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Although the Village of Clemmons wasn’t in favor of a vote by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in approval of a rezoning request for a concrete construction facility close to the Peppertree neighborhood, Mayor Mike Rogers said that getting some additional restrictions to the use of the site near the intersection of Idols and Hampton roads makes the project less impactful.

“We are thankful for the conversations with the commissioners that led to some changes,” Rogers said. “This site is not in our municipality but felt it was the right thing to do to speak up about it which did help shape outcome in a meaningful way. The result of these actions has resulted in a very restrictive additional use that is extremely specific. There is no burden on the county to approve any future GI (General Industrial) request in this business park per the county attorney.”

The Clemmons Village Council unanimously recommended denial of a rezoning proposal being considered by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in its December meeting, concurring with the City-County planning staff’s denial of rezoning Docket F-1651 for the 5.49-acre location at 6220 Clementine Drive, which is located near the intersection of Idols Road and Hampton Road in an industrial park and has been used as a warehouse.

That came the week before the county commissioners heard the case on Dec. 19 when various improvements were made from the Clemmons perspective.

Rogers outlined the changes made to this site’s rezoning: 

• Remove external chemical storage building and require all chemicals to be stored inside.
• Limit to allow only concrete additive manufacturing and mixing in addition to what is already allowed by the existing LI (Limited Industrial) zoning.
• All manufacturing or storage activities shall be conducted entirely within an enclosed building.
• Acidic acid (a concentrated form of vinegar) was reduced from 55 percent to 40 percent.

“This is not the outcome that the village council desired as our resolution stated,” Rogers said. “The petitioner continued to meet the requests/inquiries and yielded to additional restrictions to use of the property as requested by the county planning staff and commissioners. 

“Let it be clear that this decision is the county commissioners and does not reflect the stance that the village of Clemmons council has previously stated in our resolution. We were able to have additional restrictions added to the use of the site in question which keeps its use with existing LI zoning with the only addition which specifically applies to the cement additive manufacturing and mixing use only.

Chris Murphy, who is director of the Clemmons Planning & Development Services Department, provided an overview of the timeline, saying that there have been “some changes as we have moved through this over time,” including a replacement site plan now proposed “to remove an external storage unit where the chemicals were going to be stored to now being moved inside within the existing building.”

He said the new rezoning designation was so narrow that it only included adding the use of concrete additive manufacturing.

Marsh Prause, the attorney representing the petitioners, said “it’s been a process” but was pleased with the progress that had been made and happy to introduce Neil Sheehan, head of operations, of Master Builders Solutions to provide more details about the company, which was founded in 1909 with its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Within the concrete construction and the cement producing industry, we are very well known by reputation,” Sheehan said. “We are an additive business. Everything we do is water-based solutions, and we enhance the properties of concrete. So we don’t make concrete, and we don’t make cement. These are what we call cold blends. 

“It’s all fairly automated. Nothing is exposed. Nothing is airborne, and there is no dust and no vapors. There’s no real noise other than the compressors in the plant.”

Sheehan said he expects to run a single shift Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with five employees on site and six to eight trucks.

The county commissioners expressed their concerns over a lack of transparency until the latest meeting, and commissioner Dan Besse admitted that “on the basis of the original petition, I was prepared to vote no on this. I think that the restrictions that have been added are so substantial that they do minimize any additional risk.”

Commissioner Gray Wilson, who commended the company on its safety record, made the motion for approval, and it passed unanimously.

Two Clemmons residents spoke in opposition to the rezoning proposal.

Lori Bodwell, who said she lives two miles away from the site, said: “Clemmons is not an industrial area. This is really just a few isolated buildings surrounded by residences, including mine. With all due respect, I think it is a slippery slope that if we approve this that it’s going to be hard to say no to the next owner of the next building in this area that wants to do something similar. It’s not consistent with the plan for development, with what Clemmons is and what Clemmons wants to be.”

Ryan Murphy said that the project location was too close for comfort, adding he was an old country boy. “Put yourself in my shoes and my fellow neighbors,” he said. “Would you want this in your backyard?”

Michelle Barson, who was the only one to speak in the previous council meeting besides Rogers, provided this comment after the county commissioners meeting: “I’m extremely disappointed that the county commissioners didn’t listen to their own staff recommendations or the village of Clemmons proclamation opposing the rezoning. There are many unused facilities throughout Forsyth County that already have the zoning this company sought and are going unused. That property is adjacent to multiple neighborhoods and the crown jewel of Forsyth County, Tanglewood Park, and has such greater potential than warehousing and industrial uses. The county needs to focus on encouraging existing structure use over new builds and look more holistically about how their decisions impact the adjacent municipalities.”