The Spruce Pine Town Council voted to rezone a property in the English Woods area from residential to commercial, the first step in it possibly becoming the site of a new Ingles grocery store.
A zoning hearing was held last week on this and several other rezoning requests. The council approved all the requests; the Ingles site was the one that inspired the most concern from neighborhood residents.
The zoning decision moves the 0.92-acre plot of land from the R1 residential designation to the C2 designation, which is defined as “neighborhood commercial.” The neighborhood commercial designation has some restrictions designed to make new commercial development fit into residential areas. An Ingles representative noted that the company does not own this property yet.
“The neighborhood commercial district is designed to be part of residential neighborhoods and usually includes things like grocery stores, shopping centers, schools, and those kinds of things,” Town Manager Daniel Stines said. “This is a site plan that's proposed for Ingles — that would be the use for this parcel, as well two out parcels that would be vacant as the preliminary plans have been submitted.
The proposed Ingles will be located at the junction of U.S. Highway 19E and Greenwood
Avenue.
"The access for this site would be off of Highway 19 and not Greenwood, and those matters are still being worked out,” Stines said.
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
A significant concern among English Woods homeowners was the possibility that storm runoff from the new store’s parking lot could flood their properties. However, town officials assured them that Ingles is legally required to have a plan for safely disposing of stormwater.
“They will have to submit full plan sets that have to comply with both our ordinances, our design standards as well, DEQ, Department of Environmental Quality, so everything related to storm runoff, all that stuff will have to be dealt with there before they can get their construction permits,” Town Attorney Chad Donnahoo said.
Some audience members indicated they would like to see more complete plans for the property before the rezoning was approved.
“I understand what you're saying, but generally developers don't work off of doing construction and plan submittal before they have a zone authorization to build the building,” Donnahoo said. “So, until it's zoned accordingly, they would be wasting their time.”
Audience members expressed concerns about the environmental impact on the adjoining wooded areas, noting that there are several natural springs nearby and that there may be a bald eagle nesting in the area.
“To be clear, there will be a plan review process when they do their final submittals,” Donnahoo said. “There will be a full 200-page-plus, probably, construction document set with every little detail, and that will have to undergo plan review. That's generally done at the planning board level, and there will be different ways of having input and that kind of thing.”
INGLES’ INTENTIONS
Preston Kendall, project manager for the new store, came to the hearing to address some of the community's concerns.
"I've helped hundreds of these,” Kendall said. “A couple things – we don't own the property yet; we're looking at the property just like we looked at other properties here.”
Kendall said Ingles has conducted a Phase 1 examination of the site, which should have turned up any major legal obstacles such as a bald eagle nest or any kind of archaeological" "obstacles were found.
Additional preliminary work also indicated that this site would be suitable for a grocery store.
“We've done 38, 40 borings across the whole site – we went down from anywhere between 45 feet to 80 feet,” Kendall said. “We have surveyed the whole site. We've done some other geotechnical work on the site.”
A LONG WAIT
The old Ingles grocery store, located on Greenwood Avenue across the street from the North Toe River, flooded during Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) in 2024.
Since that time there has been significant concern from both Spruce Pine and residents about the possibility that the town might not have a grocery store in the future.
Council comments on Ingles’ construction plans were mostly positive.
“I think this is a great step for Spruce Pine and for all of us,” Council Member Rocky Buchanan said." "concerned that he believes the storm runoff will be managed properly.
Council Member Tessa Taylor noted the plans will impact her personally.
“As a very close neighbor, I’m as concerned as everyone else,” Taylor said. “This is a very needed and a very reasonable change.”