Halpern, an Atlanta-based developer, is asking the Greensboro Zoning Commission for a 60-day continuance in its application to rezone a 6.7 acre area from a residential one to retail at Friendly Avenue and Hobbs Road.
It's the latest step in an ongoing controversy on what to do with that land, located near Greensboro's most successful shopping center. Many residents have protested the development.
“The great fear is that if they allow these homes to be rezoned, that one day they will go and ask to rezone that church property and they will ask to rezone the residential area across from Holden Road, so where does this all stop?” says Mark Sutter, editor of the Triad Business Journal.
This is the third developer in nearly three years that has proposed building on the site.
“This is such an attractive piece of land that the developers are likely to keep coming back and trying to pass something through there until some alternate use is made of it,” says Sutter. “However, the question is what is allowable there? What is something that everyone can live with? Some residents say a mixed-use site would be better, maybe condos in the development, but not retail only.”
The Triad Business Journal is a media partner with 88.5 WFDD.
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