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The Belmont Banner and Mount Holly News welcome your community announcements. Feel free to email them to us at editor@mybannernews.com.
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Resident concerned over possible future rezoning
By THOMAS LARK
- Thu, Sep 25, 2008
MOUNT HOLLY—Darren Honeycutt loves his town’s history but is concerned about its future.
The 43-year-old Mount Holly native says that he’s worried about the potential effects of possible rezoning for his historic North Alexander Street neighborhood. Honeycutt’s own house is more than 100 years old. He said there are other homes nearby that date back as far as the 1870s.
“Mrs. Ethel Kilpatrick used to talk to me about the great flood of 1916,” he said of his late next-door neighbor. “Dutchman’s Creek overflowed and was up in people’s backyards. I remember her stories about the old days so vividly.”
Honeycutt said he still cherishes fond childhood memories of the old Sno-Cap Ice Cream, a little restaurant on East Charlotte Avenue (US 74), run by Flora Alexander Gaddy and her daughter, Betty Jean Gaddy, both now gone.
“This is one of the most historic neighborhoods in Mount Holly,” he said.
But the history of the neighborhood may some day be in danger, according to Honeycutt, as, he said, plans are afoot to rezone the area from residential to business, from US 74 to North Alexander’s intersection with Elm Street—a distance of one block. This zoning originally stopped at Kilpatrick’s house, now the home of William and Millie Brown.
“I’m worried about boarded-up houses,” he said, walking down his street and pointing out such sites along US 74.
Three houses on US 74 have recently been purchased by developers, said Honeycutt. Stooping to pick up bits of litter, he also noted junk cars blighting the landscape.
“That really gets my goat,” he observed. “This always used to be such a nice street. But too many of the new folks coming into Mount Holly don’t know its history and don’t care about it.”
Honeycutt’s backyard is a green and cool arboreal haven for birds and squirrels. A table or two is joined by chairs and lanterns.
“It’s peaceful here most of the time,” he remarked. “That’s why I like it here.”
But change is inevitable. Honeycutt said Caromont Health has plans to replace the derelict Creative Dyeing plant with a 24-hour medical emergency clinic.
“I’m concerned about what could come in,” he said. “(Mount Holly City Councilman) Perry Toomey says this part of the city is valuable—not residentially but commercially.”
Honeycutt emphasized that he liked Toomey, but he disagrees with him on this one particular issue.
“Why change it?” said Honeycutt. “This is residential.”
In a Friday interview, Toomey said there were no plans set to affect the neighborhood in the immediate future. However, some day in the far-off future, it could be a different story.
“I do agree with the current moratorium (on development) for our corridors on NC 273 and NC 27,” he said. “In the future, we want the gateway corridors to come up to certain standards. And to do that, we’ve got to set our zoning ordinance.”
Toomey confirmed the pending new Caromont site, adding that he was happy about it.
“That’s correct,” he said. “It’s going to be a very nice facility, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s planned as being about 20,000 square feet in size. It will even have a heliport as well.”
Toomey said Caromont recently applied for the necessary permits to demolish the old Creative Dyeing site.
Gaston Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Jean Waters says that a timetable for construction of the full-service emergency facility isn’t known yet. Waters said that Caromont has applied for a certificate of need, and the regulatory process does take some time.
As for Honeycutt’s neighborhood, Toomey added, the city’s plans “could affect him in the future. The city would like to reserve that area for future development, probably involving that entire tract of land at some time. But anybody that owns property over there right now would be grandfathered in.
“Now, if a developer comes in, they would have to comply with codes,” he continued. “But this would not involve the homeowners there unless they sold their property. And we’re thinking the land there will become so valuable, they’ll want to sell it. So, eventually, yes, this will probably come. But it may not be in my lifetime.”
Mayor Robert Whitt said he shared Toomey’s assessment.
“Mount Holly is going to change,” said Whitt. “It is inevitable. And as an elected official, I would hope that we could protect our citizens to have that change be a good one, not only for the citizens it directly affects but also for the entire town.”
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