Land up for commercial rezoning

Developers want to make a patch of residential real estate in Gastonia more enticing to potential commercial users.
The land being considered for rezoning involves 6.2 acres behind Tindol Ford and Gastonia Nissan. It’s familiar to motorists who use Glenwood Drive and Dunham Road as a cut-through between East Franklin Boulevard and the Gardner Park and Montclair subdivisions.
More than 10 wooded lots that front Glenwood Drive there are now zoned residential. But local developer Bob Clay and the owner of the land, the Edith Powell Trust, want it changed to “general commercial.”
The Gastonia Planning Commission will consider the request during a 5:30 p.m. meeting Thursday at City Hall.
Gastonia Senior Planner Jason Thompson said there are no proposed uses tied to the requested change.
“It’s just a general rezoning,” he said.
Clay agreed they have no budding ideas for putting the land to use. But the rezoning would clarify where its future lies.
Land that the car dealerships and other tenants along Franklin Boulevard lease from the Powell Trust is already zoned general commercial. It’s unlikely anyone would ever decide to build homes so close to those businesses on the north side of Glenwood Drive, Clay said.
Currently, the zoning changes from commercial to residential along an obscure line south of Maplewood Drive.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Clay said. “We think Glenwood is the natural dividing line there.”
The Powell trust also owns land south of Glenwood Drive that will continue to serve as a buffer between homes, he said.
A new road that connects Franklin Boulevard with Target and Gaston Mall has energized that stretch of Franklin, Clay said. Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened recently. Hobby Lobby is building a new location in the same stretch.
Clay said the rezoning would make it easier to market the land off Glenwood to potential commercial tenants.
“We could offer it as a commercial property that’s ready on the market, versus someone coming in on the condition of it being rezoned,” he said.
You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.