ROCKINGHAM — Earlier this month, the Richmond County Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning request for a parcel on Airport Road.
The request, according to Planning Director Tracy Parris, came from Everett Industrial Development for the property southeast of Hatcher Road to be changed from rural residential to heavy industrial.
Parris said the property is across the road from the company’s current fabrication shop, and next to the county’s box site for household waste disposal. She later noted that the shop probably should have already been rezoned to heavy industrial.
The staff analysis included in the agenda packet notes that the property is situated within a mixed-use corridor that is “characterized by a combination of residential, commercial, and industrial development…”
Jim Henry, of Superior Cranes, told commissioners that the company is expanding and plans to construct a new building to help with storage.
Forty-one adjacent property owners were sent notices ahead of the public hearing, according to Parris.
Prior to the hearing, Parris reminded commissioners that the full range of uses permitted under heavy industrial should be considered, as well as other reasonableness factors.
The Planning Board reviewed the proposed map amendment on April 21, found it consistent with the county’s Strategic Land Use Plan, and recommended that the matter go before the commissioners for approval.
Following the rezoning, commissioners made the following appointments to the Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment:
Commissioners also approved interlocal agreements — with Dobbins Heights, Ellerbe, Hamlet, Hoffman and Norman — as well as a resolution for the county to provide building inspection services at no cost for building permits issued in those municipalities.
