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The Greenville Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denying an attorney’s request to rezone residential property on Charles Boulevard so she can open a law office.

Commission member Max Joyner III said while the applicant, Ashley-Nicole Cannon, has nice law offices, including one on South Pitt Street, allowing a single, office/residential zoned property in a residential area would set “a bad precedent.”

Cannon is requesting that a 0.39 acre lot located at the northeastern section of Red Banks Road and Charles Boulevard, across the street from Southern Bank and Trust and diagonal from Greenville-Fire Rescue Station No. 3, be rezoned from residential, single-family low-density to office/residential high density multi-family, so Cannon can open a law office at the location.

Cannon said she believes a family home can accommodate a family law office.

“I think it is a beautiful property to become an office. I think that is the direction it is going,” Cannon said. None of her neighbors have expressed opposition, she said.

However, Collin McCord, who lives two houses down on Red Banks Road, opposed the rezoning.

Both roads have a lot of traffic, he said, and a law office will add even more.

“There are businesses around, but the majority of that block is residential,” he said.

Senior Planner Chantae Gooby recommended denying the request, saying it doesn’t meet the city’s Horizons 2026 Community Plan and Future Land Use and Character Map.

Commission member Hap Maxwell made the motion to deny the request.

“I think we’re setting a bad precedent when you chip away at a neighborhood like this,” Maxwell said. If planning and zoning allows one office to open in the neighborhood, other businesses requiring commercial zoning will move in and neighbors will feel a pressure to sell and move, he said.

Commission Chairman Kevin Faison asked how Cannon’s request is different from an individual conducting business out of a home office.

Commission member Bill West said commercial property requires parking lighting and signage, which isn’t part of a home office.

Joyner said approving office/residential zoning also opens the location to a lot of uses including an emergency shelter, a church, a rehabilitation facility and other activities.

The commission unanimously voted to deny the request. It now goes to the Greenville City Council which can agree with the commission or approve the request.

The commission approved a request to rezone 75.8 acres that a developer wants annexed into Greenville’s city limits, but not before some neighbors asked for help with traffic in the area.

The property is located south of Forlines Road near its intersection with Frog Level Road.

Gooby said the property is currently located in Pitt County’s planning jurisdiction and is zoned rural residential. The zoning would allow 100 houses to be built on the land.

The owners will ask the council in September to annex the property, so they want the city to zone the property as residential, single-family medium density, which will allow 300 homes to be built on the site. More homes are possible because of city sewer connections. If it remains unincorporated, the houses will need septic systems.

Ron Binkley, a Forlines Road resident, said he supports the rezoning request, but asked the planning and zoning commission to advocate for a three-lane road on Forlines Road.

The location is near the interchange with the Southwest Bypass and “It used to be a two-lane country road, now it is a two-lane drag strip,” he said. “It’s not going to be safe until something is done with it.”

Commission member Allan Thomas said he would like to hear from a N.C. Department of Transportation representative when the preliminary plat for the development is submitted. Thomas said he’s concerned that quadrant of the city is rapidly growing but the roadways aren’t keeping up.

Another speaker asked for assurances that the 300-home development would not create drainage problems on his property. The commissioner directed him to speak with Scott Anderson, a consultant working with the property owners.

The commission voted to recommend the rezoning of 1.4 acres located between Red Banks Road and Southeast Greenville Boulevard, about 350 feet east of Evans Street from general commercial to heavy commercial.

Gooby said the change brings the property in alignment with surrounding parcels which already are zoned for heavy commercial usage.

Contact Ginger Livingston at glivingston@reflector.com or 329-9570.

www.Reflector.com 1150 Sugg Pkwy Greenville, NC 27834 Main Phone: 252-329-9500 Customer Care Phone: 252-329-9505

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