Who: Southern Pines Planning and Zoning Board

What: Held a public hearings on enabling a town zoning ordinance change to permit rezoning and development of Pine Needles Village, a mixed-use project covering 770 acres between U.S. 1 and Camp Easter Road. The village would encompass existing golf courses and Pine Needles itself, with new housing, commercial, office and hotel development within its boundaries covering more than 1,000 acres.

When: Thursday night

What happened: The board voted unanimously to end the hearing after almost two hours of negative commentary from 160 people in the audience, agreeing to hold a series of work sessions with LandDesign Inc., who had written the proposed amendment to create a new Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning district to accommodate large, mixed-use developments.

The board canceled the next public hearing, which would have dealt with rezoning the Pine Needles property to PUD, at the request of property owner Kelly Miller.

Both hearings will be rescheduled at a later date.

Board members felt the PUD would affect future large developments and needed more work. Pine Needles Village would be the first affected development in Southern Pines.

Town manager Reagan Parsons said in a Friday interview that he is arranging a visit to other nearby large, mixed-use developments for the Town Council, which will make the final decisions on any zoning ordinance changes and rezonings.

PUDs are new to Southern Pines, as several planning board members pointed out.

Check Sunday's Pilot and ThePilot.com for the full story.