Burlington council set to hear rezoning plan for hotel site near Mackintosh on the Lake

A hotel planned near Mackintosh on the Lake, a car lot proposed for Rauhut Street and a 40-acre tract on Konica Drive will all go before Burlington City Council on Tuesday, April 21, at 7 p.m., giving residents a final public forum before any vote.

The most watched request is Rezoning 25-015, a 5.5-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Danbrook Road and Bonnar Bridge Parkway. Applicant Julia Rayfield is seeking to change the site from Conditional Business to General Business-Limited Use, a shift that would reopen a corner near one of the entrances to Mackintosh on the Lake and close to Highland Elementary School to a different kind of commercial development. The city had already rezoned the property in April 2007 for a proposed 5-story Holiday Inn with 116 rooms, a restaurant, a bar and an adjacent 4-story office building. The newer concept calls for a 4-story, 122-room extended-stay hotel with limited-use commercial space instead. The Planning & Zoning Commission recommended denial on March 24, after four neighboring residents in Mackintosh on the Lake submitted written opposition. One comment in the city archive warned that Bonnar Bridge Parkway already faces traffic, speeding and safety problems because of existing and approved-but-undeveloped development feeding into Danbrook Road.

A second hearing will cover 521 Rauhut Street, a 0.31-acre parcel at the corner of Rauhut and Apple streets. Applicant Mohamed Shahim Kaled is seeking to move the property from Neighborhood Business to General Business-Limited Use, a change that would clear the way for a car lot on a small corner lot in an established neighborhood setting. Kaled told the planning board that he wants to build a car lot there, and the board approved the request over the city planning department’s objections. The council hearing will now decide whether that approval stands.

The largest request on the agenda is Rezoning 26-001 for 6910 Konica Drive, a roughly 40-acre site in eastern Guilford County that would move from Light Industrial to Office and Institutional-Limited Use. Applicant Kaitlyn Jackson is also pursuing annexation into Burlington, making the council’s review both a land-use and boundary decision. The tract sits in Rock Creek Center, fronts Konica Drive and is near Ametek, Zink Imaging and Red Oak Brewery. It is also north of the planned 1.3 million-square-foot Food Lion and Ahold Delhaize USA distribution center expected to employ 500 people. Planning staff backed the request as part of economic development growth along the NC 61 corridor, and the Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval on March 29. Developer’s counsel Nathan Duggins said the likely end use was multifamily housing, with about 240 to 320 units expected.

Taken together, the three hearings show where Burlington’s development pressure is landing: at a suburban edge near Mackintosh on the Lake, on a small city corner where auto sales could take root, and on a large cross-county tract where housing, institutional uses and annexation all intersect. Council chambers will be the place where residents can watch those choices tested in open session before the city moves toward a vote.