With the help of local environmental groups, Burke County has identified industries that would not be allowed on a proposed business development site off Dysartsville Road.
Burke County officials, an economic development official and representatives from environmental groups headed up a public meeting Tuesday evening to take questions from the public about the 1,300-acre property, known as Great Meadows megasite. The public was able to email questions ahead of and during the meeting.
In 2023, Burke County got more than $35 million from the state for Burke County Development Inc. to buy the property to develop it into Great Meadows megasite. The property is owned by Great Meadows LLC. It sits mostly in Burke County, with about 200 acres in McDowell County.
Before it can be developed, the county plans to rezone 795 acres of the 1,353-acre site. The meeting Tuesday addressed the rezoning.
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Burke County Manager Brian Epley told the crowd in the commissioners’ meeting room in the Burke Services Building that certain industries would be not be permitted as part of the conditional rezoning of the property. Those industries include:
- Mining and quarry operations
- Carbon black production plant or facility
- Raw ore and mineral processing facilities
- Asphalt and concrete production facility
- Landfill and toxic incinerator operations
- Garbage disposal services
- Scrapyards
- Metal plating and finishing
The standards considered the impact of water quality, views, wildlife, traffic and air quality, noise and light pollution, Epley said.
The county worked with local environmental groups to determine the industries that would not be acceptable on the property.
In addition to excluding specific industries, the conditional rezoning calls for buffers around the property, Epley told the crowd.
After looking at things such as topography and setbacks, the county was told that roughly 165 acres of the property is developable, Epley said.
“Which leaves room, I think, for us to use topography and existing shrubs and trees and other things for buffering and to deal with some of the concerns that we’ve heard,” Epley said.
He said 1 million square feet of building would require about 45 acres.
Epley said the average minimum buffers would be 150 feet to protect water quality. Other buffers would be trees and shrubs. He said 300 feet of trees and buffers would be on the Interstate 40 side of the property. On the back side of the property would be a 200-foot buffer of trees and shrubs. On the other sides of the property, the buffers would be 150 feet deep. There would be a 200-foot buffer of trees on the property next to residential areas.
Epley said the county also would limit the number of industrial entrances to the property.
In addition, there will be space around U.S. 70 for future trail connections, with specific locations to be determined at a later date, according to information from the county.
Epley said it may seem the large proposed industrial site is a new project, but it has been talked about among leaders in the county for more than a decade. The project went from concept to reality with the state grant of $35.8 million in October. Of that money, $22 million is for capital items such as land acquisition. The remaining $13.8 million is restricted for water and wastewater infrastructure, Epley said.
Epley said neither land acquisition nor public infrastructure is totally funded at this point. He said the land is valued at around $32 million and the infrastructure needed for the project is estimated at more than $50 million. He said both land acquisition and infrastructure is reliant on future funding from the state.
Epley said Burke County needs to be focused on economic development. He said Burke County ranks 90th in the state on food insecurity, 96th in the state for people over the age of 18 who don’t go into the military or college and don’t have a job and 96th in local education funding. He said there is a growing Medicaid population, which indicates poverty levels. He said the growing Medicaid population was before Medicaid expansion in the state.
Some of the questions from the public asked why the public can’t vote on the project or development of the land. Epley said there are no grounds for a referendum to decide what can go where in a community in North Carolina.
As for next public forum, Epley said that will depend on feedback, the pace of potential development and funding.
Other questions revolved around the makeup and funding of Burke Development Inc., tax incentives for a potential industry, whether other megasites in the state are full and whether there is a demand for a large industrial site in the state.
There is not a large industrial site west of the Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point area, Epley said in the past. The closest megasite to Burke County is the Toyota plant in Chatham County, he said.
Alan Wood, president and CEO of Burke Development Inc., said there are few megasites left.
The rezoning could go before the Burke County Planning Board in August. The board, which is an advisory board to the county commissioners, meets on the fourth Thursday of every month. A decision whether to rezone the property will ultimately be up to commissioners.
The Burke County Board of Commissioners approved the use of conditional zoning as part of the county’s development code in May.
Wood said even if there is a company that is a good fit for the site, and the property has been rezoned, it would still be several years before anything takes shape. He said site planning would take about six months and then it would take another year and a half to two years to get needed infrastructure installed.
Epley said the county is committed to keeping the public informed about the property and its potential development.
To ask questions about the site and its potential development, email greatmeadowsinfo@burkenc.org.