Hounds Drive-in eyes second location, runs into opposition
The owners of the Hounds Drive-In movie theater and campground in Kings Mountain have plans to open a second location in the county but have run into some road blocks.
A request to rezone property near Grover was denied last week.
The current theater, which also included a campground, was sold to Albemarle Corp. for $22 million in February of this year. Co-owners and business partners, Mike and Preston Brown, previously announced that they planned to continue running the businesses for several years. They have a five-year lease with the lithium company.
Now, they hope to open a second location at 1256 Cleveland Ave. but requested that it be rezoned from residential to general business. The 50-acre property is located on N.C 226 between Patterson Springs and Grover.
The zoning request was first presented to county commissioners in August, and a public hearing was held. Commissioners voted to continue the hearing and a decision until last week's meeting where it faced significant opposition.
The county's land use plan designates the area as secondary growth and encourages the maintaining of a rural area.
When it was presented to the planning board, the board voted three to one to deny it because it was inconsistent with the land use plan.
Multiple people spoke during the public comments to speak against the theater and a campground in particular.
Roy James, who lives on nearby Silverado Drive, was concerned about the potential for crime. He cited multiple issues at the existing Hounds campground, including drugs, larceny, and criminal and civil problems.
Preston Brown said they have three screens at Hounds Drive-in and plan to do the same thing at the new location.
"It is a professionally-run business," he said. "We are the number one theater. Not just in drive-ins, but all theaters. We want to put it back into the community."
Brown said he had looked at other cities but ultimately decided he wanted to stay in Cleveland County. He said they learned how to control traffic so it isn't a problem and emphasized there is no noise because people listen to the movie through their car stereos. They also don't have bright lights to ensure people can see the screens.
"We bring in people from all over the states," Brown said.
He admitted that the campground previously had problems but since he has taken over, there haven't been any.
"We may want 25 camp sites in the future," Brown said. "But right now, we want the theater on the property."
Natalie Conner, a resident of Grover, was also strongly opposed to the rezoning and a campground in particular. She voiced concerns about noise and crime.
"I moved to the county for a quieter way of living," Conner said. "It will disrupt all of this. We do not want this in our community."
Others worried that with the increased traffic, there would be more wrecks.
Angela McKee said most of the residents in the area live on family farms, and her family owns and operates a small farm with cattle and chickens.
"Grover is for farms and families," she said.
Mike Brown pointed out that the theater brings money back into the county and pays thousands in sales taxes. He said they have been featured in Our State magazine twice.
Brown said they can still build a drive-in theater even if the zoning request is denied, they would just have to go about it a different way.
Chris Martin, county planning director, said because 226 is a state highway, zoning already covers 500 feet from the road onto the property, and they could utilize that space.
Commissioner and vice-chair, Deb Hardin, made a motion to deny the request, and all but Johnny Hutchins voted against the zoning change.
Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Residents speak out against new drive-in theater and campground
