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| Current zoning map (the parcel is within the blue at center) |
1. The most effective way to be heard on this matter is to show up, stand up, speak up, and be counted as one of many who are opposed to the rezoning in front of the decision-makers who will be ruling on it. Emails, calls, and letters are helpful - but absent an overflow crowd on decision night saying "no, thanks!", other voices can prevail. Please attend these two meetings in person: on March 3, 2016, at 5:30pm, when the Gastonia Planning Commission meets in the Public Forum Room, Gaston County Court House, 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Way (formerly known as 325 N. Marietta Street), in Gastonia; and on April 19, 2016, at 6:00pm, when the Gastonia City Council meets in the same Public Forum Room, Gaston County Court House, 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Way, in Gastonia.
2. If you live in the Gardner Park, Gardner Woods, New Hope Acres or Sedgefield neighborhoods - or if you are just a friend of our cause - attend the monthly Neighborhood Information Meetings until this issue is resolved. The location and time of the next meeting will be listed here when set. [Next meeting: Thursday, April 14, 7-8pm, at Covenant Baptist Church, 3131 Erskine Drive, Gastonia.] Even for neighbors not living within sight of this development or near the creeks affected by it, there is a need for solidarity in limiting intrusions into our neighborhoods that affect the quality of life of us all. Today it's this issue; but tomorrow it may be the opening-up of Pamela Street to Franklin Boulevard or linking Gardner Park Drive to the east, the handling of traffic and safety issues on heavily-traveled Armstrong Park and Redbud, or school and construction issues on our area periphery. Sharing concerns and strategies for working together makes us more effective in being heard by decision-makers. [12.01.15 - At the Nov.17, 2015 City Council meeting, Council Member Brenda Craig accused us of spreading misinformation about closing Pamela. While City Manager Munn acknowledged that early maps for Pamela once had the road linked to Franklin Boulevard, he said that Pamela was a City street and not a state one and could not be opened without City Council approval, and there were no plans for that. My point in making and standing by the above statement is that despite the current council's proclamations that they have no plans to open Pamela - a statement the above line does not assert, by the way - is that if City Council can attempt to unilaterally declare this parcel scheduled for development through a quid pro quo land swap, despite 40 years of Planning Department advice saying no to commercial development there, then neighbors will have been served notice that preserving the neighborhoods from commercial intrusion and traffic noise is not the priority it once was.]
3. If you live in the neighborhoods or are a friend of the cause presented in this blog, we can use your help to pay the costs of an attorney to present our case before official decision-makers. This helps us with legal arguments to back up other factual, visceral and emotional ones about the site's future. At our neighborhood meetings we may decide if investing other monies in other strategies to share our opinions is also merited.
4. Share with friends through social media, or volunteer your time to distribute flyers about the rezoning in your neighborhood.
5. Do state directly your opposition to this commercial development to those who will be making the call on its future - either at the public meetings, or directly by post, email, or a phone call. Note that Planning Commission members have to report any personal contacts on an issue before their board, and you are encouraged to instead contact Planning Division staff with concerns before their meeting. In a January 19, 2015 editorial in The Gaston Gazette, Mayor Bridgeman says he wants Gastonia to become a “growth city” with "projects already in the works – conversion of the Loray Mill into business and residential space on the city’s west side, construction of a new Harris-Teeter grocery on the east side" and "looking ahead, the mayor cites a new YMCA, a new baseball stadium and development across from Franklin Square as signs that would show Gastonia is growing [emphasis added]." Please remind our leaders that not all locations are suited for commercial growth.
City of Gastonia Planning Department
Garland Municipal Business Center
150 S. York Street, Gastonia, NC 28052
(P.O. Box 1748, Gastonia, NC 28053-1748)
704.854.6652 (office)
704.869.1960 (fax)
Planning Director Jason Thompson, AICP
704.854.6629
Land Use & Zoning Administrator Drew Pearson, CZO, CFM
704.866.6746
Gastonia Planning Commissioners
Jerry Fleeman [Ward 1], Bob Cinq-Mars [Ward 2], Jim Stewart [Ward 3], Pamela D. Goode, Vice-Chairman [Ward 4], Rodney Armstrong [Ward 5], Bob Biggerstaff [Ward 6], Alec Long [At Large No. 1], Mark Epstein [At Large No. 2]
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| City of Gastonia Ward Maps |
Gastonia City Council
Robert Kellogg, Ward 1
City Office: 704.866.6720
Home: 704.953.8529
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 1652 Lowell Bethesda Road, M
Gastonia, NC 28056
Dave Kirlin, Ward 2
City Office: 704.866.6720
Home: 704.866.8700
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 2600 Thomas Trail
Gastonia, NC 28054
James Gallagher, Ward 3
City Office: 704.866.6720
Home: 704.854.9747
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 1340 Bucknell Avenue
Gastonia, NC 28054
Todd Pierceall, Ward 4
City Office: 704.866.6720
Contact Number: 980.329.6294
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 1320 West Davidson Avenue
Gastonia, NC 28052
Porter McAteer, Ward 5
City Office: 704.866.6720
Home: 704.865.3065
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 405 West Sixth Avenue
Gastonia NC 28052-4033
David Humphries, Ward 6
City Office: 704.866.6720
Home: 704.862.8239
Fax: 704.854.6607
Address: 1611 Belmar Drive
Gastonia, NC 28052
John Bridgeman, Mayor
City Office: 704.866.6720
Phone: 704.865.0302
Address: 2510 Armstrong Circle
Gastonia, NC 28054
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