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September 19, 2006
HPU's expansion plans...
... hit a bump last night at City Council. Only part of it was approved. (The story doesn't appear to have made the online edition, so I'll paste it below the jump).
High Point city reporter Kory Dodd reported that at one point in the meeting the university made a veiled threat to take its new school of education to its Winston-Salem campus if the northern portion went unapproved, which it did but only for a few weeks until council revisits it. The university said its Winston-Salem property is already properly zoned.
I thought the threat was interesting. Of course it'd be easy to move forward with plans on property that's already zoned correctly. But taking a major program to a satellite campus seems like it would either disconnect a significant chunk of the student body from the university or put a number of students on the road between the two campuses.
It's also interesting that in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission the university said those northern lots would be used for parking lots, but now it's talking about putting that school of education there.
By Kory Dodd
Staff Writer
HIGH POINT — Expansion plans for High Point University might have been complicated Monday when the City Council approved only a portion of the school’s rezoning request.
The council looked at listing the rest of the site as “pending.” Officials were unsure whether they could split the zoning request in two, so members decided not to act on this part until the council’s Oct. 2 meeting, when City Attorney Fred Baggett could be present.
The legally questionable move stems from the university’s plans to rezone from residential to public institution 8.2 acres — or 24 lots — across the street from its main campus.
The council voted 8-1 to approve rezoning the 20 lots north of North Avenue and to consolidate three conditional-use permits it already holds in the area. As part of the vote, the council withheld its decision on the university’s request to rezone four lots above North Avenue.
The majority of the council wanted to mark the request “pending” for up to one year but is waiting to make sure the action is legal.
Twenty of the lots lie south of North Avenue between Fifth Street and West College Drive beside areas already owned and properly zoned for the university’s use. The university plans to use them for a communications school and a school of commerce.
But the remaining four lots, which lie above North Avenue just below Fifth Court, are more controversial.
The university only owns about 30 percent of the blocks on which these lots lie. According to the city’s land-use plan amendment, which designated the university’s western boundary, if the school wants to change the zoning within a block it must own or control at least 50 percent of the properties on the block.
High Point University plans to use the three northern lots across from the university on West College Drive for its new education school.
The lone lot on North Avenue, between Fifth Court and West College Drive, is next to property owned by the university. It is scheduled to first be a parking lot and eventually be used for student housing.
Donald A. Scarborough, the university’s vice president of administration, said the school would have bought the property around the area where the education school is planned but one of the homeowners is asking an exorbitant price. He said the education school must be built on three lots so it can be near the graduate school.
Scarborough said several of the university’s donors are lobbying the school’s board of trustees to move the education school to its Winston-Salem campus, where the land has the proper zoning designation.
Scarborough said he would prefer to stay in High Point, but may be forced to change the university’s plans if the council doesn’t approve the complete zoning change.
Clarence Ilderton, of 907 West College Drive, said he is the homeowner asking for the so-called exorbitant price.
He said he has lived there for 70 years with his wife and would prefer not to move, but doesn’t want to live right next to the school.
“They’ve got plenty of room around here,” Ilderton said. “They’ve got more room then they know what to do with. They could put it somewhere else.”
Reciting the 50 percent rule, Ilderton argued the council “can’t treat them any different then you can individual citizens. And all these people around here are individual citizens.”
Mayor Pro Tem Bernita Sims said the university was doing the right thing by approaching Ilderton to buy his property. She thought it should continue to talk to the other neighbors on the block.
“But we have a guideline and a policy we’ve adapted,” Sims said. “It’s troublesome to me that depending on who comes to the table with a request determines who gets it.”
She said just because the university wants something doesn’t meant the council should ignore its own policy.
Mayor Becky Smothers was the lone vote against the council’s decision to approve only a portion of the zoning request.
Contact Kory Dodd at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or kdodd@news-record.com
Posted by Jonathan Jones at September 19, 2006 1:50 PM
