GRIFTON — An effort to build a second Dollar General store failed with a 3-1 vote by the Board of Commissioners earlier this month, an action that had been tabled after a raucous public hearing in March.
The board’s vote denied a request by Glandon Forest Equity LLC to rezone just over two acres of land on N.C. 18 near the town’s baseball park from residential to highway commercial. It followed a recommendation of the town’s planning board made earlier this year.
A public hearing on the matter last month ended after a supporter of the rezoning criticized statements from Mayor Billy Ray Jackson that he said were critical to the developers’ efforts. Jackson had the man escorted from the meeting.
Chris Cox on behalf of Glandon Forest Equity said the action was unwarranted and demanded that the board table the discussion. Cox returned on April 9 in an effort to convince the board that it was not its place to decide how to develop the property but only to decide its zoning. He was accompanied by his client’s commercial real estate attorney, Worth Mills of Longleaf Law Partners out of Raleigh.
“As you notice on section G, it says consideration to rezone the Pitt County Parcel #11069, being 2.08 acres owned by Loede Brooks Harper, Cynthia Lee Harper, and Drew S. Harper located on N.C. Highway 118 from R-10 Residential to B-1 Highway Commercial,” said Cox. “Nowhere in that statement does it say anything about a Dollar General store.”
Then Cox repeated Mayor Billy Ray Jackson’s quotes from the approved minutes from the March 12 meeting when Mayor Jackson said, “This public hearing is to hear why we should have the Dollar General, and to hear why we shouldn’t have a Dollar General.”
“We’re not rezoning this property just for a Dollar General store, we didn’t ask for a Dollar General, we asked for B-1 zoning which allows many uses,” said Cox. The only reason you even know it’s a Dollar General is because we were transparent about what we were doing.”
Cox asked if their vote would be different if the Harpers came before the board wanting to start a landscaping business, or if someone from the ballpark wanted to start a small business like a batting cage or sell sporting equipment because it would have to be rezoned B-1.
“All we’re asking for is fairness, and the way it was handled wasn’t fair, so before you vote tonight, this is for a B-1 zone, not a Dollar General,” said Cox. “It’s about the use, not the user.”
Attorney Mills reiterated to the board what Cox said and added that he personally thinks it’s a good thing if people have more options for places to shop and get goods, and that competition leads to better outcomes for consumers.
Mills said that the discussion, the analysis, and the considerations that the board should take need to be based on the totality of the B-1 zoning district that they’re requesting.
“If a decision is made solely off the record from last month and without any conversations about the land use impacts of the B-1 commercial district here, then that is going to be an arbitrary and capricious zoning decision,” said Mills. “And North Carolina courts will invalidate an arbitrary and capricious zoning decision.”
Although speakers should not expect any comments, action or deliberation from the board on any issue raised during the public comment period, Commissioner Claude Kennedy asked Mayor Jackson if he could address Mr. Cox, and it was allowed.
“I think this all started with the planning board because of Dollar General, it was not because we were going to rezone, but you brought the fact up about it being a Dollar General,” Commissioner Kennedy said to Cox. “The public heard on the street and on Facebook that a Dollar General was proposed out by the Little League field, so that’s where all this started because you were, as you said, very transparent, and I appreciate that, and I think the board appreciates that, but that’s where the rub has come in I think.”
Mayor Jackson said in the beginning, when they first mentioned Dollar General, that set the pace.
“It looks as if to me, owing to the fact that we were notified that there was going to be a Dollar General put there, what that has done is placed us between the devil and the deep blue sea,” said Jackson. “If we don’t make the right decision tonight, it sounds as if tonight this board will be in trouble.”
Commissioners Kennedy, Raymond Oakes and Angela Gay voted against the rezoning and Commissioner William Barnes voted in favor. Commissioner Jesse Daigneault, who was not present for the vote, said that she would have opposed as well.
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