The Franklin Planning Board recommended two rezoning requests be sent to the Town Council for a public hearing and vote. One of the projects would allow the opening of a medical clinic in Heritage Hollow.
On Nov. 18, the Planning Board reviewed a conditional rezoning request from Jodi Balderrama, who bought the .30-acre property in Heritage Hollow in October. The family medical clinic would be in the building that formerly housed a hair salon.
The property is currently zoned C-1 (commercial), which does not allow for medical clinics under 10,000 square feet. The owner has requested that the property be rezoned as C-2 conditional for a medical clinic under 10,000 square feet.
Town Planner Justin Setser said he had granted the owner’s request to waive the tree line survey and traffic study requirement. The property will still follow the C-1 setback requirements.
Balderrama said there would be very few changes to the site, and they are reconfiguring the inside of the building to make it suitable for a medical clinic. Parking is already on site.
Balderrama said she has been practicing in Sylva for five years, lives in Clayton, but is from Franklin. “I’ve been making that drive, an hour back and forth each way, so I’m ready to come back home,” she said.
Balderrama said her background is in family medicine, she has been working in internal medicine for the past five years and does some aesthetics.
“I know we’ve got a need here. I know most of my patients that I have now come from Franklin anyway, so it’ll be a lot easier for them to be able to come there,” Balderrama said.
She said the new clinic would also have “quick care services” (not urgent care) with extended hours. “We don’t have anything open past six o’clock in this town. There’s nothing between here and Rabun County, unless you go all the way to Habersham or Toccoa,” she said, adding that there are no medical offices open on Sunday.
“I’ve got a good population already that are rooting for this and waiting for this to happen.”
Setser said they held a neighborhood meeting on Oct. 25 and six property owners attended. “There weren’t any concerns; they were just more curious what it was going to be. They’re all happy with it, knowing there’s a need for more doctor’s offices.”
Bryson City Road property
The second request the Planning Board heard on Nov. 18 was from D&M Properties of Macon County. Derek Roland presented the request on behalf of himself, his brother, Michael Mathis, and adjacent property owner Mark Nowicki. They are asking that three parcels totaling 4.72 acres on Bryson City Road be rezoned from R-1 residential to C-2 commercial.
Roland said there is a history of commercial use on the three properties, and nearby properties such as Village Trader and Shuler’s Mulch Yard are zoned commercial. He also said he looks at that as a gateways area.
“I would go as far as to say that is a gateway to the north. What I mean by that is we have numerous gateways into Franklin,” Roland said.
He pointed out the Highway 28 North corridor has a significant amount of traffic and people traveling in and out of the neighborhood. He said the area is a perfect example of mixed land uses as identified in the town’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Although the properties fall outside the town’s corporate limits they are within its Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ).
“You have all the people out in northern Macon County that are coming back and forth into the Town of Franklin to do business,” Roland said, comparing the area to the commercial corridors on the other gateways along Highways 64 and 441.
Roland presented average daily traffic counts for the area as tallied by the N.C. Department of Transportation. Those reports show about 7,400 cars along River Road, 4,400 on Harrison Avenue, and 9,100 cars a day just north of Airport Road on Hwy. 28. He pointed out the recent growth of the county and said the northern part of the county would continue to grow as there is vacant land that could be developed.
“As this growth continues to come to Macon County, because as we saw during the pandemic, people are not going to stop coming here,” Roland said.
He said if there were concerns about future uses of the properties with a C-2 zoning, that the size of the properties and their natural conditions would somewhat limit the uses. The D&M property is 1.58 acres, and Nowicki’s two tracts are .54 acre and 2.6 acres.
Roland listed some potential uses in C-2 as auto repair, lawn and garden centers, greenhouses, retail, and multi-family housing. When asked about his plans for the property, Roland said they had talked about possibly building storage units but did not elaborate on any definite plans.
“C-2 zoning opens that up to a wide range of possibilities that benefit not only residents of the Town of Franklin but residents of the greater Macon County area as well,” Roland said.
When board Chair Janet Greene asked if he planned to sell the property, Roland said no, that the property has been in his family for probably 50 years.
Roland asked that the board consider what that corridor will look like 10 years from now as a gateway to the county and that the C-2 zoning would put it more in line with the other gateways. “It’s directing development where development is already happening,” he said.
In his staff report, Setser stated with the historical commercial uses on the properties and their location on the heavily traveled Bryson City Road that they are “prime parcels for commercial uses.” None of the parcels are currently served by city water or sewer, although those utilities are in the area. Setser noted that there might be a need for a traffic impact analysis if they ever apply for a major development on the site.
Planning Board member Kim Leister asked about how future development might affect the nearby creek. Roland said the setback and buffer requirements would limit impact on the creek as well as the limited uses due to the size of the property.
Public hearings
The Franklin Town Council reviewed both requests at their Dec. 2 meeting and set public hearings for Jan. 6 during the regular Town Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the board room on the lower level of Town Hall.