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The Clemmons Village Council unanimously recommended denial of a rezoning proposal in Monday night’s meeting being considered by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners that would permit chemical manufacturing and possible impacts to the nearby Peppertree neighborhood.

Mayor Mike Rogers said in a statement that the village of Clemmons concurred with the City-County planning staff’s denial of rezoning docket F-1651.

“This is based on the City-County planning staff’s analysis where they have recommended denial, and the village agrees with their concerns and reasonings as outlined in their staff report analysis,” Rogers said. “The request is to introduce General Industrial zoning to the area with the proximity of the Peppertree neighborhood to high intensity use, and the lack of evidence to put in place safeguards to prevent potential off-site impacts.

“By adding a Manufacturing C definition which includes that ‘noise, odor, dust, vibration, or visual impacts, as well as potential public health problems in the event of an accident, which would impact adjacent properties.’ ”

The property in question is at 6220 Clementine Drive, which is located near the intersection of Idols Road and Hampton Road in an industrial park and has been used as a warehouse — with the resolution stating the specific uses of chemical manufacturing and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing for the proposed project are high intensity.

The resolution further stated: “Whereas, light industrial uses are encouraged by the Clemmons future land use plan for employment areas and are already allowed in the subject site’s existing Light Industrial district, adding Manufacturing C to allow for chemical manufacturing bring the possibility of additional public health impacts not currently accounted for and that the General Industrial-Special development in this area will hurt Clemmons residents and businesses if this high-intensity request were approved to develop adjacent to the village limits.”

The resolution concluded by stating that village and county officials were elected by their citizens for a reason — to protect and preserve the quality of life that they have come to enjoy, and village officials must express their denial of F-1651 to help ensure the protection of public health and safety of Forsyth County and nearby Clemmons residents.

Planner Caroline Drake made a brief presentation in Monday night’s meeting, saying the village was notified by the City-County planning staff in September that they received this request to rezone from what is currently Light Industrial and that the site is looking to add the use Manufacturing C, which is only allowed in General Industrial zoning districts.

Drake said that the case was heard at the November City-County Planning Board meeting, and that the staff’s recommendation was denial. However, after the public hearing and board discussion, Drake said that “it was kind of split. They were expressing concern about receiving new information, but what happened was they passed a motion that recommended approval with the added condition of taking away the code for the nonmetallic mineral processing and still allowing chemical manufacturing but down to a kind of miscellaneous catch-all category.”

Council member Michelle Barson then questioned if this was going to be contract zoning, saying: “This is exactly the conversation we had with them many years ago where they said we absolutely cannot do that. We are streamlining all of our zoning and that would be contract zoning to make something specific to meet the needs of one business.”

Rogers later stated that he wanted to confirm with Drake that the village was indeed agreeing with the City-County planning staff on recommending denial, which she did, before the final council vote to send the resolution to the commissioners.

The Forsyth County commissioners will have a public hearing during their meeting on Thursday, Dec. 19, on the rezoning.

In other business from Monday night’s meeting, the council approved a contract with Architecture Design Associates PLLC in the amount of $49,750 for the design and oversight for the Village Point Lake Drive facility on Lot 6.

The building calls for 1,665 square feet on each floor with a grade-level porch and upper-level deck. After providing renderings at a September meeting, Bobby Patterson returned to present some minor changes in October.

The new facility, which is the first step in developing 12.42 acres of land acquired from Novant Health adjacent to the Village Point Greenway and Fishing Pier for $2,235,600 in March after the village was awarded $4.8 million in funding in September 2023 from the House Bill 259 Appropriations Act, will include two office spaces for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office deputies, two office spaces for village use, a break area for the deputies, a shared conference room, toilet spaces for the offices, an outdoor storage space and toilets for the nearby walking trail.

Also in Monday night’s meeting, it was announced that the fishing dock at Village Point Lake will be closed due to safety concerns with deterioration of the structure.

“We expect the closure to last until around February/March 2025 timeline,” Rogers said in a statement. “It will be a total replacement project, and we have already ordered a replacement that is built in sections, transported to the lake and assembled on site.”

In her marketing/communications report, Lynette Fox added that those wishing to fish can temporarily do so from off of the banks. The lake also was stocked with trout on Monday.