Insights & Information

Land rezoning goes to aldermen

View of land from above Madison Place Apartments on Masten Drive looking toward bulk of 92 acres

View from above Madison Place Apartments off Masten Drive showing part of the 92.87 acres.

The Kernersville Planning Board has voted 9-0 to recommend rezoning of 92.87 acres Triad plans to purchase behind its current campus on South Main Street.

The Oct. 13 decision, with Vice Chairman Phyllis Mendel recusing herself because she lives at 675 Inland Dr. near the property, means the request now goes before the Kernersville Board of Aldermen for a vote on Nov. 4.

Triad wants to rezone the land from business and residential (HB-S, RS-12 & RS-20) to institutional and public special use (IP-S) so it can build athletic fields, parking and access road, and concessions on about 15 acres, or 16.3 percent of the land.

The church’s site plan for the first phase of development shows baseball, softball and a combination soccer, track and field and football field, plus a practice area, concessions, parking and access drive.

In addition to Planning Board Chairman Jim Waddell and board member Ronnie Roberts, who made the motion for approval of Triad’s rezoning request, board members Margaret Burks, Janice Carroll, James Fradenburg, Ed Green, Steve Hutchins, Bronda Martin and Tom McDaniel voted for Triad’s proposal.

Roberts’s motion also removed or altered several conditions Kernersville’s planning staff had recommended.That included allowing Triad more flexibility in deciding if it needs to build a pedestrian bridge or tunnel if the town extends Whicker Road through the church’s property as part of its Thoroughfare Plan, or if the access drive needs to be relocated as part of an extension of Masten Drive.

Because of the land’s special-use zoning classification, Triad would also need to present site plans and get town approval for all future development on the land.

Left intact was a town requirement to add a vehicle turnaround and locked gate for emergency vehicles at Hill-N-Dale Drive. Kernersville Planning Director Jeff Hatling told Planning Board members that streets that aren’t continued need such a turn-around.Also remaining: a condition requiring Triad to build a sidewalk along the access drive to the fields and between the fields and all related facilities.

Justin Wood of 8030 Hill-N-Dale Drive told Planning Board members that he supported the church’s rezoning but that the Wyndfall Homeowners Association agreed with the church and opposed building the turnaround and any connection between the property and Hill-N-Dale.

Also speaking for the rezoning was Lead Pastor Robert Decker from Triad who said the athletic fields would continue the church’s sports ministries in the town.

Speaking as a nearby resident, Mendel expressed concern about noise from the new fields.

At a Sept. 2 meeting with Wyndfall residents at Triad, Dwight Moore, the director of Triad's New Building Team, Aden Stoltzfus, a New Building Team member, and Steve Coley, chiairperson of Triad’s Executive Leadership Team, outlined the ways the church would try to reduce noise and lighting glare.

In addition to the natural border that exists between the neighborhood and property, Stoltzfus said that the church’s site plan adds another border of trees and other plantings between the property and the Wyndfall subdivision, moves the fields as far away from the neighborhood as the land’s features allowed, and uses lighting designed to cut down on glare.

Stoltzfus and Moore added that the speakers of the field’s sound system would be directed away from the neighborhood while security cameras would help safeguard against vandalism and also monitor access.

All vehicle access to the property will be made from the end of Whicker Road but the church is considering a walking/golf cart access path to the field’s from the church’s lower parking lot.

The land Triad is seeking to rezone is in Kernersville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction but outside the city limits. The church's current campus already is part of the town. Under an agreement with Kernersville, Hatling said that the Forsyth County Sheriff Department and Beeson Volunteer Fire Department currently are first responders to any emergencies at the site.

If the aldermen approve the rezoning on Nov. 4, Kernersville will require the church to submit a voluntary request for annexation of the land before requesting a building permit, beginning any construction, or recording the first plat of land.

Phase 2 Shot of TBC B&W 17

Join us Sunday at

9:00am Traditional Worship
10:30am Contemporary Worship