Joe Walters, Sadie Clement and Albert Porter (l-r) to stood to show their opposition to the city of Winston-Salem extending a lease to Harvey Davis.
Winston-Salem City Council members signaled in a 5-4 vote on
Monday night that they’re running out of patience with Harvey Davis, the owner
of a garage near Winston-Salem State University who is being forced out through
eminent domain to allow the city to redevelop the once and future Union Station
as a transit hub.
The division was more procedural than substantive: Mayor
Allen Joines broke a tie to support a motion by Southwest Ward Councilman Dan
Besse to postpone the vote until November to give Davis time to come back with
an acceptable plan.
East Ward Councilman Derwin Montgomery, whose ward includes
the facility in dispute, initially made a motion to grant Davis a six-month
extension on his lease. West Ward Councilman Robert Clark, perhaps the most
sympathetic to the business owner, said he thought that was probably the best
deal Davis was going to get. Davis said six months wasn’t enough time.
Southeast Ward Councilman James Taylor Jr. said he had planned to support the
six-month extension. Besse said he opposed the six-month extension because he
was “concerned that any extension of the lease will facilitate another round of
rezoning debate.”
The snag for Davis and Besse centers on property on South
Stratford Road purchased by Davis in 2005 to relocate his auto repair business.
The property is zoned for multifamily, in keeping with the city and Forsyth County’s
Legacy Comprehensive Plan, and Davis would need city council approval to change
it to highway business to operate his garage. The South Stratford Road location
is in Besse’s ward, and the councilman said residents would vigorously oppose
any effort to re-zone it.
“I may have to run for his seat so I can get it passed,”
Davis said after the meeting.
City Attorney Angela Carmon addressed the business owner’s
dissatisfaction about the zoning process in an Aug. 8 letter to Rich Keshian,
who represents Davis.
“Normally, a prospective buyer will condition the purchase
of property upon the same being rezoned for its intended use,” Carmon wrote.
“If the rezoning does not occur, the sale is never consummated. As I have
expressed before, the city is legally prohibited from making promises or
assurances regarding the rezoning of any property. Such an arrangement would
amount to contract zoning which is illegal.”
Davis said after the meeting that the current zoning
designation not only stops him from operating his business but also prevents
him from selling the property because there is currently no market for
multi-family housing in the area.
Carol Davis, executive director of the SG Atkins Community
Development Corp., urged council to deny Harvey Davis’ request for an
extension.
“The location that he has is the eastern gateway to the
city, and it’s the gateway to Winston-Salem State University,” she said. “And
it’s an eyesore in its current condition, and it’s been so for a long time.
It’s just going to be difficult for economic development to pick up along that
corridor without that site being addressed. Multimodal transportation is
definitely coming for that purpose that will draw further economic development
around the area. That’s what we’re looking forward to.”
The stated mission of the community development corporation
is to nurture balanced growth in communities surrounding the historically black
university, foster economic development initiatives to serve the needs of low-
and moderate-income residents, improve affordable housing in distressed
neighborhoods and preserve buildings and sites important to the
African-American community. Contrary to a recent editorial in the Winston-Salem
Journal, Carol Davis said, the city has not
hired SG Atkins Community Development Corp. to redevelop Union Station. But
Assistant City Manager Gregory Turner said in a recent official memo that the
community development corporation “has approached city staff with a memorandum
of understanding for joint redevelopment of the city building and land in a
manner consistent with the transportation funding and acquisition
restrictions.” He said staff was reviewing the memorandum.
“I suspect that the city is going to do a request for
proposals,” Carol Davis said after the meeting. “We would have to compete for
it.”
Harvey Davis dismissed the selection process as a mere
formality.
“She’ll be in control of it,” he said. “Trust me.”
Union Station was built in 1926 to serve rail passengers,
according to a 2002 NC Transportation Department feasibility study, and at its
peak in 1947, 18 daily trains traveled in and out of the station, connecting
Winston-Salem with Greensboro, Charlotte, Roanoke, Va. and other cities. Harvey
Davis bought the facility from the city in 1975. Turner told council that Davis
paid $19,000, but the business owner later disputed the figure, saying he had
paid $55,000.
