Council adopts airport district changes

Pat Kimbrough, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

Nov. 8—HIGH POINT — High Point and Piedmont Triad International Airport are now officially on the same page when it comes to the city's rules for growth in several thousand acres.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved a series of changes to the airport overlay district, which the city put in place in 2003 to prevent housing, schools and churches from being built where they would be impacted by high amounts of flight noise.

City planners recommended tweaking the boundaries, and the changes approved Monday will allow residential development within about 1,400 acres where it had been prohibited.

The Piedmont Triad International Airport Authority endorsed the city changes, which were presented to the council in May.

Since then, local developer Barry Siegal asked the council to further loosen the restrictions to allow for housing closer to the airport, which PTIA leadership opposed.

The changes approved Monday do not grant Siegal's request.

However, if he or anyone else sought to develop a residential project in the city where it's not allowed by the airport overlay district, they could seek an exemption from the rules, which apply only on land within the city limits.

About half of the district is in unincorporated Guilford County, but within High Point's future annexation area.

Monday's adjustments will allow city residential development in three parts of the district — about 536 acres between Interstate 40 and Boylston Road, about half of which is the city limits; about 420 acres bordered by Sandy Ridge and Clinard Farms roads, most of which is in the county, and about 438 acres split between the city and the county just west of Eastchester Drive and north of Willard Dairy Road.

The changes also removed from the district a 2,793-acre area that's mostly in the county southwest of the airport between I-40 and Skeet Club Road.

Also Monday, council approved the appointment of Fay McCauley to the One High Point Commission, which is studying slavery reparations.

She was put forth as one of the two appointments of the High Point NAACP branch to the 13-member commission to replace Charles Hinsley, who resigned.