Burlington council rejects car lot rezoning for vacant north side parcel

Burlington City Council used its April 23 votes to make a bigger point about what can still be built in the city’s growth corridors and what cannot. The clearest call came on a small vacant parcel at Rauhut and Apple streets, where council denied a rezoning for a used-car operation, while also moving ahead with 22 acres off Whitesell Drive that had already been rezoned for multifamily housing and noting the withdrawal of a Mackintosh on the Lake hotel proposal.

The Rauhut decision was unanimous, 5-0, and it shut down Mohamed Shahin Kaled’s plan to rezone 521 Rauhut Street from Neighborhood Business to General Business - Limited Use so he could sell and rent cars on the site of an old service station. Kaled told city officials he already runs a car lot on North Church Street across from Biscuitville and wanted a second lot at Rauhut and Apple streets. Planning director Jamie Lawson opposed the request, saying the zoning was too narrow and left too little flexibility for future use or resale. The parcel, listed in city notices at 0.31 acres, has sat vacant for more than 30 years on Burlington’s north side, in an area tied to a historically Black neighborhood and a retail district that has long struggled with decline. The planning and zoning commission had recommended approval 6-0 on March 23, but council rejected the plan anyway.

That denial carries a traffic and land-use message for the Rauhut corridor. City leaders were willing to keep a long-dormant corner open for broader future use, but not to lock it into another auto-oriented use at a sensitive intersection. The outcome also follows an earlier 2024 fight over 1038 Rauhut Street, where a carwash and detailing proposal sparked debate over the future of the same part of town.

Council took a different approach on Whitesell Drive, voting 5-0 to bring in 22 acres that had already been rezoned for multifamily housing. That action fits a larger pattern on Burlington’s western growth edge, where apartment approvals have piled up near Whitesell Drive and Huffman Mill Road. Earlier city records show a 2022 rezoning for 242 multifamily units in the area, and a commercial listing for Whitesell Drive says more than 400 apartment units have already been approved there, including 432 units planned at Encore at Burlington. The annexation signals that Burlington is extending city services and control as housing pressure pushes outward, with more residents likely to mean more traffic and more demand on nearby roads.

The Mackintosh item showed the market is still shifting. A 5.5-acre parcel near Bonnar Bridge Parkway and Danbrook Road had been under consideration for a 122-room WoodSpring Suites extended-stay hotel, but the proposal was withdrawn before the council vote. The site was previously rezoned in April 2007 for a 116-room Holiday Inn, a restaurant, a bar and an office building, so the withdrawal left an older hotel entitlement in place rather than adding a new one. At Mackintosh on the Lake, Burlington’s largest residential development and home to the city’s primary water reservoir, the retreat suggested developers are still testing what the market will support.