Commissioners approve rezoning allowing expansion of green electric race car shop

SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning on Monday that would allow for the expansion of an electric race car shop and a potential future fast-speed electric vehicle charging site in northern Rowan County.

The rezoning request moved the property located on Jenny Drive, just off of Old Union Church Road, from Rural Agricultural to Commercial, Business, Industrial with a conditional district was applied for by The Bogle Firm on behalf of property owner Perand USA. The rezoning would allow Perand to bring its current electric car workshop into compliance with the county zoning restrictions and to add a 15,000 square-foot expansion.

Pete Bogle, principal-in-charge of The Bogle Firm, said that the expansion would initially be used partially for the racecar shop itself and partially for warehouse space while Perand works to expand its own business operations. In the future, Bogle said that Perand will take over the extra space itself with fast-charging electric stations.

“Yes, I build race cars, but many guys do that. We make electrical race cars and we do fossil-free fuel, developing for that. Everything I’m doing is more in the way of a green future and green mobility. I work with manufacturers, I’m a kind of development center for things. It’s not a big business, it’s not a huge car factory. I’m building about 20 cars per year for customers all over America as well as what I do in Europe,” said Andreas Eriksson, owner of Perand USA.

Eriksson, a native of Sweden who splits his time between Europe and Rowan County, also said that he puts great emphasis on the exterior and interior appearance of the building due to the nature of his business.

Included in the conditional district were several restrictions that were agreed upon by county planning staff and the applicant. The first condition was that Perand expand Jenny Drive, which is currently a 10 feet-wide gravel road, to 20 feet and pave it up to the entrance of its property to mitigate any dust issues from truck traffic. The other condition was to remove several usages including ammunition and ordnance manufacturing, motor vehicle parts and outdoor salvage yards and scrap and waste materials and to add trucking and courier services, refrigerated warehousing and storage and general warehousing and storage. Senior Planner Shane Stewart, who handled the request, said that the restrictions were self-imposed by the applicant.

Eriksson bought the property in 2021, according to online property records. Before that, it was owned by the Jennings family and operated as an auction house, which was able to be operated inside the RA district as a rural home occupation because the Jennings lived on adjacent property.

Kip Jennings spoke during the public hearing in favor of the application, saying that he was in favor of the rezoning because Eriksson took care of the building’s appearance and had been a good neighbor in the years since he bought the property.

“We thought we did a jam-up job on it. I had the biggest bathrooms in that auction house that you could probably fit in it and I made it that way, even put in diaper changers. And we thought we’d really done something and then Andreas bought the building. I went in there about nine months after he took it over and I didn’t believe it, you can eat off the floor. Everything is perfect, everything is in order,” said Jennings.

Robert Sano, who also lives on Jenny Drive, also said that he was in favor of the rezoning because Eriksson has been an open book and took care of the building.

“I’m 300 feet from that building, and he doesn’t bother me. I never hear him and he’s gone six months out of the year. I’d love to have this changed for him because I really don’t want somebody to come in there and start putting washing machines and junk cars in the parking lot and he doesn’t have that. If he gets that add-on, with what he’s trying to do, that driveway is going to go in back and he’s got the land to do it. Me and (Sano) both, we like him and he does a good job,” said Jennings.

One neighbor, Luther Lyerly, spoke in opposition to the rezoning, saying that he did not want an industrial site in his backyard. He also called the request spot zoning, pointing out that the property was separated by RA properties and an agricultural district from the nearby Chewy, Aldi and Carlton Fields sites.

Stewart noted in the staff report that while the property was outside of the Interstate 85 corridor, which encompasses one mile on either side of the highway, it was only 250 feet away from the corridor.

Board Vice-Chairman Jim Greene asked if the site plans for the building expansion that were presented provided enough rooms for tractor-trailers to be parked on the property. Bogle said that the current plan was for trucks to be mostly parked inside of the expansion, as the plans called for a drive-through bay and the self-imposed restrictions removed most outdoor storage options.

The request had previously gone before the county planning board , who voted unanimously to recommend approval.

After the hearing, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the rezoning request along with the proposed conditions of paving and expanding Jenny Drive and amending the usage list.

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