news-record.com

GREENSBORO For neighbors along Garden Lake Drive, tonight's City Council meeting will be round three in a two-year fight against a 24-hour drugstore at the entrance of their neighbor-hood.



What do you think the City Council should do? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.



Since 2006, developers have been asking for the area at Garden Lake Drive and New Garden Road in northwest Greensboro to be rezoned.



The latest version of the proposal which also includes a bank, offices, a condominium and town houses will be heard by the council tonight, the next step after the city's zoning commission approved the measure last month.



With developers increasingly looking for small areas around the city to "fill in," at least one commission member wondered at that meeting whether this latest proposal is the best residents can hope for.



"No, I don't think there is a need for more retail, more banks, that kind of development there," commission member Cyndy Hayworth said last month. "But there will be development there. The question in my mind is, is this the best choice you're going to have? Is this as good as it gets?"



The residents in the neighborhood hope not.



"We don't need any more drugstores. We have too many. There are other options," said Rhonda Strader, who moved into her home in 2001.



"We're more than happy to consider other options. It's the 24-hour retail that's bumming everyone out.



I hate to think that's the best option we're going to get."



Linda Wilkinson, who has lived in the area for 14 years, agrees.



"Going from low residential to multiple-hour retail isn't the right fit for the corner into our neighborhood," she said. "Town homes would be acceptable. The bank on the north side would be acceptable. But not a drugstore."



Another resident, Rick Oakley, who has lived on Garden Lake Drive for six years, said the area is already saturated with commercial and office space.



The neighbors "resent (people) coming into a residential neighborhood and trying to rezone it commercial when there are already commercial properties available," he said.



Other concerns include increased traffic that the development could produce and its proximity to nearby Jefferson Elementary School.



Derek Allen, an attorney representing the developers, said they have tried to address all the neighbors' concerns except '"don't do it at all" and "don't do the drugstore,"' he said.



"I think every project going forward now that's any kind of infill project will have opposition to it," Allen said. "People aren't comfortable with change."



Allen says that the mix of uses would buffer against further encroachment into the neighborhood.



When the developers first proposed the project in 2006, they planned to build a bank and a drugstore on the corners of New Garden Road and Garden Lake Drive, Allen said.



By adding the residential components, the area "will have more owner-occupied housing then you have retail development," Allen said. "You are shoring up that intersection from any future incursion from going west or south."



Previous attempts at rezoning in 2006 and 2007 were either withdrawn or voted down by the council.



Dick Hails, the city planning director, said his office believes Garden Lake Drive is the right place to stop retail along New Garden Road. The proposed bank on the opposite corner would blend with the existing town houses and houses down New Garden toward Fleming Road, he said.



The planning staff recommended the rezonings be approved.

Contact Lanita Withers at 373-7071 or lanita.withers@news-record.com