Greensboro and Guilford County officials are examining how to address a significant problem in attracting new businesses to their community: a lack of suitable land for large new industrial sites.

“We have a critical shortage” of land for industry, Dan Lynch, senior vice president for the Greensboro Economic Development Partnership, said to The News & Record of Greensboro.

The issue has two components. Businesses are increasingly considering only sites with utilities and road access already available upon which they can build almost immediately.

Continued demand for new houses means that many of the available large parcels of land are being subdivided into smaller lots for homes. Creating new residential areas is quicker and comes at a lower risk to developers than hoping for new industrial plants.

“I remember in November being told that Dell basically wanted to break ground in January, and I was there shaking my head saying, ‘How are you going to do that?’” developer Roy Carroll said to the newspaper.

“I was ready for the old textile philosophy of ‘We’re going to build a plant in two years.’”

City and county officials would like to work with Carroll to have land available when they extend water lines in the eastern part of the county.

Nuisance abatement

Local officials often use the state law forbidding public nuisances to combat drug houses and sexually oriented businesses. A recent N.C. Court of Appeals ruling examines the minimum requirements in such cases.

In March 2003, Salisbury brought a nuisance abatement action against the owners of rental duplex. The city claimed that the building constituted a public nuisance because of frequent drug trafficking and breaches of the peace there. Police visited the duplex 24 times between November 1998 and January 2004.

A Superior Court judge did not agree and denied the city’s request. The Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

North Carolina’s public-nuisance law is codified as N.C. Gen. Stat. § 19-1. Under the law, “… in order to establish a nuisance, plaintiff must show that defendant leased or used his property for the purpose of the illegal possession and sale of drugs,” Judge Rick Elmore said for the Court of Appeals (emphasis in decision).

The court held that three confirmed incidents involving drugs between 2000 and 2004 were not enough to constitute a nuisance.

The appeals court was also not persuaded by the city’s alternative argument that the duplex constituted a nuisance because of numerous breaches of the peace there. The court noted that of the 24 police trips only three cases met the legal definition of a breach of the peace. The court held that these incidents spread over a two and a half year period were not enough for the duplex to be declared a public nuisance.

The case is State ex rel. City of Salisbury v. Campbell. The Court of Appeals ruling is available online at www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2005/040904-1.htm

Equestrian feasibility

Gaston County and Cherryville have formed a committee to review the feasibility of a proposed equestrian center, The Charlotte Observer reports. The move comes after the federal government decided not to contribute to the project.

In 2003, the Gaston County Commission voted to establish the Piedmont Equestrian Park and Conference Center Authority to oversee a planned equestrian center. The towns of Waco and Cherryville were also involved in the project. It was projected to cost $11 million, with $8 million projected to come from a federal grant. The center ultimately didn’t qualify for the money.

Ordinarily that might be the end of the matter. The legislation creating the authority, however, requires that a third of Gaston County’s hotel occupancy tax revenues, currently about $120,000 a year, go toward the project until it ends. The county does not have a seat on the authority’s board and can’t unilaterally declare the project over.

The committee has promised to issue at least an interim report by mid-June so the county can budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Michael Lowrey is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.