great, and it sounds awesome, but we have a serious imbalance that will take place if we continue to allow this lower or income-based housing.

“I just want to remind you, as you are thinking about this, that the decisions that you make on this, and I know this is just the rezoning of the property and it’s not the whether this is going to go or not, but the decision that you make on this literally lays the groundwork and back out what our town is going to look like in the future. We’re going to end up with a large concentration of this lower-income housing.”

After a few more speakers, and with the motion to deny the Planning Board’s rezoning recommendation on the table, Councilwoman Heather Ward spoke.

“I want to see us go as hard after the industries as we are the housing,” she said. “It’s the only way that we can take some of the burden off of our citizens, again, where industry used to pay a good deal of our utility, as far as water goes, our electricity, our taxes went. … Let’s get some industry back in Valdese and make Valdese proud of ourselves again in manufacturing or whatever comes up.”

One minute later Valdese Mayor Charlie Watts called for the vote, which passed unanimously, drawing appreciative applause from the audience.

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