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The High Point City Council said Monday night  that it’s not ready to vote on a proposed High Point University Area Plan and sent it to a committee  for further discussion.

Councilwoman Bernita Sims  said she was not ready to  act without discussing changes proposed by the planning and zoning committee.

The proposal eliminates the requirement for the university to own 50 percent of a block before applying for rezoning, Councilman Bill Bencini  said.  The language is softer, he said, encouraging the university rather than requiring.

Mayor Becky Smothers  said requiring HPU to own 50 percent of a block can put the university in a situation in which it can’t take action if owners choose not to sell or try to hold out for more money.

Mitchell Whitaker  of 1005 Fifth Court said he and his neighbors at 1007 and 1009 Fifth Court are holding out for more money. “It’s not like we’re asking for $1 million,” Whitaker said. He said he knows how much his neighbors across the street received for their property, and he wants what they got.

Whitaker said he and his neighbors are having problems with increased traffic from construction crews and students, noise and other nuisances on the dead-end street.

“My main concern is that the university should own whole blocks before rezoning,” Whitaker said.

The council asked the university to provide an area for traffic to turn around at the end of Fifth Court. Residents complained that students and construction vehicles were using their driveways to turn around.

The plan was referred to the planning and development committee, which meets Nov. 3.

The council also continued a  hearing on a rezoning case in the same area for the university.

HPU wants to rezone 0.79 acre from  single-family to an existing conditional-use  and amend the conditional-use permit.
The two  lots — 906 E. Farris Ave. and 1011 Fifth Court — will be added to an area approved in April to allow a parking lot and dorms. But now the university wants to create only a parking lot.

Councilman Latimer Alexander  asked how storm-water runoff would be collected.

Dan Pritchett  of Jamestown Engineering  said that the university has provided for   drainage elsewhere on  university property and would not be required to build a new water-retention pond.

Smothers asked the HPU staff to explain Thursday how it would provide screening between the university property and homes.

The council will vote on the rezoning at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The council also approved 8-1 a land-use-plan amendment that changes residential and office districts to institutional or recreational/open space, as suggested by the HPU Area Plan.

Sims voted against the amendment.

Sims said she couldn’t support the changes because they are part of  the HPU Area Plan, which hasn’t been approved.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com