Wayne Planning Board OKs comprehensive land use plan
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on June 13, 2007 1:45 PM
The Wayne County comprehensive land use plan was a document the county Planning Board had been hearing about for more than a year, but it only took a few minutes of discussion Tuesday night for the members to give it their stamp of approval.
"It's a good plan," planning board chairman Wayne Aycock said, summing up the rest of the board's feelings.
The group did not alter any of the changes made by the citizen steering committee after the plan was vetted by county residents during the community forum in the Wayne Center in early May.
The comprehensive plan will now go to the county commissioners for their approval.
Once adopted, explained consultant Glenn Harbeck of Glenn Harbeck Associates in Wilmington, the plan will be used by both the planning board and the commissioners to help make future decisions about growth in Wayne County.
"This is designed for month-to-month use," he said. "The actions can be revised and changed, but the policies need to stand the test of time. They are intended to be used to guide your decisions."
And while those policies don't have to be followed to the letter every time -- they are not ordinances -- county attorney Borden Parker explained that according to state statute, once one of these documents is in place, the county is required to explain how its decisions fit or don't fit into the plan.
During the discussion, the only area that concerned the planning board was the section on intergovernmental cooperation and how that might be handled when the county's wants and needs differ from those of the various municipalities. But when that happens, Parker said, all the county can worry about is itself.
"I just hope the county, the city and the other municipalities can look at this plan and encourage each other along, because it is a good plan," board member Steve Keen added.
The planning board also voted unanimously to recommend that the county commissioners approve the rezoning of a section of property owned by Case Farms at its Pecan Road processing plant operation.
Previously that area had been split between Wayne County's and Goldsboro's zoning jurisdictions, but the city recently released its portion to the county for zoning.
Following county Planning Director Connie Price's recommendation, the lot's new zoning is split between heavy industry and airport industry.
The area rezoned airport industry is the part of the property within Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's accident potential zone one. It is a much more restrictive zoning than heavy industry.
Case Farms, which will add four processing lines for a total of five, is expected to create about 500 new jobs, said plant manager Brandon Dillard. Construction will likely begin in January 2008, he continued, and will take anywhere from six to 12 months.
The board's other decisions also were unanimous.
It voted to recommend that the county Board of Adjustment approve the special use permit for American Legion Post 11's proposed recreational vehicle campground on its property around Legion Lake on the east side of U.S. 117 South.
The board stipulated, though, that the organization come up with a written set of rules, have no more than six temporary sites, limit stays to no more than two weeks at a time and possibly find some way to buffer the campground from the highway.
The board also recommended that the board of adjustment approve the special use permit for Ricky Young's expansion of his Young's Auto Salvage on U.S. 117 alternate, south of the county fairgrounds. The only stipulation there was that Young wrap his existing chainlink fence in the proposed opaque green fabric and maintain the necessary shrubbery to hide the yard from the road.
Public hearings on both permits will be held by the board of adjustment -- now made up of the county commissioners -- at 10 a.m., Tuesday, July 10.