ELIZABETHTOWN — The town council here on Monday had a pair of lengthy discussions on Monday concerning its 2032 Land Use and Future Land Use Map, a large portion of which focuses on the town’s ETJ property along the Hwy. 87 bypass.

During the lunch meeting of the council, when no action is taken, board member Paula Greene mentioned a couple of areas she hoped would be addressed — one of which centered around keeping the hospital space intact, the other on zoning issues along the by-pass.

“I think what Paula is referring to is our need to protect the downtown and not provide a loophole for something other than things like hotels, gas stations and the like,” said Mayor Sylvia Campbell. “We have something very special here and I think we can have our cake and eat it too.

“It’s easy sometimes to take it for granted,” she added. “But what we have is really special. Other places wish they had what we do.”

Town Manager Dane Rideout, also during the lunch meeting, told the board options will be coming for the town to consider.

“There are opportunities that will help our tax base and not hurt our downtown,” he said.

The current land-use plan does not allow for retail business within the town’s ETJ, and during Monday night’s regular meeting, the board unanimously approved continuing that.

“The council approved the plan with the exception that one paragraph being removed,” said Pat Devane, assistant town manager. “That paragraph dealt with requiring bi-weekly meetings with the board to review the plan, which the board didn’t feel was necessary.

“Basically, this plan will help keep us all on the same sheet of music going forward,” he added.

The new budget

Also on Monday night, the council held a public hearing on the proposed 2022-23 fiscal year budget.

“It’s a pretty vanilla budget,” Devane said. “There are some fees that will go up minimally, but the tax rate will remain the same.”

Nobody from the community came forward to discuss the budget, and the council voted unanimously to adopt it.

The 2022-23 budget goes into effect on July 1.

Downtown building

The town unanimously approved the sale of the former CA Nails building to HD3, but attached some conditions.

That building was closed when a fire erupted on March 29, 2020 — which also caused smoke damage to the adjacent office building where the Bladen Journal was located.

On Oct. 5, 2020, the town took over the building as a donation from the previous owner. Since then, then town received no offers of purchase — and the rehab cost for the building has settled in between $300,000 and $400,000.

“I think this will be a win-win for the town,” Devane said.

Rumors are that the building could be targeted for a restaurant. The conditions placed on the sale, which has not yet been completed, include zoning approvals and that work must start within a specific time period.

In other action on Monday, the board …

—Heard an update on the U.S. 701 bridge project from Devane, who told the board that he’s been told by NCDOT officials that traffic could be using the new bridge by December or January.

— Accepted the addition of County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson as a member of the Elizabethtown Airport/Economic Development Commission and reappointed Chairman Fred Tate to that position.

— Reappointed Wayne Edge to the ABC Board.

The next regular meeting of the town council will be July 11 at 7 p.m.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or [email protected].