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AHOSKIE – A favorable decision to allow a rezoning request will aid a new business in Ahoskie.

Property owners Jonathan and Amber Smith requested to have their parcel – located on the corner of Catherine Street and South Street – rezoned from R-6 (Residential) to I-L (Light Industrial). If approved, the Smiths want to construct a commercial, climate-controlled storage unit facility at that location.

In her presentation to the Town Council during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday night, Ahoskie Planning Administrator Corrie Harrison noted that storage unit facilities are permitted in Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial zoned areas or with a Special Use Permit in a B-2 (Business) zone. She said the properties adjacent to the Smith’s parcel are either R-6, R-10, B-1, or O-I (Office/Institution).

“There are no directly adjacent properties of the same requested I-L zoning even though the two businesses directly to the left of the Smith’s property, including the town-owned Public Works Department and shop, are industrial in nature and are non-conforming by the town’s standards,” Harrison explained. “It is unclear as to why these properties were allowed to remain R-6 for all these years, but it is apparent they should be rezoned to conform to the current standards set forth by the town.”

She stressed that it was “unfair to lose commercial development due to an oversight” and added later in the meeting that the other non-conforming parcel was an agricultural warehouse.

Harrison added that the Ahoskie Planning Board / Board of Adjustment, at their April 2 meeting, voted unanimously in favor of the Smith’s rezoning request. She said the approval came with the stipulation that the town move forward with having the two non-conforming parcels rezoned to Light Industrial as well.

Cecilia Jones, who serves as legal counsel to the town of Ahoskie, advised that the only action Council members could take on the measure at Tuesday’s meeting was to approve or disapprove the rezoning request made by the Smiths.

“We cannot move forward with the other two tonight because, as you know, [pubic hearings] have to be legally advertised in the newspaper and the town has to give notice to adjacent landowners,” Jones said.

Without objection, the Council approved the Smith’s rezoning request.

“Mr. Smith, thank you for investing in the town of Ahoskie,” said Councilman David Hunt. “It’s nice to have some upcoming new business in our town from a local Ahoskie citizen.”