Kinston council tables rezoning request, approves conditional permit for Queen Street store
Kinston City Council tabled a rezoning request near Grainger Stadium and approved a conditional special use permit for a convenience store with a kitchen at 515 N. Queen St. during a lengthy meeting Tuesday.
The June 2 meeting also included several infrastructure, housing repair and project closeout items. The meeting drew extended discussion during a budget public hearing, including the removal of one speaker. That hearing is covered in a separate story.
Rezoning request tabled
Council first considered a request from David Edwards, on behalf of Trade Land Company LLC, to rezone 708 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. from I-1 industrial to B-1 general business.
Planning Director Elizabeth Blount said the property formerly operated as a convenience store with gasoline sales, which was a legal nonconforming use because convenience stores and gas sales are not permitted in an I-1 district. Blount said the owner removed two canopies, a utility building and underground tanks in 2024, and the property has remained vacant.
“The request is to change the zoning to B-1,” Blount said. “The B-1 District is established as the district in which to accommodate highway-oriented retail and commercial service businesses.”
Blount said the Planning Board recommended approval and found the request consistent with the city’s comprehensive land use plan. Staff also recommended approval but said parking would need to be clearly defined.
Council members raised questions about whether the site could become a convenience store, tobacco shop or vape shop, and whether parking would be adequate on the corner property.
Mayor Pro Tem Felicia Solomon said council members wanted to make sure they were considering the rezoning properly while acknowledging concerns about the number of vape shops in the city.
“All of us have our feelings about this heavy saturation of vape shops in our community,” Solomon said.
City Attorney Jim Cauley told council members that in a rezoning case they must consider all uses allowed in the requested zoning district, not just what an owner or applicant says may go there.
Blount said vape shops would require a special use permit and that the city recently adopted spacing requirements and other regulations for vape, tobacco, hemp, CBD and similar businesses.
Councilman Antonio Hardy said he wanted to hear from the owner before voting.
“I still would like to hear from the owner,” Hardy said. “I want to know if he’s gonna build a new building or when he’s gonna tear that one down because the parking is really gonna be a major issue for me.”
Council voted to table the rezoning request until its June 16 meeting.
Queen Street permit approved with conditions
Council then considered a special use permit request from Samir Ali to operate a convenience store with a kitchen at 515 N. Queen St., the former Wise Cleaners property in downtown Kinston.
Blount said the property is zoned B-2 central business and is near Kinston Towers, Neuse Regional Library, Allen C. Foster Law Offices, a parking lot and a single-family dwelling. The parcel is 0.33 acres and contains a 2,442-square-foot commercial building.
The Planning Board recommended denial, citing concerns about public health, safety and welfare, possible loitering near Kinston Towers, parking, drainage, environmental health issues related to the building’s former dry-cleaning use and traffic safety.
Staff recommended approval with conditions for safer ingress and egress and site plan approval.
Cauley reminded council that the special use permit was a quasi-judicial hearing, unlike the rezoning item.
“You sit like judges,” Cauley said. “You hear the evidence and you have to decide, does the evidence satisfy these criteria that are in the city’s ordinance?”
A representative for the applicant said the business would focus on hot food, soft drinks and convenience items, not vape sales. Council members asked about hours, loitering, fencing, cameras, parking, traffic flow and the building’s former use as a dry cleaner.
Councilwoman Barbara Seaforth questioned whether chemicals used in the former dry-cleaning business could create safety concerns.
“The building has been vacant for some years and it was a former cleaners, and I’m concerned about the chemicals that were used there,” Seaforth said.
Council approved the special use permit with conditions, including site plan approval, safer ingress and egress, environmental health approval for the kitchen and a 12-month review.
Council approves project, repair and infrastructure items
Council also approved professional services for the Essential Single Family Rehabilitation Loan Pool 27 and Urgent Repair Program. According to agenda materials, the city has been approved for $182,000 in Essential Single Family Rehabilitation Loan Pool funding to serve eligible homeowners in Lenoir County and conditionally approved for $137,500 through the Urgent Repair Program.
Staff recommended The EI Group for lead-based paint inspection and radon testing, and Keenan Construction and Consulting for asbestos inspection.
Council approved ordinances to close three completed projects: the Utility CIS Software Upgrade capital project, the Inventory of Lead Service Lines Project and the fiscal year 2019 Assistance to Firefighters Grant project.
Public Services Director Steve Miller presented an engineering services agreement with Sidebotham Substation Services for the city’s peak load reduction project in the amount of $198,850.
“In our electric system, the City of Kinston pays for power,” Miller said. “We don’t make power. So we have to buy power. We pay an energy cost, we pay a demand cost.”
Council approved the agreement.
Council also approved bids for the 2026 concrete replacement project to Ernie Everett Site Prep. The work includes $70,744 for sidewalk replacements and $112,477 for curb and gutter replacements, according to agenda materials.
Council approved a bid for the 2026 road improvement project to Coastline Contracting in the amount of $904,355.96. The agenda listed Coastal Contracting, but Miller clarified during the meeting that the correct company name was Coastline Contracting.
Council also approved a special event permit for FHL Church Revival at Pearson Park from June 24 through June 26, contingent on proof of insurance naming the city as certificate holder.
The council recessed until 10 a.m. June 4 for a closed session on personnel matters.
