Council listens to residents, denies industrial zoning
SALEM – After listening to passionate pleas from residents in a historic, largely black neighborhood, Salem City Council members unanimously turned down a request Feb. 22 to rezone adjacent property for light manufacturing – even though it could mean jobs.
Council voted 5-0 to deny a request by Valley Properties and L&M Properties to rezone four lots on Braxton and Harrison to make more employee parking and truck-loading docks in what used to be the Home Shopping Network building. The building has been vacant since 2005 when HSN moved that segment to Tennessee.
Owners say they have three smaller firms that employ about 30 people now in the 540,000-square-foot building, and to be able to get other tenants, need to create parking next to another side of the building, along with truck loading docks.
Neighbors were concerned that if a lot that is now wooded is rezoned from residential to light manufacturing, the change would ruin their quiet neighborhood of Braxton Heights with noise from tractor trailers, light pollution and increased traffic.
The leader of the opposition was 86-year-old Gertrude Harris who spoke eloquently about how the character of the neighborhood could be lost. More than 35 other residents attended Monday night’s public hearing, with half a dozen of them speaking out against the rezoning proposal.
For complete coverage of Monday night’s meeting, see the full story in the Feb. 25 issue of the Salem Times-Register and here on our website at OurValley.org.
