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April 25, 2006

Houses, houses everywhere

The High Point Planning and Zoning Commission gave its stamp of approval to that 228-home, 87-acre subdivision tonight. I'll link to the story in the morning.

Something that was interesting to me was that there's already a subdivision on a piece of the property, only it was never built. It exists on paper and includes three roads that run along the edge of the new development. The city's policy has generally been to force developers to either improve road such as those, which exist primarily on paper, or close the rights of way.

Shugart Management was concerned about that request because for two of the three roads it would mean improving a road that the city's transportation department admits doesn't make much sense anymore. But the developer can't close the road because they only own half of the right of way. With the third road, Shugart plans to use it as part of a new connection to Skeet Club across from St. John's.

Jo Williams, who lives on one of the only lots in the old subdivision to be developed, wasn't happy about the discussion. The land was in her husband's family and she said the family had given the lots out as inheritance. Several of the family members sold their property to Shugart, but not all of them did. She was also worried about retaining access to a couple of the lots that she plans to give to her children. Planners said no access could be taken away.

The commission also recommended approval of the Wesleyan Arms zoning, the 122 N. Hamilton zoning and the Ed Kemp Associates zoning at Seward and N. Main. That last one is so EKA can move its offices to a new building.

Posted by Jonathan Jones at April 25, 2006 9:24 PM