History of the Parcel

Map by Lauren Frame from the Gaston Gazette, December 16, 2014

On December 16, 2014, Gastonia City Council Members Walter Kimble, Dave Kirlin and Porter McAteer voted against accepting a donation of land around the current parcel. According to the next day's Gaston Gazette, when the City voted 4-3 to accept the Lineberger family’s donation of 27 wooded acres - a 200-300 foot buffer around the western, southern and eastern ends of the tract now the subject of a rezoning request - the City prevented contiguous landowners in Gardner Park from filing a protest petition challenging the rezoning.  "Such a petition makes it harder for a zoning measure to pass, because it requires a supermajority of City Council support." 

Harold and Joe Lineberger are pictured, at lower center and lower right, with UNC-CH officials in 1984. Courtesy North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives

In the - perhaps understated - words of the December 2014 gift over to the City, the parcel now being considered for rezoning has "an extensive history of potential development."  This rezoning case is not one of neighbors resisting commercial development in knee-jerk "NIMBY" fashion. Instead, it is the latest round in a half-century conversation about how to do growth in the area for the benefit of all.  Since 1939 the A. C. Lineberger estate has owned the parcel as part of originally over 400 wooded acres - some of which became the three-phase Franklin Square commercial development between Franklin Boulevard and Interstate 85, and another 300 acres lies north of Interstate 85 due north of Franklin Square and is currently zoned for industrial development.  That latter parcel is the source of much study on how its development might affect an already crowded corridor. The Lineberger family itself is one of the founding families of the textile industry in Gaston County, starting its first mill in 1835 and at one time owning twenty mills in the county.  They have an impressive history of philanthropy and helped found the Lineberger Cancer Research Center at UNC-CH in 1984.

Larger Lineberger tract north of I-85 and Franklin Square, courtesy Google Maps

The family lands south of Franklin Boulevard have always been problematic to develop, both because they were largely floodplain and also because they were sensitively placed next to thriving residential neighborhoods. Our current Mayor, in lobbying as a realtor unsuccessfully to get approval for all 400 plus Lineberger acres to be developed by the Diran Corporation in 1974, told city leaders then, among other things, that "the highest and best use of the property was for business, which therefore creates more jobs and more revenue for our City."

Letter from a young pre-Mayor John Bridgeman advocating commercialization of this parcel.

But not long after that, owner Joe Lineberger toured the southside parcel in question with a group of neighbors and agreed that the area south of Franklin ought not to be developed but be kept as some sort of natural preserve.  In fact, neighbor Earl Holt reports that Lineberger offered to gift over to the City the entire forty-acre parcel south of Franklin if the city would rezone the area north for commercial use.  The City Attorney rejected that gift as being an illegal "contract zoning."

Stormwater drains under Franklin Boulevard from Franklin Square and onto the periphery of the southside parcel.

In 1988 part of Lineberger lands north of Franklin were finally rezoned for commercial use and became the first phase of Franklin Square. That development proceeded with little design concerns for pedestrians (no sidewalks along Franklin Boulevard), nor for environmental impact.  Storm drainage from Franklin Square simply was routed under Franklin Boulevard and dumped on to the southside parcel floodplain opposite.  Coupled with a change in city ordinances which allowed for the infill of existing floodplains, this marked the beginning of twenty-five years of infill and alteration of the natural drainage basin of the creek upstream from the southside Franklin property [City signs label this "Duhart Creek", but the official USGS place name is actually Duharts Creek].  That has added to the floodplain pressures that the entire southside parcel endures as both the runoff basin from Franklin Square as well as the natural overflow area for the confluence of a now more swiftly moving, more channeled, Duharts and several adjoining tributary creeks at the parcel.  Extra commerce has led to attendant other stresses on the parcel, including the effects of traffic on reduced air and water quality.

1991 proposal for mixed business and multifamily development

In 1988 the Linebergers, NCDOT, Franklin Square Properties, and the City agreed that any development of family lands on the south side of Franklin would call for additional right-of-way dedication and construction of a third "through lane" on Franklin Boulevard going east.  In 1991, there was a request to rezone the southside property from single family residential to B-2C (Highway Business) and R-gC (Multifamily) conditional use districts. This request was denied by the Planning Commission and withdrawn before the City Council vote.  In its April 4, 1991 recommendation the Planning Department staff said that although the property was no longer suitable for single family use, given the major shopping center across the street, it was not a suitable location for any commercial development: 

...adjoining the property to the south is an established neighborhood, Gardner Park, and homes located south to the Duhart Creek flood plain.  The existing trees and ground cover help shield the neighborhood from the effects of commercial development along Franklin Boulevard and aid in reducing flooding conditions near their properties.  Disturbing the area immediately adjacent to the floodplain would create additional water runoff and reduce the number of trees, undergrowth and pervious surfaces.

The staff recommended that multifamily use alone might be an acceptable option if stormwater detention ponds were required for a 100-year event rather than the then-mandated 10-year event.

1991 proposal multifamily section sketch

In 1997, the Linebergers' requested a CP/CUD (Planned Commercial) conditional use district.  Neighbors organized and asked for modifications to the plan in a series of meetings with family representatives and city officials, but the CUD was ultimately voted down by the City Council.   The CUD would have required an amendment to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Plan to recommend office and institutional uses approved through a conditional use process that, though it had to address floodplain protection and some other negative environmental impacts, was deemed insufficient.  The portion of the 2010 Plan that called for the development of a community greenway on the southside of the parcel remained unaffected.

2002 proposal for commercial development

In 2002 the family submitted a proposal for a commercial shopping strip.  Planning staff noted that the important issues for the subject property had remained the same since the l99l zoning
hearing:

The subject area currently exists as the only land separating the Gardner Park/Gardner Woods neighborhood from one of the region's most highly active retail centers and the traffic on Franklin Boulevard. Historically, City policy has viewed this area as both transitional and environmentally sensitive. The property owner must be allowed to make reasonable use of the developable portions of the property where it will in no way result in any increase in flooding along any portion of Duhart Creek. Reasonable use (not be confused with highest and best use) means being allowed to achieve reasonable economic return for one's property.  A transitional area should be limited to uses which will not create environmental problems for adjoining residential areas.

Staff's recommendation in 2002 was for a plan amendment that, instead of the shopping strip proposed, would allow a mixed use development containing offices, a limited amount of small shops, and possibly attached housing mixed in as either second story housing or live-work units. "Compared to a strictly commercial development, such use creates less overall traffic, provides variation in peak travel times, can require less impervious surfaces, creates a sense of place, and generates much less activity during evenings and weekends." Staff noted that residential and office uses generate fewer trips per day than retail land uses, and require fewer parking spaces per square foot of development than commercial uses. They also noted that extensive tall evergreen buffering should be placed along the back edge of any development, separating the development from the floodplain/conservation area.  The 2002 commercial submission was not approved.

2006 approved land use plan for senior apartments on the parcel, with minimized disturbance

In 2006, after developers and neighbors worked together, the subject property was changed to a Conditional Use Rezoning. Special conditions of the rezoning included allowing the development of senior residential units, no disturbance of the floodplain area, preservation of a portion of the existing wooded areas, sidewalk installation and extensive tree plantings along Franklin Boulevard and the rear property line, special lighting and signage and outside operational restraints, and dedication to the City of a specific area surrounding the proposed development (28.75 acres at the time of the CUR).  Development of the property then hinged on funding from a federal program offering assistance for the construction of senior housing, and the project was not built when that funding was not forthcoming.