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New Road to Open Land for Development.

The groundwork has been laid for a "critical component" in the development of a large tract of land between Morganton Road and U.S. 15-501, which is expected to include a Home Depot.

The Southern Pines Town Council has approved a route for the Henley Street extension, designed by Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates, that will connect Morganton Road and U.S. 15-501. It will be a four-laned road with landscaping.

The plans show two roundabouts along the proposed corridor, which will parallel the Progress Energy power Line starting at the town's soccer and baseball field complex on Morganton and stretch over to U.S. 15-501 next to Chick-Fil-A, south of the Moore County Chamber of Commerce office.

The area is zoned as a Mixed-Used District, which allows a combination of retail businesses and shops, offices and residences.

Southern Pines Mayor Frank Quis said the council adopted a mixed-use overlay district in the mid-1990s for the undeveloped land on each side of Morganton Road, to allow master-planning in advance for the large tracts.

"A critical component was to complete Henley Street from Morganton Road to U.S. 15-501," he said. "The ultimate connection of Southern Road and Short Street with Henley is our goal. That will afford alternative routes for traffic."

Other roads would run off the proposed Henley Street to access shops, offices and residences in that area.

When constructed, the road will provide easy, but limited access to between 120 and 150 acres that is zoned as a Mixed-Use District, and has multiple owners.

The goal of a Mixed-Use District is to create an area where people live, work and shop.

Large tracts of undeveloped land on the other side of Morganton Road between the National Guard Armory Building at Henley Street and Tanglewood Apartments are also zoned as Mixed-Use District.

Development Rumor Mill

Rumors have swirled for years about what would be built on land between Morganton Road and U.S. 15-501 that would have access to the Henley Street extension. The most prevalent was that a Home Depot would be built there, which is expected to happen.

In March, The Pilot reported that Home Depot was under contract to buy 13 acres for a new store on U.S. 15-501 in Southern Pines, after Quis made an announcement at a meeting of the Southern Pines Rotary Club.

The purchase contract is with Riverpark Associates, the property owners and sellers.

The Home Depot would be built on the site of the former Carolina Custom Golf, near Chic-Fil-A, Realtor Susan Clift Brown of Clift Commercial Properties confirmed in March. Brown is a commercial Realtor who has been working with developers on the 150-acre Mixed-Used tract.

Signs for Clift Commercial Properties posted along Morganton Road and U.S. 15-501 say the property is "under contract," and some surveyors' stakes in the ground are visible from the road.

North of the Chamber building adjacent to Outback Steakhouse, a sign for another commercial real estate company says frontage is "available" on U.S. 15-501.

There have also been reports circulating that a company called Developers Diversified Realty of Beechwood, Ohio, is seeking bidders for construction next year of "The Shoppes of Southern Pines Retail Center," a mall somewhere in Southern Pines with 643,700 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

In a brief telephone interview late Friday, Brown said she is working with developers and property owners to put together a development package that would win approval from Southern Pines.

"The development project is moving through the proper channels," she said.

Efforts to reach a spokesman for Developers Diversifed Realty for comment have been unsuccessful. It is unknown whether the report concerns this property or some other location in Southern Pines.

Regardless of what is ultimately built on these tracts, business leaders say the town is doing the right thing to plan for it.

"This community is growing," said Cynthia Bradley, executive vice president of the Moore County Chamber of Commerce. "Businesses and people are coming here. Southern Pines is doing a good job with the establishment of this overlay district that permits master planning in advance of development to prepare.

"The Henley Street corridor and mixed-use overlay is a very farsighted project, and a good example of how we must help plan and manage growth."

Creating Alternate Routes

An extended Henley Street would vary between 92 and 175 feet wide, measuring from sidewalk to the opposite sidewalk, according to information provided by Jarrod Whitaker, a project engineer with Hobbs, Upchurch, about the road design.

The median strip would be 40 feet wide and would replicate the ornamental greenery of downtown Southern Pines along the Broad Street corridor.

Another significant part of the long-term plan Southern Pines put in place since 1989 could be north-south connections using Short Road coming from Murray Hill Road.

The engineers' drawings show Short Road extended from Murray Hill Road to the Henley extension, crossing to the north side of Henley intersection, where an existing road accesses Outback Steak House and the former Super Kmart property to U.S. 15-501.

Murray Hill Road is an east-west connector between U.S. 1 and 15-501 farther south. By extending Short Road, another alternate route leading into the new development would allow traffic to avoid U.S. 15-501 and Morganton Road congestion.

These alternative roads help carry out the connectivity that Southern Pines officials have embraced since the 1989 rewrite of the Unified Development Ordinance and the adoption of the current comprehensive zoning map.

The Henley Street extension and related road construction would be privately funded by the businesses and commercial properties that would develop the zoned 150-acres between Morganton and U.S. 15-501.

Two roundabouts in the design along Henley Street would allow traffic to enter other streets that would be built as the area grows.

At a corner of one of the roundabouts where the Short Road extension would enter Henley is a marked square area on the map designating an historic cemetery and memorial to Revolutionary War loyalist Kenneth Black, a Scottish immigrant to Moore County who was murdered by revolutionists.

The piece of property is protected from removal or destruction by a deed restriction, confirmed Brown.

Descendants of Black, many of whom live in Moore County and surrounding counties, have observed through the years the fate of the burial site of an estimated 50 to 60 members of the family.

Sara Lindau can be reached at 693-2473 or by e-mail at slindau@thepilot.com.