Washington’s Planning Board recommends changing the zoning of 6.49 acres along Slatestone Road from residential (R9-S) to office and institutional.

Fortescue Investment Group (444 Stewart Parkway) wants to build a child-care facility on the property, which is on the south side of the Washington High School site, according to a city document. The City Council has final say on rezoning matters.

The Planning Board, after hearing comments on the request during its meeting Tuesday, unanimously voted to recommend that the council change the property’s zoning classification. The council likely will consider that recommendation and conduct a public hearing on the request at its Jan. 12 meeting.

Robert M. Leggett and Belinda Gail Leggett of Greenville submitted the application for the rezoning, according to the document. Robert Leggett spoke briefly but provided no details about the proposed child-care facility.

Louis Martin Jr., who lives adjacent to the 6.49 acres, opposed the request. He voiced concerns that some of the permitted uses in an O&I zone are not compatible with the adjacent residential area. Martin also said he was bothered by not being notified (by letter) of the request until the Thursday before Tuesday’s meeting, saying it was insufficient time.

Martin said the property currently serves as buffer between the high school and the Slatestone Hills subdivision in which he lives.

“This 6.49 acres or so asking to be rezoned to O&I is a very major change. … When you look at the permitted development and the special-use permit, there is some major usages there that are not consistent with adjacent subdivision uses,” Martin said. “My concern is, and my neighbors’ concern is, that this rezoning of the complete 6.49 acres to O&I opens the door to a lot, a very lot, of incompatible usage adjacent to an existing subdivision, single-family dwellings, that has been there almost 45 years.”

One of the possible uses in an O&I zone is multi-family dwellings, Martin said, indicating such use would not be compatible with the single-family dwellings already in the area. He also expressed concern that other permitted uses such as banks and restaurants would not be compatible with the adjacent residences.

Martin said he and some of his neighbors have no objection to the 6.49 acres being used by its owner in ways that “would not contribute to reducing the intent of the original R9-S zoning to our neighborhood or his property.”

“But we would have a major concern with any of those usages that I listed and possible others that I just didn’t bring up but are listed that would diminish the peace, the tranquility of our 45-year-old residential neighborhood,” said Martin, who added that four of his neighbors also oppose the request.

“The issue is how it’s going to be used,” Martin said.

Board members Dot Moate and Rawls Howard expressed concerns about Martin not receiving notification of the meeting in a timely manner.

“I’d be upset, too,” Moate said.

Board members made it clear that opponents of the request can voice their concerns when the City Council conducts its public hearing on the matter next month.

Howard and Moate said they believe request makes sense because it falls in line with the city’s comprehensive land-use plan. Moate said O&I is a proper zoning classification for the 6.49 acres.