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August 23, 2006
High Point U. expansion gets a partial OK
The Planning and Zoning Commission didn't quite agree last night with High Point University's request to expand its campus into the neighborhood west of campus.
The commission was primarily concerned with the northernmost of four blocks into which the university wants to expand. The university owns less than 50 percent of the lots in that block. In the other three it owns more than 50 percent of the property in the block.
George Holbrook made a motion to approve the university's request and it died for a lack of a second. For a few minutes it looked like that would be the end of it -- effectively killing HPU's plans for now. But then the commissioners -- led by James White -- came up with a compromise in which they recommended the council approve the request but remove the northern block properties. The vote was 5-1, with Holbrook in dissent, because he thought the full request should be approved.
The story in today's paper didn't make the Web site, so you can read it below the jump here.
HIGH POINT - Clarence Ilderton is an unlikely opponent of High Point University's expansion plans.
The 79-year-old has lived across the street from the u niversity nearly all his life. He moved there when he was 2 and even got his education from the college, and when he married his wife, Wanda, herself a High Point graduate, they moved into the family home together.
Ilderton said he doesn't mind the growth but is worried about what westward expansion will do to the property owners there.
"We want to see them expand and grow as much as we can without hurting the individuals," Ilderton said during a public hearing Tuesday night.
The High Point Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the university's plan be approved but without four lots north of North Avenue. Under the university's plan, those properties - including three next to Ilderton's - were to become parking lots.
The university had sought to zone 24 properties in parts of four blocks west of campus for institutional use.
What the planning commission recommended left out the northernmost block because it is the only one in which the university owns less than 50 percent of the properties.
"We know that growth is sometimes painful," High Point University's dean of students, Gart Evans, said during the hearing. "We've always tried to be good neighbors."
Evans said the properties in the other three blocks would be used for new schools of commerce and communication.
All of the properties the university requested zoning for are adjacent or across the street from the existing campus. HPU owns additional lots in the neighborhood that were not part of the request.
During the 1½-hour hearing, several residents of nearby neighborhoods spoke against the plan.
What the planning commission approved was a compromise after the university's full expansion plan failed. The compromise allowed the zoning case to go forward to City Council, which will have a public hearing on the proposal at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 18.
Contact Jonathan Jones at 883-4422, Ext. 228, or jjones@news-record.com
Posted by Jonathan Jones at August 23, 2006 3:44 PM