The city received a $1.3 million federal grant to acquire
and renovate the property in 2004. The following year the council voted to
acquire the property. The city initially attempted to work with a private
developer to rehabilitate the train station, but when it became apparent two
years ago that the developer’s plan was not financially feasible and with
concerns that the federal funds would expire, the city changed tack and
initiated condemnation proceedings under eminent domain. Through
negotiations that have continued through late spring, the city eventually
agreed to pay Harvey Davis $1.4 million for the property. The city has set a deadline
of Nov. 30 for him to relocate his business and remove his personal property.
Turner wrote in a recent memo that the roof, chimney and
mortar in parts of the brickwork will need to be addressed soon, and that lead
paint and asbestos need to be removed. “Full and unimpeded access to the
building will be required,” he wrote, “during the evaluation, design and
rehabilitation of the building.”
The 2002 feasibility study offered $9.7 million as a
preliminary cost estimate of rehabilitating Union Station.
The false starts and delays have frustrated many East
Winston leaders, who hope the rehabilitation of the train station will bring
economic revitalization to the area.
“We feel that we have been patient and have been stagnated
long enough in our efforts to restore this historical landmark,” Marva Reid
told council on behalf of the East/Northeast Winston Neighborhood Association.
“We want you to give us a chance for our community to thrive once again. We ask
you to finally relieve us from this eyesore in the East Winston community and
environmentally unsafe business by not extending this lease any further.”
City Manager Lee Garrity has said that the city’s purpose in
taking the property through eminent domain is to serve the city’s
transportation needs, but some of Harvey Davis’ supporters bristled at the East
Winston residents’ articulated goals.
“I’m a little
confused,” Ed Crook said. “The city has condemned and taken this from Mr.
Davis, and all these people have come in here look like they’re going to get a
chunk of it. And that’s not what eminent domain was for. And somewhere down in
y’all’s negotiation with Mr. Davis, lo and behold you offered to give it back
to him. And then somebody found out about it and pitched a fit, and here we are
tonight. And it’s just not right. You’ve got to have a specific use to take a
piece of property for eminent domain. It ain’t to prettify the neighborhood,
and that’s what looks like everybody here wants to see done.”
Crook’s assertion that the city considered aborting its
plans to acquire the historic train station confirmed an earlier allegation
made by Reid in May that the council wanted to back out of its commitment and
return the property to Davis. Reid said at the time that Councilman Montgomery
had told residents that council members were split on whether to proceed with
the condemnation. The issue was hashed out in closed session, and Montgomery
did not respond to attempts to confirm the statement.
Winston-Salem is the only Triad city without passenger rail service,
but Councilman Clark expressed skepticism on Monday that Harvey Davis’ eviction
would hasten its return.
“If there’s a train pulls in there in the next 20 years I’m
going to be surprised,” he said. “There is absolutely no federal money on the
horizon to run any rail anywhere right now.”
By virtue of the fact that Winston-Salem does not have
passenger rail service, the city missed out on a $545 million federal stimulus
grant received by the state in 2009 to improve track between Raleigh and Charlotte,
including Greensboro and High Point, as part of the Southeast High Speed Rail
Corridor project.
A June 2009 project update sets this year as a target for
the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation, or PART, to develop plans
for regional rail service to serve a future “Winston-Salem connection.” Yet
member counties have opted not to pursue additional revenue from sales tax,
constraining the agency’s plans for expansion.
Clark’s forecast appears to be sound: A 15-year regional
transit development plan released in late 2010 by PART recommends the
development of a “bus rapid transit” route connecting Hanes Mall to NC A&T
University that includes a stop in downtown Winston-Salem as a “rail
precursor.”
For now, Union Station’s proponents seem satisfied to
reclaim a cultural asset.
Harvey Davis (center) is being forced to sell his property to the city of Winston-Salem.
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