WS Chronicle

The transformation of the Budget Inn on Peters Creek Parkway into workforce housing got one step closer while another rezoning request divided both the Ardmore Neighborhood and the City Council on Monday.

During the Winston-Salem City Council’s Monday zoning meeting on May 7, rezoning was approved for the Budget Inn property at the intersection of West Academy Street and Peters Creek Parkway. The motel has had issues with crime and urban blight for years.

The Peters Creek Community Initiative, which is a subsidiary of the Shalom Project at Green Street Church, wants to turn the nearly four-acre property into a four-story, 60-unit apartment building.

After making changes to address the concerns of the nearby Ardmore Neighborhood Association by removing other possible uses from the property’s new zoning designation, it was unanimously approved.

“This proposal, in its essence, has been met with enthusiasm by neighborhoods on both sides of Peters Creek Parkway,” said Southwest Ward City Council Member Dan Besse. “This has been a site of concern for many years.”

The plan is that six units at the new complex will be market rate and 54 units will be targeted toward low-income working families. The building’s first floor will house retail space and Shalom Project’s new headquarters. The property’s sale has a closing date of Sept. 30, after which the plan is to close and demolish the motel. The Shalom Project and the N.C. Housing Foundation will own the property. Funds are currently being raised for the project and organizers have applied for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

Another project in the area proved more controversial, with a zoning request to turn a vacant eight-acre piece of land at the intersection of Silas Creek Parkway and Ebert Street into a development with 32 townhouses and two buildings that’ll house medical offices which’ll face Silas Creek and buffer the homes from the busy thoroughfare. The Ardmore Neighborhood Association opposed this project, citing traffic concerns and the precedent it would set to let office buildings be built in the residential area. The developers and supporters insisted the offices would be a one-time use of a unique property, while those representing the Ardmore Association felt it was an encroachment that could negatively affect property values.

However, the roughly half dozen opponents of the development were outnumbered by about 40 residents that felt this would be good use of the property, most of whom wore oversized buttons that read “My Support Button.”

However, Besse said that most phone calls he’d received and most people who spoke at earlier meetings were opposed to the project. He said one resident and a neighborhood group told him that they’d been incorrectly identified as supporting it. Besse planned to vote against the zoning proposal.

But then City Council Member Derwin Montgomery, Robert Clark, Jeff MacIntosh and Denise “DD” Adams all said if the majority of neighbors support it, then that’s the way the council should vote.

“They took the time out of their lives to come and exercise their right and what they want,” said Adams.

MacIntosh said as a Realtor he’d represented dozens of buyers and sellers in Ardmore and didn’t think this project would negatively affect property values there. Clark said it is a unique situation, and that the council has always been sensitive to Ardmore and wouldn’t allow more businesses in that neighborhood.

Besse then decided to continue the matter to the next zoning meeting on June 4 to see if the supporters come back for that one, which drew audible disappointment from the crowd. The motion to continue the item passed 4-3 with Clark, MacIntosh and Adams voting against it.

Mayor Pro Tempore Vivian Burke was absent due to an ankle injury. As the Ardmore residents left, one woman remarked, “We’ll be back.”