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Warren County looks to use new zoning tool to help businesses welcome I-85 travelers to NC

Drivers traveling southbound into North Carolina on I-85 have to cross through the first county they meet before finding interchanges that offer truck stops and restaurants.

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By
Keenan Willard
, WRAL Eastern North Carolina reporter
WISE, N.C. — Drivers traveling southbound into North Carolina on Interstate 85 have to cross through the first county they meet before finding interchanges that offer truck stops and restaurants.

Warren County economic developers are hoping to capitalize on their location by using a new zoning tool to welcome more tourism dollars into the area.

Where many interstate turnoffs tend to boast a range of truck stops and restaurants, Warren County’s four major exits on I-85 fall short.

“There are very little opportunities at this point, and that’s the reason why we’re proposing this overlay district for Warren County,” said Cynthia Jones, the assistant community and economic development director for the county.

Economic developers said they want to bring additional businesses to those exits, but there’s a problem in their current system.

When Warren County first started using county-wide zoning in 2019, each parcel of land took on the classification it was being used for at at the time. That meant all the land at the interstate exits that didn't already have businesses on them became zoned for farming or housing — not industry.

“We don’t want someone to have to take two, three or possibly four months to have to go through a rezoning process to be able to have the kind of use happen there on the land,” said Charla Duncan, the director of community and economic development for Warren County.

The Warren Department of Economic Development has proposed a zoning overlay, which would allow businesses of any kind to be built along I-85 without a time-consuming trip to the county’s planning board.

Duncan said Warren County has led the state's growth for travel spending in the past two years. Warren County saw a rise of 16 percent in the 2019 fiscal year and 32 percent in the 2020 fiscal year.

Developers said the trend shows a potential to bring millions of dollars in additional investment to the county if more businesses could build along the interstate.

“We have strengths here in rural North Carolina and in Warren County that I think are often overshadowed by development in our more urban counterparts,” Duncan said. “But now we’re in a position, I think, where development is coming back out, and down the road.”

Jones said the zoning overlay would have to be approved by the Warren County Board of Commissioners before being implemented. The board is set to review the measure at its regular meeting in January.

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