News

County reverses industrial zoning in Dana

By Bill Moss, Published: October 3, 2016

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners on Monday rezoned 53 acres from industrial back to residential, reversing a decision it made two years ago when it adopted land-use planning for the Dana community.

The rezoning request, which had been sent back to the Planning Board because of technicalities over land ownership, pitted neighbor against neighbor in the area between Ballenger and McMurray roads north of I-26.
The board rezoned the property R-1 (allowing four dwellings per acre) after a public hearing in which speakers argued both for and against the change.
Chuck Francis, manager of Coastal Agrobusiness, said plant owner J.C. Whitehurst Jr. located the business on McMurray Road because of the land-use classification.
“The main reason was because of the current industrial zoning that would protect his investment long term,” Francis said. “Agriculture is a thriving business locally and we enjoy working with our farmer customers.”

Landowner Russell Galloway, who applied for the rezoning, said many property owners never asked for the industrial zoning and didn’t even know the county had adopted it.

“When y’all rezoned all this before there was a lot of things that weren’t considered,” he said. “When you rezoned it industrial it took away our right to build anything we want on our property. It also devalued our houses because you can no longer sell them as residential, being on industrial property. If we were to sell we can only sell it as an industrial use, which if you got a nice house valued at $200,000 to $300,000, it’s not going to sell in industrial use at that price. They’re not going to pay that price.”

Galloway vowed to sue.
“If we don’t get it zoned back we’re going to take legal action because we’re going to hold Henderson County accountable,” he said. “We’re planning on taking this as far as we want to go, and I'm speaking for all the other landowners that want this rezoned. All we ask is that it be zoned back so we can have our rights. I have a daughter that wants to build a house on my land. It’s not right that she can’t build a house on this property and has to go buy land somewhere else.”

Galloway's threatened lawsuit was moot.

Tommy Thompson, the chair of the Board of Commissioners, defended the industrial rezoning, which was recommended by a committee that guided the land-use plan for the Dana-Tracy Grove community in 2014-15. The intention at the time, Thompson said, was to carve out an area of flat land near I-26 with utilities that could draw some manufacturing to the Hendersonville area. 
“There’s a constant demand for growth, there’s a constant demand for housing, there’s a demand for industrialization and it was recognized way back then that the way the land lays, the fact that things are going to have to come south, that’s why we got city water and sewer out there,” he said.
Commissioner Bill Lapsley, who was not on the Board of Commissioners when the property was zoned industrial, sided with the applicants.
“It bothers me the way our zoning ordinance is written that if a property is residential for ages and this board rezones it on our own and not at that particular landowner’s request and by doing so has now restricted that landowner from continuing to develop it and use it,” he said.
Changing the land back to residential, he said, would not preclude development for industrial use. “If that industry likes one or more of these parcels they’ll make the effort to rezone,” he said. “I think that option is going to be there.”
Commissioner Charlie Messer said it troubled him that so many homeowners had never been notified of the rezoning.
Commissioner Grady Hawkins said plenty of industrial land remains in the immediate area even if the 50 acres reverts to residential.
“I can see primarily because of the availability of water and sewer why this area would be considered very highly for industrial development,” Hawkins said. “But looking to the west, all that land is already zoned industrial" as is other land. "So there is potential for some growth in that area in the years to come… With those considerations in mind, it may be a fallacy of our small area planning that everybody didn’t get notified.”

Galloway applied initially for the rezoning back to residential in March. In June commissioners bounced the request back to the Planning Board, which recommended in favor of the rezoning. The 67 acres is owned by 14 landowners in all; commissioners voted to remove three parcels owned by the Sherman family from the request, leaving those 14 acres as industrial.