The following MAJOR CHANGES have been proposed in the Blowing Rock Town Codes controlling downtown development:
1. ELIMINATION OF THE LIMIT ON THE DENSITY OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS ON DOWNTOWN PROPERTY. THE CURRENT DENSITY LIMIT IS 5 UNITS/ACRE.
2. AN INCREASE IN ALLOWABLE BUILDING HEIGHT FROM 30′ ABOVE THE SIDEWALK OR FINISHED GRADE AT THE PRIMARY ENTRANCE TO 35′ .
3. AN INCREASE IN THE ALLOWABLE TOTAL BUILDING HEIGHT.
4. A REDUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF GREEN SPACE REQUIRED IN A BUILDING SETBACK AREA FROM 75% TO 40%.
THE BLOWING ROCK CIVIC ASSOCIATION WILL MAKE AN INFORMATIVE PRESENTATION ON THE PROPOSED CODE CHANGES AT THE TUESDAY, 2/12/19 PUBLIC HEARING.
Adoption of these changes will decrease approval controls that are currently available to the Town Council.
BRCA professional advisors have expressed concern that elimination of the limit on density and increasing allowable building height could stimulate construction of numerous short term rental townhouses/condos that could dominate the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. They say that this could certainly produce a major change in the character of downtown.
With use of current codes Blowing Rock has three very substantial developments under construction (Chestnut at Blowing Rock with 23 Luxury Condominiums, The Townes at Blowing Rock with 6 luxury townhouses, The Inn on Cornish, a 21 room boutique hotel ), another significant development recently approved and soon to break ground (The 1150 Main St. development with six condominiums/townhouses and two retail spaces), and another substantial development that was approved but construction has been delayed by the developer (a restaurant retail development in the old Moody’s Furniture Building at 125 Sunset Dr.). There is no shortage of substantial developments in Blowing Rock approved under the existing town codes.
A public hearing will be held at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday February 12, 2019 at Town Hall. We urge you to attend and express your views at this hearing. We also urge you to contact Town elected officials to express your views on these proposed code changes: Mayor Charlie Sellers, csellers@tobr.us, Mayor Pro Tem Albert Yount, ayount@tobr.us, Council members:
Doug Matheson, dmatheson@tobr.us, Virginia Powell, vpowell@tobr.us, Jim Steele, jsteele@tobr.us, Sue Sweeting, ssweeting@tobr.us. YOUR COMMENTS ARE IMPORTANT AND NEEDED BY OFFICIALS.
Please see the Blowing Rock Civic Association website WWW.BRCIVIC.COM for more details