Tempers flare during Mount Olive Town Board meeting
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 6, 2014 11:58 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Voices were raised, tempers flared, and comments teetered on the edge of becoming personal as College Heights subdivision residents called the town board on the carpet during a Dec. 1 public hearing involving a potential rezoning.
Wayne County has asked the town to rezone 45.75 acres on U.S. 117 Alt. North from Agriculture to Industry-1 (heavy industry). The property is adjacent to the College Heights subdivision.
Instead of developing the property, the county should look at developing land to the east across the Old Mount Olive Highway from the Industrial Park and maybe southward because there are fewer residential areas, the residents said.
The residents also argued that most of the buildings in the Industrial Park are empty and that the county should first concentrate on filling them.
After nearly an hour of contentious debate, residents agreed to a suggestion by Mayor Ray McDonald Sr. that they meet with Wayne County commissioners.
John Sykes, of Pineland Avenue, presented the board with a petition signed by 18 of the 28 property owners at College Heights. Some could not be contacted prior to the meeting, Sykes said.
The petition said the rezoning posed the real possibility of being "detrimental" to their quality of life as well as negatively affecting property values perhaps to the extent they would be unable to sell their property.
Gena Knode, Mount Olive Planning Board chairman, told commissioners the county came to the board in November asking that the land be rezoned. It adjoins a tract that that the county already owns that is zoned Industry-I.
"Currently, they don't have any plans for it and it was our understanding that it would continue to be farmed until such times that they do have plans for the tract of land," she said. "It seemed a rather simple request and it was unanimously approved."
"I didn't realize I was going to be running into a buzzsaw," said Mike Haney, existing industry specialist with the Wayne County Development Alliance. "But I have had a good education."
Haney said the county already owned 74 acres zoned Industry-1 and had just wanted the other 45.75 acre tract zoned the same.
"We wanted a situation where this could be an economic driver for the area of Mount Olive and also a job creator," he said. "I mentioned the 74 acres. It is already I-1. I don't think your planning board or your commission is going to do anything that is going to be harming your property.
"If you want to meet with the county commissioners or your town commissioners, then the County of Wayne will certainly abide by whatever they decide. But we were trying to do something that's positive for the area."
The residents were not appeased by McDonald's comments that no action would be taken until next month. It was then that he told them that they should be addressing their concerns to commissioners since all the town board could do is vote for or against the request.
It is the county's request and the town board cannot change that, he said.
Sykes asked Ms. Knode if she was aware that a similar rezoning request was made several years ago, but was dropped because of opposition.
She said she was not.
"Let me speak to that," McDonald said. "That statement is wrong. It was withdrawn because the industry decided not to come here. I think the industry decided not to come here because of your opposition, but the county never withdrew it."
Sykes said that the request had been brought by George Kornegay and Buddy Pope, not the county.
"That won't the way it was," McDonald said. "I was on the (Economic Development) committee. The committee met after that and the concern was the noise and the type of industry that was going there. Because of that, and it was felt by some other people that unless they put a buffer there, it would create a problem for you all.
"Now the county didn't withdraw it, but the company did. They withdrew it from even considering it so it was dropped."
Sykes told McDonald to go back and look at the minutes as a chorus of loud and angry voices joined in, saying they were there and knew what had happened.
Haney said the county did not own the property at the time of the first hearing.
"I think there is an assumption that the county ... is not going to be a good neighbor," he said. "That is not true."
Sykes said the residents disagree because when something is zoned heavy industrial "anything is liable to come in there."
Sykes asked what considerations the county had given the residents when the property was purchased.
"We are going through that process right now," Haney said. "I wish I could tell you at this particular point in time that we have an industry prepared to go in there, but we do not. We are making the preparations now for the future."
The county made a "substantial" investment in the purchase of the property for development of the Mount Olive Industrial Park, he said.
"I would think the town of Mount Olive would see that as a positive sign," Haney said.
The residents said they could see no reason for the rezoning since the county does not have a prospect for the land.
Haney said the idea is to create a "shovel-ready" site -- meaning that preliminary work, such as zoning, has been done in advance to make the property more attractive to a client.
It means that a client could come and the property would be ready for development.
But Sykes said he did not see where waiting for 30 days for rezoning would hurt.
Haney said that companies are looking for reasons to eliminate a site and not being shovel-ready could be such a reason.
McDonald said the board would make the best decision in the best interest of the taxpayers.
That prompted a swift rebuke from Sykes who said he and the others might not pay town taxes but that they worked, owned businesses in the town and supported it by shopping there.
McDonald said it was not unusual to see Mount Olive residents shopping in Goldsboro instead of with local merchants.
He also backed away from the comment about taxpayers saying the board wanted to do the best it could for everyone.