Planning Board offers advice to property owners
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 10, 2010 1:46 PM
Members of the Wayne County Planning Board Tuesday night offered advice to a local man as to how he could legally bypass county subdivision regulations in order to meet a deadline to qualify for a housing tax credit.
However, the board could not take any formal action since it lacked enough members for a quorum. Three members of the board, Mike Aycock, Chris Cox and Charlie Holloway, listened to two people who had items on the agenda.
County Planner Connie Price announced at the 7 p.m. scheduled start that the meeting would not be held. He said that board member David Quick was attending a Census meeting and that Steve Keen was out of town. The two other members, Chairman Jo Ann Summerlin and Hattie Frederick, were unable to attend because of family issues, Price said.
The Planning Board will not meet again until April 13.
Board members told the few people in attendance that while there could be no official action taken, they would be allowed to speak if they wanted to.
That is when Dwight Perry said that he hoped the board would act quickly on his request for a subdivision plat that would allow him to subdivide property for his daughter and son-in-law.
Perry said that the house to go on the lot had to be purchased by April 1 in order to be eligible for a federal tax credit.
The lot is located on Combs Road near the southern end of the county airport. At its February meeting, the Planning Board split 5-1 to defer action until the Airport Authority could study and comment on the proposal. Aycock voted against the delay.
The Airport Authority recommended against approval.
"No rules have been broken," Perry said. "I was there before the airport was."
Cox told Perry that even if the Planning Board had been able to act on the request that night that it would be April 6 before it would go before county commissioners, who have canceled their March 16 meeting. Commissioners have final say-so on plats.
As such, it would still be too late to qualify for the tax credit, Cox said.
Cox and Aycock questioned Perry about the size of his property. Perry said the total size was somewhat more than 10 acres.
Board members told Perry that if he deeded the entire 10 acres to his daughter and son-in-law that he would not need county approval. State law exempts lots of 10 acres or more from subdivision ordinances.
Perry wanted to know if he could deed the property and then at a later date have a portion of it deeded back to him
Price told Perry that he would then face the same issues that he is faced with now.
Perry thanked the board and said he would deed the 10 acres.
The board also heard from Kevin Wilson concerning a rezoning request.
Wilson and his wife operate a business that does holiday decorating. It is currently located on U.S. 117 at Forest Circle. Wilson wants to move the business to an old store building at 225 Genoa Road, just east of the county fairgrounds. He has requested that the property be rezoned from light industry to village district to allow for retail sales. Wilson was told that the Planning Board makes recommendations on zoning, but that commissioners first must hold a public hearing before making a decision.
Since the property is near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base the request was submitted to base officials for review. Cox read a letter from them, saying they had no objections to the plan. Also, Wilson said he has been talking to residents near the property to make them aware of his plans.