Eastchester corner rezoned retail

Pat Kimbrough, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

Feb. 29—HIGH POINT — A former church property in north High Point could now be converted to retail uses.

The Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday voted unanimously to grant a request to rezone the northwest corner of Eastchester Drive and Ramsay Street to support two proposed drive-thru establishments — one a fast-food restaurant and the other a coffee shop — on the 1.7-acre site.

Developer Cannon Cory, co-founder of Lighthouse Properties, the Charlotte firm that applied for the zoning change, said he does not yet have a development timeline for the project or information about potential tenants ready to release.

"From here, we'll proceed with design and plan review with city of High Point staff and then close on the purchase of the property," Cory said.

The site, which has an address of 2525 Eastchester Drive, is owned by Deep River Baptist Church but is no longer in use.

It's located between the Shoppes on Eastchester strip center at 2513 Eastchester Drive and the Wendover West Shopping Center, which is anchored by a Big Lots store at Eastchester Drive and Skeet Club Road.

The site was rezoned in 2022 from residential to office and institutional to support development of a child care center in a project that never went forward.

Tuesday's vote switched the zoning to retail center with conditions offered by the developer, which include a binding layout plan for the site.

The zoning conditions also limit vehicular access to one point on Ramsay Street and via a future connection to the adjoining Wendover West Shopping Center to the north.

Direct access to the site from Eastchester Drive is not allowed.

Tuesday's vote was the first involving an applicant other than the city under High Point's new procedure for rezonings, in which the commission's decision is final unless appealed to the City Council within 15 days.

It was also the first meeting for new Commissioner Shazia Iqbal, who was appointed by the council in November, giving the board its full complement of nine members.