Mayor Jerry Bartlett reviews the ordinances passed during a September 2022 council meeting.

Good Hope’s housing supply is set to grow once more, following the city council’s approval this week of a zoning change that clears the way for a subdivision consisting of more than 140 planned single-family new homes.

After hearing opposition and concerns from a trio of adjoining property owners at a public hearing on the proposal, the council voted to move ahead with the rezoning, which converts the 38-acre site from agricultural use to use as a planned development. The property lies along Doc Clemmons Road on the city’s eastern side. Mayor Jerry Bartlett said that he and the city council favored rezoning the property because it’s a question only of when; and not of if, the land eventually would be targeted for improvement by a developer.

“Good Hope is growing like crazy, and while I do understand that there are concerns that go with a subdivision like this, if we don’t supply places where our current young residents can buy a home and remain here, they’re likely to go somewhere else while other people move in,” he said.

“This property is in an area that already was going to be under pretty significant development pressure, and the council agreed that the best way to help the city, in the long run, was to take a proactive role in guiding how it’s going to be developed.”

The Doc Clemmons Road parcel already was under contract to be sold to its pending development investor, said Bartlett, provided that the council approve the zoning change. The small turnout of opposition to this week’s zoning change was slight compared to the numerous area residents who showed up to a similar public hearing earlier this year, voicing concerns over a separate development proposal elsewhere in the city.

The council approved that proposal as well, green lighting planned development zoning for Mize Meadows, a 185-home development along Mize Road, where land work has since begun on the new 30-acre subdivision. The Doc Clemmons property, said Bartlett, will be subdivided into small-lot home sites ranging in size from 1,200 to 1,800 square feet apiece.