News

City to look at commercial zoning on Kanuga at State-Erkwood

By Bill Moss, Published: January 3, 2019

The Hendersonville City Council on Thursday night sent to the Planning Board a rezoning request that could lead to higher intensity development at the intersection of Kanuga Road and Erkwood Drive.

Landowner Marilyn Gordon submitted a request to rezone a 2-acre parcel on the northwest corner of the intersection from Medium Intensity Neighborhood to High Intensity Neighborhood. When planners reviewed the application, they decided to seek the council's input on whether to move forward with that rezoning request or to expand the request to cover an additional 14 acres of land zoned residential and agricultural.

Gordon's son, Ken Gordon, said after the family requested C-2 commercial zoning for the property, city planners decided that the land-use designation — the broader guidelines for development — would need to change to high intensity neighborhood.

The 2-acre parcel has a home on it but the Kanuga Road widening would take the home's septic tank, Gordon said. The family hopes that it can get the property zoned and then tie on to city sewer and have more options for use of the land.

"I have no immediate plans for it," Marilyn Gordon told the council Thursday night. "The topography of the land is such that although there are residential uses the land is below the residential uses and can be buffered very significantly from residential uses."

Planners recommended that the city study a larger area in order to avoid spot zoning — or rezoning one parcel while leaving others around it in a different zone. The property now is zoned residential. Council members asked City Attorney Sam Fritschner to explain spot zoning. He said it's possible adjoining landowners could sue if the city zoned one parcel and left others residential.

“The bigger it is the weaker the spot zoning argument is,” he said.

Councilman Jerry Smith said the city will most likely find out if neighbors dislike the change when the broader request goes to the Planning Board. The city will post a rezoning sign on the property with a big Z and notify adjoining landowners of the application.

“For spot zoning, there has to be somebody upset with it and there might not be anybody upset with it,” Smith said.

Besides the property owned by Gordon, the expanded request would add lots fronting on State Street and Kanuga Road, a 3.5 acre parcel that is used for farming and the Johnson Family Farm produce stand on Erkwood Drive and another 6.8 acres across Erkwood Drive that's also leased for farming.